ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., July 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- When severe weather strikes, customers count on essential workers to help communities recover, and Duke Energy has been recognized for its efforts during Hurricane Idalia as an Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Emergency Response Award recipient. The Emergency Response Awards recognize recovery and assistance efforts of electric companies following service disruptions caused by extreme weather or other natural events.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process. The awards were presented during EEI's annual meeting in June.

"America's electric companies work around-the-clock to restore power following severe storms and other extreme weather events," said Dan Brouillette, EEI president and CEO. "Duke Energy's commitment to restoring power in a safe, efficient manner to the communities it serves following Hurricane Idalia is admirable. Duke Energy and its storm response team are extremely deserving of this well-earned recovery award."

On Aug. 30, 2023, Hurricane Idalia, a devastating Category 3 storm, made landfall in Florida as one of the most damaging storms to hit the Big Bend. It caused severe flooding, damage and widespread outages that impacted 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 lineworkers, tree professionals and damage assessors ahead of the storm to respond as quickly as possible, restoring power to more than 90% of impacted customers within 24 hours of the storm exiting the company's service territory.

"It is our job to have an effective plan in place to respond to restore power quickly after a major storm, and I am proud of the efforts of the thousands of men and women who engaged in this response," said Scott Batson, Duke Energy chief power 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 following 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, Duke Energy Florida state president. "Our storm response plan is built upon decades of experience and improvement, but most importantly, close coordination with first responders, emergency management teams, co-ops, 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 that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. Our members provide electricity for 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 has more than 70 international electric companies, 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, supplying 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, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. 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 executing an ambitious clean energy transition, keeping reliability, affordability and accessibility at the forefront as the company works toward net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company is investing in major electric 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 Twitter, LinkedIn, 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

SOURCE Duke Energy