With a rising demand for heat due to the deadly winter storm
across the United States, American electric power and natural gas holding
company Duke Energy was forced to implement controlled power outages for 15 to
30 minutes at intervals on Christmas Eve, December 24.

The company reported
more than 530,000 outages across North Carolina on Saturday morning although it
is unclear how many of those outages were part of the controlled blackout. Many
of the power cuts are also being believed to be caused by the tremendous winds strong
enough to break down trees and power lines.

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“Due to the extreme
cold temperatures and subsequent demand for power around much of the nation,
electricity supplies are very tight,” Duke Energy said in a press release,
adding, “The Company is implementing load shedding steps that include
interruptions in service. This is necessary to extend available power
generation and help maintain operations until additional power is available.
These outages are temporary and rotated among customers and will continue until
additional electricity is available and normal operation of the power grid
resume.”

As the news of the company’s decision started spreading, it
received a ton of backlash on social media with many pointing out that they
should have anticipated the shortage in view of the current weather condition.

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Many others expressed
their dissatisfaction over such a step, with one person tweeting, “You did
what? It’s 9 degrees outside and Christmas Eve. I pay my bill. This is
disgusting.”

Another person wrote, “18 degrees this morning and the woke idiots
at Duke Energy are running “rolling blackouts” to conserve
electricity. Thank God for a fossil fueled generator and wood burning fireplace!”

“This shouldn’t be allowed. You’re leaving families
freezing. I bet the CEOs power never gets cut in these ‘energy grid saving
outages,” a third person wrote.

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Check out some of the tweets here:

Following the backlash, Governor of North Carolina,
Roy Cooper tweeted that he had contacted Duke Energy to come to a solution to
this crisis. “This morning I spoke with Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good to offer assistance and express urgency about
the need to restore power quickly in this extreme cold while keeping customers
accurately informed. Grateful for the workers braving the wind and cold to get
the power back on. – RC,” he wrote.