Latest news with #JeffBrooks
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season kicks off; 3 to 5 major hurricanes predicted
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — It's the first day of June which means it's the first day of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts a 60-percent chance that 2025 will be an above-normal season. 'Here in the Carolinas and in Florida, we have a lot of exposure along our coast. And of course, we saw last year that you don't have to be on the coast to see hurricane impacts,' said Jeff Brooks, spokesperson for Duke Energy, which services six states. This hurricane season follows last year's when Hurricane Helene devastated parts of western North Carolina and other parts of the southeast. According to the National Hurricane Center, there have been at least 248 Helene-related deaths, and billions in damage. NOAA unveils hurricane forecast for 2025 Atlantic season: See the full breakdown 'It's important that you use the start of hurricane season as a reminder to prepare your own personal preparedness plan and what that means for you. and if you rely on electricity for medical needs, making sure that you have a plan in place where you could relocate if we had a major storm,' Brooks told CBS 17 Sunday. NOAA is forecasting anywhere from 13 to 19 named storms, and 6 to 10 of those the agency predicts will turn into hurricanes. Within those, three to five are projected to be major hurricanes. The agency says it has 70-percent confidence in these projections. Hurricane Helene declared the deadliest US hurricane since Katrina by NHC Books tells us that while they typically see most storm activity around September and October, they prepare throughout the year. 'We trim trees and remove vegetation and along our power lines to help reduce the number of instances of vegetation-related outages. We've been upgrading poles and wires on our systems to make them stronger, more resistant to outages from severe weather, and then also installing self-healing technology, which is helped to speed some of that power restoration after major storms.' He also says the company is ready for different weather events year-round — in any season. Hurricane season ends in November, with November and June being the least active months. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Channel Post MEA
23-05-2025
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
Tenable Reveals 2025 Global Partner Award Winners
Tenable has announced the recipients of its Global Partner Awards during Tenable AssureWorld — the company's fifth annual virtual partner conference. Those honoured this year include IBM — Global System Integrator of the Year; Siemens Energy — Tenable OT Security Partner of the Year; Telefonica — MSSP Partner of the Year; and AWS — Global Technology Partner of the Year. Tenable also crowned its regional Partners of the Year which recognises those partners who consistently surpass expectations in collaboration and contribution throughout the year. This year's winners are: Asia Pacific and Japan – DXC Europe, the Middle East and Africa – Softcat (UKI) Latin America – Global Sec Tecnologia North America – CDW Public Sector – SHI 'As a partner-first company, Tenable is hyper-focused on investing in and supporting channel partners, promoting collective success,' said Jeff Brooks, Senior Vice President of Global Channels, Tenable. 'Our Global Partner Awards recognise partners whose dedication and collaboration with Tenable deliver truly exceptional outcomes in helping customers eradicate priority cyber weaknesses and protect against attacks.' Tenable AssureWorld is an exclusive event that allows Tenable and its partners to come together to learn and share information. The conference provides insights from top executives on Tenable's vision, revenue strategy, customer-focused business strategy, product roadmap, and other key areas of cybersecurity. In addition to providing resellers, distributors, MSSPs, and systems integrators with innovative exposure management solutions, the Tenable Assure Partner Program arms partners with sales and marketing assistance, training and certification opportunities, services-delivery certification and technical support to grow their business and deliver exceptional exposure management and risk mitigation. More information on the Tenable Assure Partner Program is available at: 0 0
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The cost of AI: Who pays to power the future?
