Duke Energy Florida’s restoration efforts intensify in areas hit hardest by Hurricane Idalia

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Duke Energy Florida is intensifying restoration efforts for customers who experienced the worst of Hurricane Idalia’s wrath, as more than 5,000 lineworkers, tree professionals, damage assessors and support personnel assess damages in communities still left without power in the powerful storm’s wake.

While more than 150,000 had their power restored since Tuesday evening, the storm’s extensive damage, including in areas impacted directly by Idalia’s landfall, will require more time for damage assessment and restoration as conditions are heavily flooded and main lines and customers are spread out across many miles in this part of North Florida.

Duke Energy Florida expects to have more information available for remaining customers in the hardest-hit areas later today.

“We appreciate the patience of those still without service,” said Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida storm director. “We understand how difficult it is to be without power. Our crews continue to work hard to get everyone back on as quickly and safely as possible. We ask customers to remain vigilant as they recover from this powerful storm.”

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The company will continue to provide regular updates to customers and communities through emails, text messages, outbound phone calls, social media and its website, which includes the power outage map.

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 10,500 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 1.9 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,600 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune’s 2023 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list and Forbes’ “World’s Best Employers” list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy’s illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Contact: Audrey Stasko24-Hour: 800.559.3853Twitter: @DE_AudreyS

Storms and Outages, Florida, Customers, Florida Storm