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And later on this program, he is the point of the spear for sure, for Duke Energy.

We welcome Harry Sideris, stay with us.

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(upbeat instrumental music) On this edition of Carolina Business Review, Georgia Mjartan of Central Carolina Community Foundation, John Hood, from the John William Pope Foundation, and special guest, Harry Sideris, president of Duke Energy.

(upbeat instrumental music) - Welcome to our program.

Thank you for joining us.

Georgia, thanks for driving up.

John, thanks for hauling it over from the other part of North Carolina.

(chuckling) I'm glad to see you both being a little flippant here, happy holidays.

Let me start with, there was a quote in some news publication in one of, somewhere in North and South Carolina about the idea, and it was being written about Western North Carolina, specifically around the recovery efforts going on from Hurricane Helene, it all.

And John, the idea was that now that the media cycle has cycled through and no one is, and the media's not writing about or paying attention anymore to some of the devastation, that there's some sense that they're being left behind or forgotten about.

Is there a way, the media's gonna be, does what the media does, and it's about breaking news in many cases, but is there a way to make sure that they don't get left behind?

- There is, some of it is programmatic.

I don't think there's a solution of trying to keep the media spotlight on something like this for months or years, that's unrealistic.

Unfortunately, in North Carolina, we still have victims of the hurricanes of 2016 and 2018 living in hotels because their homes have not been replaced or renovated.

I'm not kidding.

Now, that tells you that because you can't solve that problem with a few additional news stories.

This is a management challenge.

This is trying to keep, whether it's public sector, the agencies, spending, federal, state, local money in an effective way, and then, or other organizations, other private organizations, really having a routine, having a process and following that process until the end, rather than just responding to headlines.

The headlines are gonna be gone and the problem is gonna remain.

These are just people who got displaced.

The challenge with Helene is so much as what has happened isn't just the homes being damaged or displaced, that's significant, but major infrastructure, tens of billions of dollars of damage to business, commercial properties, industrial properties.

Infrastructure like water and sewer systems $5 billion alone Just in transportation has to be replaced or significantly repaired.

And so, this requires good management and people who are in legislative roles, in executive branch roles sticking with this, even if no one else, even if there isn't a reporter chasing you down the hallway.

- Yeah.

- Sticking with it.

- Georgia, please weight in on this thing.

How do we get past the fatigue of the disaster itself?

- I really appreciate that you started with the role of the news and the news cycle.

This is a place where local media comes into play and will keep paying attention because they are in these local communities.

What we see is that nonprofit news and community foundations like Central Carolina Community Foundation, we come alongside with that local philanthropic edge to solve problems that people are experiencing long term.

So, that's why we started the One SC Fund, as the statewide response for philanthropists, for corporate donors.

And Duke Energy was one of those who wanna give in to a fund that will not only address people's needs in the short term, but will be with them in their homes rebuilding for years to come.

And we do know it will be years.

- Is there a, so I don't know that viewers would know this, so I'm gonna highlight the fact that you work for a private foundation.

- Correct.

- You work for a community foundation.

There is a difference.

- Yes.

- Is there a difference response in protocols for the same type of end that you're trying to meet?

- I'd say there is, because a community foundation can be extremely flexible of all of the foundation types.

It is the most flexible from a tax benefit perspective for the donor, and it's also the most flexible in its responsiveness.

So, we're able to listen to those corporate donors who came to us in partnership with the governor's office.

This was a call from the governor who said, "We are gonna need philanthropy."

And so, with that call- - In response to these recent hurricane?

- To Hurricane Helene.

- Yeah.

- We were literally the only non-Cabinet agency, non-government agency there in the briefing room at the emergency press briefings saying, "If you want to give, if you are a corporation, if you're an individual and you wanna give, not just for that short-term response, that relief, but for the long-term recovery, give into our Community Foundation Fund, and then we can deploy that out through responsive grants for the years to come."

- John, - How do you think about?

- So, we are, we're a family foundation, so we operate a little differently, but we are also in a position, we don't have a huge bureaucracy in all these different categories.

And we can't do this because the grant cycle isn't in.

So, we acted quickly in response to the hurricane ourselves.

One of the things we did was lean into relationships we already had with organizations like the Salvation Army, or Baptist on Mission, or Samaritan's Purse for the immediate relief.

One of the challenges that you have here, it's wonderful to have all these people give not only money, but time, but you've gotta have organizations that can effectively deploy volunteers.

That's one of the things we've invested in early.

And then after that, we did have some pre-existing grant relationships with service providers in Western North Carolina.

So, we already knew them.

We went to them and said, "How much damage did you have?

What kind of role are you playing in recovery?"

And we're able to respond pretty quickly.

But it's wonderful to have community foundations, other kinds of entities to step forward and say, "If you don't already have a philanthropy that you're giving to or some way to give, give to us and we'll pledge to put that money to its best use."

- Mm-hmm.

- Georgia does the change in policy leadership in the country, along with the fact that there's a new definition for community, - Right?

