Duke Energy Updates
February 2023
At the Village Council annual retreat on February 7, 2023, Pam Hardy and Danielle Peoples, representatives from Duke Energy presented an update and overview of Duke Energy’s activities on the island and the future of energy in North Carolina. A video of the presentations can be viewed HERE. A summary of what was shared can be viewed below.
Ms. Hardy reported on NC Utilities Commission Carbon Plan that will serve as a roadmap for the State’s energy goals. The plan outlines how the state will achieve 70 percent carbon
reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. The plan values an “all of the above” approach to carbon reduction, meaning it will pursue a diverse mix of resources to meet the state’s
reduction goals. She said Duke Energy looks forward to listening and learning from diverse stakeholders and community members in the region to make sure they are being thoughtful
about all aspects of the project and are delivering it in the most economical way for their customers. Duke will provide an update in their next NCUC filing which is due by September 1, 2023.
Ms. Peoples updated the Council on the grid improvement project. She reported that they expect to have the project completed by the end of March. As part of this project, they looked at the entire underground system on Bald Head Island and worked with a vendor to install some customized equipment to ensure that they had automatic switching capabilities back in the control center so if something happens, they can re-route power automatically. These were also done to spec to be submersible for a period of time in the case of flooding.
January 2023
Duke Energy is working hard to complete a multi-year power grid improvement project that will help harden our system serving Bald Head Island to storms and allow for isolation of outages and remote automatic repairs.
Temporary power interruptions
As we work on this customized solution to upgrade the system on the entire island, we’re trying hard to avoid interruptions. We appreciate your patience when we do encounter unforeseen issues.
This Tuesday, Jan. 24, we’ve scheduled a planned outage to conduct some switching and cutover work. This will impact seven customers in the 700s stretch of Federal Rd. It is schedule between 9am-1pm. Those seven customers have been notified based on their account preferences.
You can sign up for outage alerts and update your preferences here: https://www.duke-energy.com/outages/alerts.
New equipment installation
A final step of this project is installing some of the large switchgear equipment custom designed for Bald Head Island.
We’ll be removing old equipment and setting new switchgear near the intersection of N Bald Head Wynd and W Bald Head Wynd. During this activity, there will be some temporary, single-lane road closures to allow the team to work safely.
If you have questions or feedback, you are welcome to contact Danielle Peoples at Danielle.Peoples@duke-energy.com.