SOUTHEASTERN N.C. (WECT) – The 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season was more active than normal, and experts with Duke Energy say they’re expecting a similar amount of activity to come out of the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Luckily, Duke Energy says it learned some lessons from last year’s season.
“We learn from every storm, and we can use those learnings to help improve our process as we go forward,” Duke Energy spokesperson Jeff Brooks said.
The energy provider has used some of those lessons to make improvements and upgrades ahead of this year’s hurricane season. Some of the major projects they’ve been working on over the past year include upgrading poles and wires, turning wood transmission poles into stronger steel poles, and adding flood protections to substations that have dealt with extended outages in the past.
To Brooks, one of the most exciting improvements is the expansion of “self-healing systems.”
“That automatically detects a power outage from a tree falling on a line or if a car hits a pole, and then looks for ways to reroute that power to other power lines to be able to restore service faster for customers,” Brooks said. “Self-healing technology actually can help to reduce the number of customers that are impacted by an outage by as much as 75% and can often restore power in just a few seconds. In 2024, we helped to avoid more than a million customer outages using self-healing technology.”
One of its most recent self-healing system installations was at the intersection of Walnut and 2nd Streets in downtown Wilmington.
It’s just one of several projects the company has undertaken in the Cape Fear area since the start of 2024.
Since that time, Brooks says Duke Energy has upgraded 11 substations, upgraded 850 miles of poles and wires, and added 44 self-healing systems throughout Southeastern North Carolina.
“We’re expanding capacity, not just in Wilmington, but really up the whole Cape Fear area,” Brooks said. “In Brunswick County and up in Pender County and other areas we’re seeing a lot of growth. And that’s not only helping to support that growth, but it’s helping provide additional capacity and strength on the grid during hurricane season as well.”
As we continue to get deeper into hurricane season, Brooks says Duke Energy’s work isn’t done.
“I think there’s a lot of work that we’ve done really all across the region and that’s going to continue for a few more years,” Brooks said. “We drill, we practice, we explore best practices with our peers and we learn from every storm. And we want to get better every year.”
Some recent Duke Energy projects in the greater Wilmington area include:
- Shipyard Boulevard — building a whole new power line from the Port to 42nd Street
- River Road — upgrading lines and adding a line for capacity
- South Wrightsville Beach — adding strong lines and a self-healing system
- 2nd and Walnut intersection — upgrading equipment as part of a self-healing system
One of the company’s next projects will take place in Whiteville next week where they will be upgrading power lines.
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