By Andy Furman
NKyTribune staff writer
Keeping the lights on in Kentucky and Ohio – that’s what Duke Energy hopes to do during the upcoming storm season.
“We’re building a smart-thinking grid that will help increase efficiency and quality of service,” Matt Martin, manager, Public Affairs and Communications told the Northern Kentucky Tribune at Duke’s Power Distribution Center Monday. “To better serve customers when power outages occur, Duke Energy uses smart, self-healing technology that can automatically detect power outages and quickly reroute power to restore service faster or avoid the outage altogether.”
In fact, according to Martin, outages have gone down recently, thanks to self-healing technology.
Duke Energy has added ground-breaking technology, such as remote sensors and monitoring, as well as advanced communication systems that deliver real-time information from thousands of points along the grid. This information allows the grid to make real-time decisions to keep power reliable.
While a self-healing system can’t repair the physical damage to the power line that a human crew must repair, it can help limit the number of customers who experience an extended outage because of the damage.
“The self-healing system works like a car GPS,” Martin said. “We re-route the power to restore it faster; or prevent the outage altogether.”
The benefits of the self-healing system:
• Reduces the number of customers affected by a power outage by up to 75%
• Isolates problem areas for quicker response and shorter outages for customers
• Can often restore power in less than a minute
• Improves grid resiliency and ability to recover from major storms and events
• Helps achieve a cleaner, lower-carbon future by enabling the sustainable growth of renewable energy and distributed technologies, like battery storage and microgrids.
In fact, in 2025, self-healing technology saved 1.4 million hours of outage in Ohio and Kentucky, according to statistics provided by Martin.
“Outages occur daily,” Distribution Control Center Director, Josh McCord told the Tribune, “Especially late at night. The biggest problem, actually — cars hitting poles and knocking the power out. Wind storms are a second.
“We still have outages, but thanks to self-healing, they don’t last as long; and we don’t see as many. Power is really restored much faster.”
Duke Energy is installing self-healing technology along the main power lines in communities across the states they serve, says McCord. Over the next few years Duke hopes to serve most customers by some sort of self-healing capability. Most of that work will take place on main overhead power lines, but some will take place in underground vaults in urban areas along underground lines.
The Power Distribution Center, at an undisclosed location, is a three-building complex — built during COVID – and is about 100,000 square feet, according to McCord. “This facility can withstand an EF 5 Tornado,” said Martin. “It was designed with that in mind.”
The Center employs 30 operators, rotating day/night shifts – 24/7, 365 days-a-year.
“The training program for a Power Distribution Center operator is an 18-to-24-month period learning to operate and the grid,” McCord said. “It is a position, where one has to make quick decisions that may have great consequences.”
Duke Energy provides service in six states. They serve: North and South Carolina, Kentucky (seven counties: Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton and Pendleton), Ohio, Indiana, and Florida. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and is a Fortune 150 company.