Duke Energy

The challenge is clear: South Carolina’s population and economic sector is growing fast. It's growing so fast that state leaders and utility executives say they are concerned that the need for energy may outpace the utilities’ ability to generate enough electricity to meet demand.

SC lawmakers say they want to ensure utilities can produce enough energy to meet needs of the fast-growing state

Duke Energy Corp. executives are blaming a convergence of widespread extreme cold, higher than projected demand, malfunctioning plant equipment and the inability to buy power elsewhere for rolling blackouts on Christmas Eve. They spoke about the matter Tuesday to the state Utilities Commission. It was the first time the Charlotte-based utility used rolling outages in the Carolinas. About 500,000 customers in North and South Carolina were affected. The company said power generation at three North Carolina plants were essentially cut in half when insulated instrumentation lines still froze.

Law enforcement officials say they have found no evidence linking gunshots near a Duke Energy facility in South Carolina to earlier gunfire at North Carolina electric substations that cost thousands of customers their power, though multiple state and federal agencies continue to investigate.

On a given day, the United Way of Greenville County used to field 50, maybe 60 calls from residents needing help. When the pandemic and its economic…