Whether you realize it or not, you likely use AI technology in your everyday life. Through things like home assistants, smart thermostats or social media, a Gallup survey found 99% of Americans US an AI product on a weekly basis. Microsoft to invest $1B to build data centers in Catawba County Tech companies are eager to grow the technology but doing so means they need two things built very quickly, data centers and the energy infrastructure to power them. The question utilities, regulators and customers across the country are asking is who is on the hook to pay for that? In North Carolina, Duke Energy's latest long-term plan, as approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission in 2024, commits to buildings 14 GW of new power generation over the next 10 years. Spokesman Jeff Brooks, explains that includes 8.4 GW to replace retiring coal-fired power plants and 3 GW of new generation to keep up with economic growth. Broken down further, Brooks explained 1.5 GW of that new generation or enough to power roughly 1.5 million homes, is projected to be used by future data center customers. 'Some of those facilities are, you know, increasing in size,' he said. 'You have some that are that are 100 megawatts or less, but you have some that are going to be in the hundreds or even potentially up to a gigawatt in size.' To meet that demand, Duke Energy plans to build acres of new solar panels and grid battery storage, three to five new natural gas-fired power plants and add new nuclear reactor to the grid by the end of 2035, all while expanding our current transmission infrastructure to get that power to where it's needed as efficiently as possible. This will cost tens of billions of dollars. For North Carolina ratepayers, who have already been dealing with high gas and electric bills, Ethan Blumenthal with the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association said there needs to be protections in place to ensure they don't get stuck with the bill for all that power, when most of them will only use a fraction of it. 'Those that cause the cost to be brought to the system ought to bear that cost,' he said. In summary, if a massive customer like a data center is the primary driver of a big infrastructure investment, Blumenthal argues, those customers should pay a premium for that power. 'What's most important from a North Carolina perspective, is ensuring that rate payers are protected, so that those potential costs do not trickle down and make our power more expensive for no better benefits,' he said. Before we get ahead ourselves, deciding who will pay for new power generation, many experts say we still need to resolve the question of whether our grids will even need that much power in the first place. The Bipartisan Policy Center has been tracking this issue across the country and as, Tanya Doss, the director of AI and energy technology policy, explains, while there's some certainty that we're going to see energy demand grow nationwide for the first time in decades, the culprit is unclear. 'If you just look at the numbers of how much folks are predicting that data centers will constitute of our electricity load in the future, the numbers are all over the place like it's anywhere from 6% to 30%,' she said. We don't know how much more energy efficient AI technology will get in the next ten years. We don't know how quickly tech companies will be able to build up these data centers or if they'll run into supply chain shortages or delays in securing key materials like computing chips. We don't even know if these data centers will be built, where tech companies say they will. Doss explains, as these companies look to build up their capacity, they're 'shopping around,' looking at various states and locations to site these centers, based on cost of land, current available infrastructure, tax incentives and how quickly they can connect to the local power grid. To avoid overbuilding for projects that may never come into fruition, Brooks said Duke Energy's load forecast distinguishes between speculative projects and projects that have already made commitments to build in North Carolina. 'We know some that have moved to the point of letters of agreement and starting to move into identifying locations and facilities, and that triggers certain milestones for us as we begin to do our system planning and long-range planning,' he said. As for ensuring they pay their fair share, some utilities are developing what are called 'minimum take agreements' where they require large customers like data centers to pay for a minimum amount of power, whether they use it or not, to make up for the infrastructure investments required to build up that capacity. 'We can have that sort of guarantee some commitment from that company if they move into that that space,' Brooks said. 'In those rare instances where a project gets delayed or maybe doesn't come to fruition, what we're seeing in the growing trend is that there's more behind it that will come in and have that opportunity.' Data centers aren't new to North Carolina, though some of these proposed projects are far more energy intensive than any existing structures. It begs the question though, if data centers bring so much uncertainty and the need for expensive investment, why not let those companies continue to 'shop around' and choose another grid to build their project? Unlike other large, energy-intensive customers, data centers typically don't bring many direct jobs to a community. Once they're built, you likely won't see much traffic around them. What they do bring, is a lot of tax dollars. Catawba County's economic development director said Apple has been one of the largest taxpayers in the region ever since it opened its data center in Maiden, allowing the county to invest in new projects and buildings, without raising tax rates for other locals. Additionally, Blumenthal argues, with the right policy in place, their massive energy demand can help more, or at least as much, as it hurts. 'There's a chance that they bring more resources to the grid than would otherwise be brought, and potentially spread the cost of those resources, further making them more economical for North Carolina,' he said. 'That very much comes down to who pays and for what?' North Carolina made a bipartisan commitment in 2021 to reduce the carbon emissions in its energy sector by 70% of 2005 levels by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. While Duke Energy and state regulators have already determined that 2030 goal is unfeasible, Blumenthal and other advocates for sustainable energy worry demand from data centers will take precedence over these clean energy commitments, eating away at the state's climate goals. It's a trend other states across the country are seeing, as utilities delay coal retirements and call for large natural gas buildouts to increase energy capacity as quickly as possible. Brooks argues Duke Energy remains committed to the 2050 goal and when asked about coal retirements, he said there were no plans to delay the current schedule. He said the only thing that would stand in the way, is getting replacement generation added to the grid in time. 'We have to serve every customer, and we want to serve them reliably, while also making sure our communities have the reliable power and as lower rates as possible,' he said. As for whether data centers can move the needle, Doss pointed out many of these tech companies have their own sustainability commitments, and often participate in power purchase agreements, where they help pay for the cost of large renewable energy projects. Ultimately though, data centers demand 24/7 power, which most renewables cannot provide without massive battery storage capacity. That makes natural gas and nuclear attractive options but before utilities commit to massive buildouts, Blumenthal wants to see more negotiation with data centers about how much power they use and when. 'Can you just ramp down, not necessarily turn off your demand, but ramp down your demand for .5% of the time?' He said. If there's some built-in flexibility that allows data centers to use slightly less power when our grid is most stressed, that could help stretch the resources we already have further, while helping these data centers come online quicker. At the end of the day, he said the cheapest and least environmentally taxing watt of power on the grid, is the power that never had to be generated. 'There has to be a give and take,' he said.
