Duke Energy restores power to 150,000 NC homes, prepares for upcoming winter storm :: WRAL.com

Sleet helped mitigate widespread power outages for much of the Triangle this past weekend, but Duke Energy still saw scattered impacts across parts of the state.

The utility company restored 150,000 customers over the course of two days. Most of those outages were in Western North Carolina, which saw more freezing rain.

Areas north of the Triangle saw more impacts from the colder weather. East of Raleigh and south towards the Sandhills saw more freezing rain developed in the final hours of the storm.

“Here in Raleigh we saw several cars hitting utility poles; that’s always a challenge when you have slick roads,” Duke Energy Spokesperson Jeff Brooks said.

Tuesday morning, nearly 700 customers in Durham lost power for about six hours after an insulator failed.

While the precipitation helped offset more outages for this past weekend, Duke Energy said it has made improvements to their electrical grid and worked to cut precarious tree limbs throughout the year.

“We are a much more advanced utility than we were even just a few years ago, and all those improvements benefit our customers,” Brooks said.

Crews are now preparing for another winter weather system potentially moving in this weekend. Brooks said it’s too early in the week to determine exactly what the impacts are going to be, and therefore what resources are needed.

They’ll be monitoring over the next two days to decide whether to add reinforcements to the local crews they already have on standby.