EEI Announces Duke Energy as Emergency Response Award Winner

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – When heavy rains strike, customers rely on essential workers to help communities recover. Duke Energy has been recognized for its efforts during Hurricane Idalia as a recipient of the Edison Electric Institute’s (EEI) Emergency Response Award. Emergency Response Awards recognize electric companies’ efforts to restore and support service after service interruptions caused by extreme weather or other natural events.

The winners were selected by a jury following an international nomination process. The awards were presented at the EEI annual meeting in June.

“America’s power companies work around the clock to restore power after severe storms and other extreme weather events,” said Dan Brouillette, EEI president and CEO. “Duke Energy’s commitment to safely and efficiently restoring power to the communities it serves after Hurricane Idalia is admirable. Duke Energy and its storm response team are well-deserving of this well-deserved restoration award.”

On August 30, 2023, Hurricane Idalia, a devastating Category 3 storm, made landfall in Florida, one of the most devastating storms to hit the Big Bend. It caused severe flooding, damage and widespread outages that affected nearly 200,000 Duke Energy Florida customers.

Advanced forecasting, damage modeling and lessons learned from previous storms helped Duke Energy strategically place more than 4,000 linemen, tree professionals and damage assessors ahead of the storm to respond as quickly as possible, restoring power to more than 90% of affected customers within 24 hours of the storm exiting the company’s service territory.

“It is our responsibility to have an effective plan in place to quickly restore power after a major storm, and I am proud of the efforts of the thousands of men and women who participated in this response,” said Scott Batson, Duke Energy’s chief electric grid officer. “It is an honor to be recognized for this work by our peers and to have the opportunity to serve our customers and communities after a major storm when they count on us most.”

“When catastrophic storms strike, Duke Energy and others in our industry come together to do what we do best: restore power as quickly and safely as possible,” said Melissa Seixas, president of Duke Energy in Florida. “Our storm response plan is built on decades of experience and improvements, but most importantly, on close coordination with first responders, emergency management teams, cooperatives, municipal utilities and peer electric utilities. We are grateful for this collaboration during Idalia, which helped shorten response times and get communities back on their feet faster.”

EEI

EEI is the association representing all of America’s investor-owned electric utilities. Our members provide electricity to nearly 250 million Americans and operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The electric power industry supports more than 7 million jobs in communities across the United States. In addition to our U.S. members, EEI counts more than 70 international electric utilities, with operations in more than 90 countries, as international members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as associate members.

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,300 megawatts of energy capacity, providing electricity to 2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000 square mile service area in Florida.

Duke Energy

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of the largest energy holding companies in the United States. The company’s electric utilities serve 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 54,800 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.

Duke Energy is leading an ambitious transition to clean energy, keeping reliability, affordability and accessibility at the forefront as the company strives to achieve net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from its electricity generation by 2050. The company is investing in major grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including expanded energy storage, renewables, natural gas and nuclear.

More information is available at duke-energy.com and the Duke Energy News Center. Follow Duke Energy on TwitterLinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and visit illumination for stories about the people and innovations powering our energy transition.

Contact: Audrey Stasko
Media Line: 800.559.3853
Twitter: @DE_AudreyS