- as you well know.

- Right?

- You know it much better than I do.

Do those two big dynamics change the way that you approach rebuilding efforts?

- They do, absolutely.

Because our nonprofit infrastructure relies on being able to braid together public dollars, - Good word.

- with philanthropic dollars.

And so, when the public landscape changes or is unknown, what that's gonna play out as, our nonprofits get worried, they get nervous, regardless of which party's in power, - Right.

- it's just the uncertainty.

Just like the markets wonder, what does this mean?

Same with our nonprofits.

And so, part of what we do is we sustain the nonprofits across the midlands of South Carolina, and in this case across the whole state of South Carolina with general operating support with that money you can count on.

And it's those dollars you can count on that really allow people in those nonprofit positions to be there for their communities when they're needed most.

- So, in 60 seconds, John, will a new administration in Washington create, does it create a lot of anxiety in philanthropy?

- I think it creates a combination of anxiety and interest opportunity.

They're not sure exactly how it's gonna play out.

The relationships between Congress and the White House will be different than they were before.

The relationship between the federal government and states, which is a very big issue in hurricane relief.

A lot of what you're seeing in both Carolinas is perhaps people may be surprised that not a whole lot of money is being appropriated maybe towards the cause.

That's because the states are kind of wait and see what the federal government's gonna fund and how much before they come in and figure out the rest of the, fill in the rest of the cracks.

- Did y'all practice this before you came out this tandem approach?

- We'll never reveal that probation.

- Because you're You're working well together.

- You know, we walked in together.

We had about 10 seconds, so.

- Ah, okay.

Well, that's enough.

- You can do a lot in 10 seconds.

- Yeah, yeah, you can.

Thank you.

Stay with us.

We're gonna meet our guests in just a moment.

Before we do that, we do a series of programs, two programs, actually right at the end of the year, right at the beginning of the next year, the Economic Review and then the Economic Forecast.

And it can be a free for all.

You have four economists that don't always agree, but are pretty sacrilegious.

And we're gonna find out what that means.

So, watch that.

Also coming up on this program, he's the chief executive officer of one of South Carolina's largest companies.

Howard Coker from Sonoco will be on this program.

It does seem ironic, poetic, even that an act of God or natural disaster can completely eviscerate a region so completely, but eventually brings a community back together.

We've seen that over and over again, since not just the devastation in hurricanes in September, but it's that same crucible, catastrophe call to action that also builds and tests leaders.

And we have seen that too in this expansive recovery.

Someone who is recently named a key leadership role during this time for Duke Energy.

And actually at the beginning of the year, we welcome now the newly named president, relatively newly named, of Duke Energy, Harry Sideris.

Mr. President, welcome to the program.

- Good to be here, Chris.

- I've gotta ask you the moment you knew that the effects of Hurricane Helene were as broad as they were.

Not that a storm was coming, but you knew and you saw the scale and scope.

When was that and what was that like for you?

- Yeah, so, Hurricane Helene was the most impactful storm we've ever seen at Duke Energy.

It hit every one of our states.

So, we were preparing for Florida that took the direct hit and then it came up the coast to South Carolina.

North Carolina, eventually got to Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.

But the damage that we saw in the western part of the Carolinas was something that we didn't expect.

We saw it raining for a week, if you remember, it rained the entire week before that.

And the land was saturated.

The lakes were full.

Our weather forecasting showed that we were gonna have impacts.

We were gonna get rain.

But then it started piling up faster and faster, and we started to see that this is gonna be different.

We were worried about flooding damage.

As you know, we managed a lot of the dams on the Catawba River River, as well as the Pigeon River, and the Nantahala River.

So, we started seeing those levels increases.

Our teams did an amazing job of managing the gates to keep flooding to a minimum as best we could and to protect the dams themselves.

So, we started seeing late that first day as things were coming in, in the western part of the state, that this was gonna be different, that the flooding was gonna be historic.

Levels that we've never seen before, in Asheville is 18 feet.

What I kind of say is there's like an 18-foot tsunami coming down the valley there, wiping out infrastructure, wiping out homes, very impactful.

It's a foot higher than the 1916 historical storm that Asheville experienced.

I grew up in Asheville.

- Right.

- And to see places like where I set up my bank account when I was five years old, next door to where my dad worked in Biltmore Village, completely destroyed, covered in mud, was pretty impactful to me.

And just to see the businesses that were ruined was very impactful.

So, our team jumped into action to do the best they could and get people back, get their power back, because that's what gets them to start building their lives back together in this traumatic experience that they have.

- Did you go in with the first crews?

- I got there a few days later to check on the crews and provide support for 'em, and just see the damage for myself.

And it was amazing to see what I've seen on TV and in the pictures that the crews were sending me didn't do it justice to what you saw in the field with my own eyes.

Our right of ways where our poles sit were completely wiped out.

Not just the poles, but the dirt that the poles sit in were completely gone.

