CHARLOTTE—Duke Energy has launched its Power/Forward Carolinas project — a $13 billion, 10-year program to modernize the state’s electric system. It says the initiative will result in nearly 14,000 new jobs a year and more than $1 billion in tax benefits to communities.
Duke says project upgrades will harden the system against storms and outages; make it safer and more resilient against cyber-attacks and physical threats; help expand renewable energy; generate jobs and stimulate economic growth.
It will also give 7 million people in North Carolina more information to manage their energy use.
David Fountain, Duke Energy’s North Carolina president said in a statement, “When we improve our energy infrastructure, we not only improve power quality and reliability for everyone, but we help grow our economy and create jobs while keeping energy at a reasonable price.”
Duke says the 10-year moderization plan for NC will result in:
- Additional bill-lowering tools designed to help customers reduce their energy costs
- An average of 13,900 jobs each year
- $10.4 billion in salaries and wages
- Almost $800 million in state taxes and $550 million in local taxes
- A total economic output of $21.5 billion over the 10 year
It adds that the Power/Forward Carolinas initiative will help the company better serve its customers with focused investments that:
- Move targeted power lines underground to help reduce outages;
- enhance grid technologies to self-identify problems and reroute power, decreasing outage numbers and duration;
- advance smart metering infrastructure to enable more bill-lowering tools;
- protect against physical and cyber-security threats and keep the grid safe; and
- support the sustainable growth of renewable energy and emerging technolog
