Inside Duke Energy's Christmas Eve blackouts (free version)
Plus: Aldersgate nixes plans for Shalom Park retirement community; Nearly all local stocks tumbled in 2022; Victims of scaffolding collapse identified; StarMed gets into urban farming
Good morning! Today is Wednesday, January 4, 2023. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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Editor’s note: This is a shorter, free version of The Charlotte Ledger sent to people on our free sign-up list. The complete version for paying members went out 15 minutes ago. It included:
The most in-depth explanation yet of how and why Duke Energy cut power to 500,000 customers on Christmas Eve. For the first time, Duke execs have described what happened and the decisions they faced. We recount it for you — and you can form your own conclusions.
News about why longtime Charlotte retirement community Aldersgate isn’t moving ahead with plans to build a new senior living community on the campus of Shalom Park. We’ve got information on what the Aldersgate president says were the roadblocks for the project.
A look back at how stocks performed in 2022 for companies with local ties. Of the 22 public companies with Charlotte ties for which The Ledger tracks weekly stock prices, only three increased in value in 2022 — we’ll tell you which ones, and share which dropped the farthest.
A story that identifies the three victims of the tragic scaffolding collapse at an apartment construction site Monday in Dilworth. Family members have set up GoFundMe pages to help with funeral expenses for two of the victims.
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A hectic night in the early hours of Dec. 24, with equipment malfunctions and inaccurate forecasts; Execs say ‘sorry’ and that nobody is at fault for widespread outages
by Tony Mecia
Heading into the evening of Friday, Dec. 23, Duke Energy workers who oversaw the company’s electric system were feeling positive about the day ahead.
It was cold — forecasts called for lows in the single digits. Winter Storm Elliott had brought below-freezing temperatures to much of the country, and its winds had knocked out power to 300,000 Duke customers in the previous few days. By Friday night, though, Duke had restored power to all but 36,000 customers and continued making progress.
But as the evening wore on, Duke workers saw some troubling signs. At around 7 p.m., the amount of electricity customers were using was starting to greatly eclipse Duke’s hourly forecasts. PJM Interconnection, which operates the electricity grid for 13 states, including North Carolina, foresaw an energy crunch and sent out an alert that night urging consumers to conserve.
As of 10 p.m., as temperatures dropped and usage surged to unexpected levels, Duke executives still believed they would be able to supply enough power to meet demand, and then some.
But that hope, at the start of Christmas weekend, proved to be wildly optimistic.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Duke executives provided those new details and many more of precisely what happened over the following 12 hours — and what led to the company’s unprecedented decision to shut off power to 500,000 customers because it was unable to meet the demand for energy.
They described a fast-moving series of unforeseeable mechanical breakdowns, unexpected technological problems, missed forecasts and inaccurate customer communications. They offered an apology of sorts: “I want to express how sorry we are for what our customers experienced,” said Julie Janson, Duke’s executive vice president and CEO of Duke Energy’s Carolinas’ utilities. “Winter Storm Elliott was an extremely powerful event with a unique confluence of high winds, extreme temperature drops and other conditions that forced us to curtail power as a last resort.”
Short on specifics? But in the explanations, delivered in a calm and clinical tone, they did not outline anything specific they would have done differently that would have avoided the blackouts. They said they
Aldersgate ends plans for retirement community at Shalom Park; cites economic factors
Aldersgate Life Plan Services says that it will not be moving forward with plans for Generations at Shalom Park, a senior living community on the Shalom Park campus in the SouthPark area.
Generations, which would have been Aldersgate’s second retirement community, was set to include 125 apartments on 11 acres for the 62+ population. The pullback comes as the pace of new apartment construction is slowing — a development The Ledger reported last month.
Suzanne Pugh, CEO and president of Aldersgate, told The Ledger in an email that the Aldersgate board decided to end the project due to
Related Ledger articles:
“New senior living facility coming to Shalom Park in 2024” (July 22, 2022)
“Senior communities are taking care off-campus” (Dec. 16, 2022)
“Developers hit pause on new apartments” (🔒, Dec. 14, 2022)
Brace yourself for those year-end investment statements 📉; almost all local stocks fell in 2022
It was rough year for stocks in 2022, with major indexes sinking and almost all Charlotte-area stocks losing value.
Of the 22 public companies with Charlotte ties for which The Ledger tracks weekly stock prices, only three increased in value in 2022 — and all of them are manufacturers:
3 workers killed Monday in scaffolding collapse identified; ‘hard worker,’ ‘knowledgeable in the word of God,’ ‘loving family man’
Family members of the three construction workers who died Monday morning when scaffolding collapsed at the site of an apartment complex under construction on Morehead Street have come forward with identities of the victims.
According to Spanish-language publication El Progreso Hispano, the victims were José Bonilla Canaca of Honduras, Gilberto Monico Fernández of Mexico and Jesús Olivares of Mexico.
GoFundMe pages have been set up to raise money for the funeral expenses of Canaca and Fernandez, and the fundraising pages include some personal details about them.
Fernandez was described in a GoFundMe page as a hard worker who “didn’t like to miss work or make problems,” and who was friendly and always willing to help anyone. According to the author of the GoFundMe post, who identified herself as Fernandez’ sister-in-law, Fernandez fell eight stories to his death.
Canaca was described as a 26-year-old worker who “was knowledgeable in the word of God.”
