Progress Energy- What's the deal? (Raleigh: houses, transfer, neighborhoods)

[puggal]

My husband and I moved to N. Raleigh in mid-March, and since, we've lost power five times. Only once has it been during a storm (last night)- the other four times it was during the day, under blue skies. We work from home, so we lose money every time this happens.

We've lived in a few different states now, in more than a few neighborhoods, and can't remember losing power more than once (during an ice storm).

We called Progress Energy to ask what was going on, and were transferred to a "Senior Representative" who had no answers. She asked us if storms were to blame (yes, once) or if we had people hitting poles with their cars in our neighborhood. Beyond that, she was no help.

What's the deal, here? Has anyone else had this problem with Progress? Five times in four months seems unacceptable to me, the issues clearly not being weather related.

Any help is appreciated!

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by puggal

My husband and I moved to N. Raleigh in mid-March, and since, we've lost power five times. Only once has it been during a storm (last night)- the other four times it was during the day, under blue skies. We work from home, so we lose money every time this happens.

We've lived in a few different states now, in more than a few neighborhoods, and can't remember losing power more than once (during an ice storm).

We called Progress Energy to ask what was going on, and were transferred to a "Senior Representative" who had no answers. She asked us if storms were to blame (yes, once) or if we had people hitting poles with their cars in our neighborhood. Beyond that, she was no help.

What's the deal, here? Has anyone else had this problem with Progress? Five times in four months seems unacceptable to me, the issues clearly not being weather related.

Any help is appreciated!

Are other people in your neighborhood having the same issue?

I have lived in North Raleigh for 5 years (near Bedford) and have not lost power even once during that time. Your situation sounds quite unique and is not typical for the area at all. It sounds like there may be issues with a transformer in your area.

[saturnfan]

Originally Posted by puggal

My husband and I moved to N. Raleigh in mid-March, and since, we've lost power five times. Only once has it been during a storm (last night)- the other four times it was during the day, under blue skies. We work from home, so we lose money every time this happens.

We've lived in a few different states now, in more than a few neighborhoods, and can't remember losing power more than once (during an ice storm).

We called Progress Energy to ask what was going on, and were transferred to a "Senior Representative" who had no answers. She asked us if storms were to blame (yes, once) or if we had people hitting poles with their cars in our neighborhood. Beyond that, she was no help.

What's the deal, here? Has anyone else had this problem with Progress? Five times in four months seems unacceptable to me, the issues clearly not being weather related.

Any help is appreciated!

Some areas are prone to outages, others are more stable.

Keep a log and refer to the NC Utilities Comission if you can show numerous incidents.

A UPS is good for computers.

[VickiR]

I left my client's home around 6:30 this evening. When I got to Six Forks Road, I could see that the stop lights were out. I drove down Six Forks to Strickland, no stop lights were on. When I turned onto Strickland, about half way down, the lights were on. I only saw one cop car and I'm not sure what they were doing!

Vicki

[LoopDeLoop]

we're in southeast raleigh & we've been losing power a lot more frequently of late. last night it was out for about an hour; a few days ago it's been flickering & then off for short periods of time; a few weeks ago it went off in the middle of the night for about an hour.

there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, although admittedly last night's was probably in connection with thunderstorms.

[saturnfan]

Bad storm last night caused many outages. We were out less than an hour.

[RDUBiker]

We're in Wakefield and have only lost power twice - once during that nasty ice storm several years ago and recently when I zapped our power main box accidentally and shut down several houses around me and almost fried myself in the process. We have a whole house generator (whose purchase was spurred by the ice storm) and have not needed it....maybe if you get a whole house generator you will miraculously stop losing power (ha ha).

[puggal]

Thanks, everyone! About 30 minutes into the big thunderstorm the other night, we lost power for ~3 hours, I think? Good thing it was in the evening. I'm just SO sick of it. Every time we hear thunder, we grab the flashlights.

North_Raleigh_Guy: Next time I call Progress, which I'm sure will be soon, I'll mention a possible problem with the transformer. Thank you!

saturnfan: I definitely will. Thank you!

RDUBiker: I hear they're pretty expensive, but whatever works, right?

The fact that they have NO answers is even more frustrating.

[brandonmarkb]

Speaking of outages, it's looking like Progress Energy (as of the time of this posting) is showing a couple of outages affecting 10,000 customers. Our power (N. Raleigh) flickered a bit around the time these outages started, but fortunately lights on still here!

[goat1of2]

Well, it ain't just Progress...we're on Duke Power...er, Duke Energy or whatever they're calling themselves these days. It has been the same for us. We've had two power outages in the last week and neither time was a thunderstorm in evidence. I'm thinking it might be grid related--as in, the grid is taxed because of the huge demand from air conditioning. We called Duke and got no answer as to why it was happening. Frustrating, because you KNOW they know, otherwise how could they fix it? And yes, our neighbors were out as well.

We're on load control too, which means they can shut off our air conditioner whenever they need to. But I haven't noticed that happening. Still, these outages were not occurring during cooler weather....