Asheville Reporter

Town of Black Mountain issued the following announcement on Dec. 23.

Duke Energy is crediting its customers’ energy conservation with helping keep the lights on for everyone on Christmas Day and is asking customers to continue implementing simple conservation measures until 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 26.

“Extremely cold temperatures combined with increasing customer demand has strained the electric grid across the country,” said Jason Hollifield, Carolinas Storm Director. “We are grateful for our customers who saved energy this morning and we are asking them to conserve energy again tonight through tomorrow morning.”

As businesses open on Monday morning and people begin returning to the workplace during this time of sustained frigid temperatures, the company projects an increase in customer demand that could require rotating outages again on Monday.

“Our Duke Energy crews have been laser-focused on restoring power to our customers,” said Hollifield. On Friday, high winds caused outages throughout the Carolinas. On Saturday, the extreme temperatures prompted energy interruptions in the region to maintain overall energy grid reliability. “We’ll be ready to respond to whatever the weather brings tomorrow morning. But we are optimistic that with the ongoing energy conservation of our customers, we can avoid having rotating outages again.”

There are several ways customers can reduce energy consumption to help maintain an adequate supply for the region:

• Select the lowest comfortable thermostat setting and bump it down several degrees whenever possible.
• Avoid using large appliances – this means appliances with a three-pronged plug, such as dishwashers, ovens and dryers – during high-demand periods like early winter mornings.
• Shift non-essential activities, like laundry, to late evening hours when power demand is lower.
• Charge electric vehicles overnight.
• If you have an electric water heater, limit the use of hot water as much as possible.

More information can be found at Duke Energy Updates.                 

Original source can be found here.