Duke Energy 2015 Annual Report Download - page 10

to benet all customers and adapt to the
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the customer experience, modernize the
power grid, generate cleaner energy, and
engage employees and stakeholders.
Our customers today expect more
convenience, control and options
than ever before, as well as even
greater reliability and value. As a
result, we developed proactive outage
communications to alert customers when
their power is out and to keep them
informed. We also launched a program
to provide energy-saving tips to
customers midway through their billing
cycles when their consumption is
trending higher than normal. We’re
piloting a pay-as-you-go option and are
working on other new billing options.
To further improve the customer
experience, we’re investing in a more
exible, resilient electric grid to make
power outages increasingly rare and
service restoration faster. Over time, we
will equip our power lines to manage
the growing number of small distributed
energy resources such as rooftop solar
and battery storage. In one research
project, we installed a microgrid, solar
array and battery storage to serve a
Charlotte re station.
I’m proud that Duke Energy has become
a leader in helping design the power grid
of the future. In 2015, Greentech Media
recognized Duke Energy for being one
of the most innovative rms working
to build the electric power industry’s
future – citing, for example, our work to
enable the grid to exchange data with
different devices from many vendors.
Another integrated part of our strategy is
to continue making our power generation
portfolio less carbon-intensive – beyond
the 26 percent reduction in emissions
we’ve already achieved since 2005.
We are shifting the generation mix to
more natural gas and renewable energy,
complementing our carbon-free nuclear
eet. We will also need greater operational
exibility in our interconnected system of
plants as more solar energy comes on line
and we need to quickly ramp our other
production up or down depending on the
available sunlight.
Finally, our strategy requires us to mobilize
the ideas and talents of all our employees
and collaborate effectively across
organizational boundaries. Externally, we
will work with diverse stakeholders to
update the regulatory rules, as needed,
“ Technology is
changing how we look
at everything from
power generation
and delivery to the
customer experience.”
A.R. Mullinax
Executive Vice President –
Strategic Services