USA Today
08-05-2025
- General
- USA Today
NC residents saw a power outage. The reported cause? A black snake.
NC residents saw a power outage. The reported cause? A black snake. Show Caption Hide Caption New snake species discovered in Papua New Guinea Scientists discovered a new species of snake on Sudest Island in Papua New Guinea named Dendrelaphis anthracina, or the coal black tree snake. unbranded - Newsworthy Over 10,000 people in North Carolina were without power earlier this week due to an unlikely suspect: a snake, according to reports. North Carolina's Durham area faced a power outage that lasted several hours around 11 p.m. May 5 with a Duke Energy spokesperson telling local media outlets WBTV , WSOC-TV, and WNCN that it may have actually been caused by a snake. 'Crews found a black snake had come into contact with power lines in the substation, which is believed to have been the cause of the outage,' Duke Energy said in a statement to WSOC-TV. An electric substation is a part of an electrical system that transforms voltage, and connects different grids, among other functions. Power was eventually restored around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, WNCN reported, adding the outage affected Durham, Forsyth, and Gaston. It is not yet known how the snake came into contact with the power line and if it survived. Its species are also not known. Duke Energy did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for a comment on the incident. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. Investigation ongoing to prevent future mishaps A spokesperson with Duke Energy Jeff Brooks, meanwhile, told WNCN the company believe the snake 'came into contact with our power lines around the substation and caused the outage." "We put a number of protections in place to help prevent animal related outages, but even with those measures, they do sometimes occur," Brooks told the media outlet, adding they are now investigating how the snake may have entered, so necessary steps can be taken to prevent this from happening in the future. New snake species: 4-foot reptilian predator spotted 'enveloping' hawk turns out to be new snake species Not out of the norm for snakes and other animals to cause power outages It is not uncommon for snakes and other animals, such as birds, to cause power outages and blackouts. The Nature Conservancy noted that an estimated 13 million people are without power annually in the U.S. due to animal-caused outages. North Carolina is home to 37 different species of snakes of which six of which are venomous, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@ and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
BBC News
13-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Berkshire and Oxfordshire councils to discuss potential unitary
Three councils will discuss the possibility of forming a new unitary authority covering parts of Berkshire and Oxfordshire next Berkshire, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse Councils have proposed they form a new authority, ahead of the government asking for plans for reorganisation later this initial proposal is titled Ridgeway Council, named after the ancient footpath that cuts through the three council government wants all new unitary authorities to serve about 500,000 residents or more and for every region to have a mayor. The three councils said they have "strong demographic and economic similarities" and "significant historic ties".They think the plan is a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" that would deliver high quality services and improve financial Berkshire's leader Jeff Brooks said the plan was an "exciting opportunity to establish a council that is ready for the future – one that works smarter, delivers better outcomes, and strengthens local democracy".David Rouane, South Oxfordshire Council's leader, said it would "provide a strong and effective foundation for the future… while maintaining and enhancing the unique character of our market towns and rural areas".While Bethia Thomas, Vale of White Horse Council's leader, said the authorities' "combined strengths would create a modern and effective local authority that puts people and communities at the heart of strong, health and robust local government, all white providing a firm base for wider regional growth".All of the councils will discuss the plans on 19 March, ahead of a potential submission to government for approval later this changes would be subject to public consultation. You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