A woman who described herself as the mother of Olivares posted on her Facebook page that Olivares leaves behind four children and was “always very happy and a very peaceful loving family man.”
(L-R) The scene Monday at the construction site where the scaffolding collapsed (Ledger photo); Gilberto Monico Fernández (GoFundMe page photo); José Bonilla Canaca (GoFundMe page photo); Jesús Olivares (Facebook photo).
The victims were working at the future Hanover Dilworth tower at Morehead and Euclid Avenue in Dilworth. Plans by the Hanover Co. of Houston call for 350 apartments.
The N.C. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health division sent investigators to the scene of Monday’s fatalities, the Charlotte Observer reported Tuesday, but details won’t be released until the investigation is complete. —CB
You might be interested in these Charlotte events: Economic outlook panel, Phish cover band, relationships workshop
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
Today: Taking the Air out of Inflation: 2023 Economic Outlook, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., online. Hear from an online panel of experts including a Davidson economics professor and the chief investment officer of U.S. Bank’s asset management division about where the economy is headed in 2023. The Ledger’s Tony Mecia is the moderator. Free.
Saturday: Nectar: A Picture of Phish Concert, 7:30-10 p.m., Divine Barrel Brewing. A free and family-friendly event by a Phish tribute band, which will play two sets. Banh Mi Brothers Charlotte food truck will be on-site serving dinner from 5-9 p.m. as well.
Jan. 20: The Enneagram and Relationships Workshop, Intimate and Professional, 6-9 p.m., The Enneagram Center, Charlotte. In this workshop, you’ll deepen your understanding of relationships, discover sources of conflict, and learn how to achieve harmony within yourself and those around you. Join us as we deep dive into the Enneagram, relationship interconnection. This is a weekend workshop: Friday Evening 6-9pm, Saturday and Sunday 9-4pm. Early Bird: $275 until Jan. 8 | Regular: $295.
◼️ Check out the full Ledger events board.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
In brief
JCSU president to retire: Johnson C. Smith University President Clarence D. Armbrister announced on Tuesday that he’ll retire in June after 5 years in the position. Ambrister will stay on as senior advisor to the new president until early 2024, and the university’s Board of Trustees will soon start looking for his successor. (JCSU)
Homicides up in ’22: Homicides in Charlotte were up 8% in 2022 compared with a year earlier, as of a few days before the end of the year. As of Dec. 27, there were 106 homicides, compared with 98 in all of 2021. About 86% were committed with a firearm. (WFAE)
Longer City Council terms? The Charlotte City Council is considering staggered, four-year terms and adding an eighth district seat, according to a committee discussion Tuesday. The ideas could be on the ballot as soon as this year. (Ely Portillo on Twitter)
New focus for Latta Plantation: Mecklenburg County is revamping educational programs at Latta Place (formerly Latta Plantation) to focus more squarely on the role of slavery, following a 2021 controversy over a program that critics said was too sympathetic toward slaveholders. (Observer)
N.C. State broadcaster suspended: Longtime N.C. State sports broadcaster Gary Hahn was suspended after reporting the score of Friday’s Sun Bowl by saying on the air: “Down among all the illegal aliens in El Paso, it's UCLA 14 and Pittsburgh 6.” Officials in El Paso, Texas, have declared a state of emergency because of high numbers of immigrants coming from Mexico. Hahn has broadcast N.C. State football and men’s basketball games since 1991. (ESPN)
New N.C. laws: Several new North Carolina laws took effect Jan. 1, including provisions that slightly lower state income taxes, simplify the franchise tax paid by corporations and restrict states of emergency declared by the governor. (News & Observer)
Olsen, Kalil start podcast company with Vince Vaughn: Former Carolina Panthers Greg Olsen and Ryan Kalil have teamed up with actor Vince Vaughn to start a podcast and video company called Audiorama. The company has two podcasts — one by Olsen on youth sports and one by Kalil on the NFL — and hopes to have as many as 12 by the end of 2023. It is backed by venture capital fund Powerhouse Capital. (Biz Journal, subscriber-only; first reported in trade press)
StarMed starts urban farm: StarMed Healthcare, which became well-known in Charlotte for Covid testing and vaccinations, is launching an initiative on urban farming. It will offer free food for qualifying patients based on their health conditions. “If somebody comes in with gout — beets are absolutely phenomenal to reduce uric acid crystal formation — they’ll be able to go there and get their allopurinol, which is the medication, but at the same time, they’ll get a bag of groceries, carrots, beets, turnips, things that actually will help treat that,” president Michael Estramonte said. (Queen City Nerve)
New leader at Holy Angels: Holy Angels, a non-profit residential program in Belmont serving children and adults with developmental disabilities and delicate medical conditions, announced Tuesday that Kerri Massey is its new president and CEO. Massey assumed the CEO title in July and was recently chosen to be president by the organization’s board of directors along with the Sisters of Mercy, which is the religious order that founded Holy Angels in 1955.
In memoriam: Molly Broad, who served as president of the UNC System from 1997 to 2005, died Monday at age 81. (UNC System)
Programming note: Ledger editor Tony Mecia appears as a guest on 90.7 WFAE at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Thursdays for a discussion of the week’s local business news in the station’s “BizWorthy” segment. Audio and transcripts are also available online.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project