Investigation Regarding the Ability of North Carolina’s
Electricity, Natural Gas, and Water/Wastewater Systems to
Operate Reliably During Extreme Cold Weather
Docket No. M-100 Sub 163
Technical Conferences
March 15, 2022, 9:30 a.m.
April 19, 2022, 9:30 a.m.
Hearing Room 2115, Dobbs Building
430 N Salisbury Street, Raleigh
Due to the widespread outages experienced in Texas and the South-Central United States during February of 2021, the Commission opened an investigation to consider whether North Carolina’s electricity, natural gas, water, and wastewater systems are prepared to operate reliably during extreme cold weather, and whether the Commission’s rules require changes in order to ensure reliable service. The Commission issued an Order on January 26, 2022, initiating the investigation. The Order requires the utilities to file answers to a series of questions on their cold weather preparedness by February 23, 2022, and to subsequently present that information and answer the Commission’s questions at technical conferences. The technical conference on March 15, 2022, will focus on the preparedness of water and wastewater utilities. The technical conference on April 19, 2022, will focus on the preparedness of natural gas and electricity utilities.
The Public Staff of the Utilities Commission represents the using and consuming public in matters before the Commission and will participate in the technical conferences. Members of the public can send them a comment or ask them a question via email. Members of the public can also send the Commission a comment here. In addition, statements can be mailed to the Commission at the address below. In either case, statements to the Commission will become part of the official record and can be viewed via this website within two or three business days.
After the technical conferences the Commission will establish a schedule for parties to file comments and reply comments detailing any new Commission rules or rule amendments that they believe are needed in order to assure reliable electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater service during extreme cold weather.
The technical conferences can be viewed via YouTube from the link on this site.