Summary of Duke Energy Community Meeting with Lake Lure and Chimney Rock Village

A community meeting was held on February 20, 2024, at Lake Lure Town Hall to discuss electric service to the town and surrounding areas.  Mayor Carol Pritchett welcomed attendees and introduced the following panel of Duke Representatives who were present to provide information and answer questions:

• Alton Greene, Director - Customer Delivery Operations
• Sammy Pruett, Supervisor – Construction & Maintenance
• Matthew Robinson, Manager - Customer Delivery Operations Support
• Danny Painter, Engineering Technologist
• Ron Burkhalter, Manager - Distribution Vegetation
• Terry Smith, Lead Vegetation Program Manager
• Craig DeBrew, Local Government and Community Relations Manager

Approximately 30 residents attended the meeting.  Attendees were invited to share their concerns and ask questions. Several individuals expressed frustration with the frequency and duration of outages they have experienced. The residents had questions about several things, including Duke Energy’s vegetation management program, storm response plans, energy costs, and policy for converting lines to underground.  Duke presented a Power Point Presentation which you may download.

After a period of comments from the residents, Duke Energy's Local Government and Community Relations Manager Craig DeBrew thanked the citizens for taking time out of their schedules to come and provide feedback.  He emphasized Duke’s commitment to provide safe, reliable, and affordable electricity and apologized for failing to meet their customer's expectations.  Mr. DeBrew stated he and his teammates remain committed to doing everything they can to make the service to Lake Lure as good as it can possibly be.  He then asked the other Duke representatives to introduce themselves, and briefly discuss their role in providing reliable service to the area.  Mr. DeBrew then made a presentation that covered several topics, including:

• Electric System Design Philosophy and Operation 
  • Designed to maximize reliability – clear temporary faults quickly and isolate permanent faults to minimize number of customers impacted
• Common Causes of Outages
  • Storms, trees, trees outside the Right of Way (ROW), animals, vehicle accidents, third-party interference, equipment failure, planned outages
• Transmission Infrastructure serving the Lake Lure Substation
  • Wider ROW on transmission lines results in high reliability
  • A 44 kV tap line from the Turners Shoals (Lake Adger) switching station provides power to the Lake Lure substation, which is located near the dam.
  • Discussed two outages that occurred on the transmission line.
    • One on Oct 29, 2020 during Hurricane Zeta when 58% of the customers in Rutherford County were without power.
    • And the second on July 29, 2023 at 6:30 PM when a live Red Oak from outside the 68’ ROW fell onto the line and caused damage at several structures. Duke technicians were not able to get equipment to the location due to rough terrain and had to climb several structures to make repairs. Service was restored by 5:30 AM the next morning.
• Distribution facilities serving the communities around the lake
  • Two 12 kV distribution feeders serving the area
  • Circuit #1201 serving the Rumbling Bald/Fairfield area; 1676 customers; 40 miles of exposure
  • Circuit #1202 serving the Lake Lure Town Hall/Chimney Rock/Bat Cave areas; 2052 customers; 81 miles of exposure
  • The remoteness of the area limits the ability to have ties with other substations and feeders
• Six-year outage history on Circuit #1202 for Lake Lure Town Hall
  • Mr DeBrew discussed the number of minutes out per year, less planned outages for maintenance
  • Minutes out has been fairly consistent, the outlier is 2018 which is due to being out 45 ½ hours due to the snowstorm
  • Due to the mountainous terrain, trees outside Duke’s 30’ ROW present a very significant problem.  Over the past five years, 71% of the minutes out have been due to trees outside the ROW. Duke has experienced several outages due to trees on the opposite side of the road falling into their feeder.
  • Converting the feeder backbone to underground would be extremely expensive.  Due to the required concrete ductbank configuration, Duke’s experience is that the cost is in the range of $1,250 per foot or more. So for example, the cost to convert the 5 miles of feeder backbone from the substation to Town Hall would be in the range of $30,000,000 - $35,000,000.  The local terrain would make installation of a ductbank very difficult, and it would be very disruptive to vegetation and the local environment. It is not a viable option based on the cost vs benefit. 
• Six-year outage history on Circuit # 1201 Fairfield Mtn Fire Department
  • Mr DeBrew discussed the number of minutes out per year, less planned outages for maintenance
  • Minutes out per year has been fairly consistent, the outlier is 2018 which is due to being out 62 ½ hours due to the snow storm
  • Due to the mountainous terrain, trees outside our 30’ ROW present a very significant problem.  During the past 5 years, 89% of the minutes out have been due to trees outside the ROW.
  • This problem has been exacerbated in some years due to increased rainfall amounts.
• Vegetation Management Activities
  • Duke has a 30’ right of way (ROW) on their distribution lines, which is 15’ on each side of the line.  The Lake Lure circuit was trimmed in 2008, 2017 and is being trimmed again in 2024. The Fairfield circuit was trimmed in 2009, 2019 and is scheduled for 2026.
  • They also identify and remove ‘hazard trees’ each year.  Hazard trees are dead/diseased/dying trees outside the ROW that are at high risk of falling into Duke’s main feeder backbone.  Duke removed 59 hazard trees in 2023.
• System upgrades to increase reliability and reduce customer outage times.
  • Duke has taken a number of measures over recent years to enhance customer reliability, including: upgraded the Lake Lure substation; Upgraded the Fairfield circuit by adding a second set of conductors; replaced UG cables in the Rumbling Bald area.  On both feeders Duke has: installed electronic reclosers to automatically sectionalize outages; Installed additional opening  points to better isolate damaged facilities and minimize customer impacts.
  • The most significant improvement is the implementation of backfeed capabilities from two different sources. The first from Polk County via a tie on Hwy 9 down toward Lake Adger. The second is from Henderson County via a feeder tie at Bat Cave. The capability of this backfeed is somewhat limited due to the wire size from Bat Cave to Boy’s Camp Rd. Duke is exploring a project that would increase the wire size in this section and strengthen the backfeed, allowing them to carry more customers during high load conditions.
  • Duke is also exploring a project to upgrade the facilities along Boys Camp Road.  

After the presentation the Duke Energy team answered a variety of questions from the audience.  Takeaways from the meeting include:

• The Duke Energy management team is very much engaged in service reliability to the Lake Lure area.
• The terrain in Duke’s Mountain Zone presents unique challenges that negatively impact reliability.  Trees from outside Duke’s 30 foot Right of Way present very significant problems.
• The remoteness of the Lake Lure area presents additional challenges, especially for outage response time. The ‘one way in – one way out’ for vehicle travel compounds the problems
• Duke encouraged attendees to report ‘hazard trees’ via their customer service number, which is 1-800-777-9898.  Make sure you provide good directions and a good contact number in case they need to follow-up. 
• In order to better serve customers in the Mountain Zone, Duke has implemented an enhanced tree trimming cycle that results in the feeders being trimmed every 7 years instead of the typical 10-year cycle. 

At the close of the meeting Mayor Carol Pritchett expressed her appreciation to Duke Energy for bringing a large number of managers and subject matter experts to listen to residents of the community, answer questions, and discuss measures being undertaken to improve reliability. 

Duke personnel spoke individually with several attendees after the meeting.  

Below is the outage history shared at the meeting.