And now are part of the Suwannee River bank.

So, the damage was something that we never expected to see in the mountains of North Carolina.

In upstate, South Carolina had a lot of damage from the saturated land.

A lot of trees came down taking down our infrastructure.

So, we were prepared for the storm, but we had to make a lot of adjustments during the storm because of the flooding and the impacts that we saw.

- John, question.

- So, you mentioned just a moment ago, power outages.

You had to get those power outages taken care of.

Lots of people think about not just the hurricane season that we just went through, but now we're about to go into ice storm season in the Carolinas.

So, resiliency of the grid is always been a big concern.

What challenges do you face with that?

Does the aftermath of Hurricane Helene suggest anything to Duke Energy about what to do about the resiliency of the grid?

- Yeah, we've been working on resiliency and reliability for many years 'cause we've seen storms be more impactful.

They come more frequently, they're stronger.

The flooding that we've seen both on the coast.

And you mentioned earlier about folks that are still being impacted from the 2015 and 2018 storms, as well as what we saw from wind damage has been more in the previous years than in the past.

So, we've been using data analytics to really hone in on what parts are more vulnerable in our system.

So, you imagine the coasts, so we've done a lot of hardening work where we replaced wooden poles with steel and concrete poles on the coasts.

Florida in particular, but also on the coast of the Carolinas.

Flooding has become more and more pronounced.

So, on the coast, we built walls around our substations that have flood protection now, but we didn't anticipate what we saw in the Carolinas.

So, we're rethinking our plans.

'cause you didn't anticipate that kind of damage.

We would never, our models would never predict that.

So, we're going back and rethinking what we need to do there to make those systems more resilient and hardened.

We may look at things that we didn't think about before.

You know, better flood protection, better concrete poles, steel poles up there as well.

- Georgia?

- You talked about the rapidly increasing pace of these disasters and these events.

Thinking really long term.

You're an energy company.

Talk a little bit about renewable energies and what we can be doing, what you are doing to really look long term for our children and our grandchildren.

- Yeah.

- So, that we can have a future where these events are not continuing to pick up pace.

- Yeah, that's a great question.

And you know, at Duke Energy, we're leading the largest energy transition in the country.

We have an all of the above strategy.

We're trying to balance reliability, affordability, and to be ever clean.

So, we just got approval in North Carolina for our plans to continue to build renewable energy, solar and batteries, but also gas plants to be able to retire our coal plants and keep the reliability and affordability to the customers.

So, that's important as we move forward, as well as making our grid ready for the future with electric vehicles, with folks having their own batteries and solar on their homes.

The grid needs to be different than it has been in the past.

And then we talked about the resiliency that you need on the grid with the climate issues that are coming at us a little faster and harder.

- How do you President Sideris, so, when I think about all the challenges, we had both secretaries of Commerce in North and South Carolina here, and they both said that one of the biggest challenges for business and development is that what they called an "energy crisis" that's coming and that's able to supply the energy for all the growth, et cetera, et cetera.

You've got AI, you've got EVs, you've got the power grid, as you said, that Duke is out in front of 'em.

How do you do that?

How do you plan for that?

And especially given the scrutiny as a public utility that it's under, how do you move all of these things forward and do it in a good way.

- Yeah.

Chris, what I would say to that is we have a very robust process.

We call our integrated resource planning and we look ahead into the future.

We work with all stakeholders across the state, with environmental groups, with business leaders, with other agencies, with our regulators to make sure that we are understanding what the future's gonna hold.

And I've been with the company for 28 years, and I've never seen growth that we're projecting in both states, ever.

So, it's an exciting time and we have to plan for it.

And we're hooked at the hip with the state agencies, you mentioned the Commerce departments, as we're bringing economic development in.

We're working hand in hand with them to make sure that we're ready with the infrastructure as well with the power.

- Mm-hmm.

- And our plans are projecting that and constantly staying ahead of that.

And I'll tell you, we have had to revise 'em pretty quickly here lately because they keep coming in faster and fierce, which is a great thing for the states.

They're bringing in jobs, they're bringing in tax revenue, and then the Carolinas are a great place to live, so.

- John?

- So, you mentioned the Carolinas, of course, as you said earlier, you've also operating in Florida, you're operating in Indiana, Ohio.

These are states that have very different laws, very different regulatory processes, sometimes rather different policy priorities when it comes to energy and the environment.

How do you manage a company that operates in all these different places, and it is closely regulated in all these different places?

- John, you're right.

They are very different, but they are similar in one way.

They all wanna bring in economic development, grow their states and take care of the customers.

And those are things that we have values in as well.

We wanna take care of our customers, we wanna provide reliable and affordable energy.

So, we find that common ground in each of the states and been very successful at designing programs and plans for the future that do that, that are beneficial to the state and beneficial to serving our customers.

- Mm.

- Georgia?

- You fuel communities quite literally, but you also do that through your corporate philanthropy, through giving, and you gave recently to the One SC Fund, even in the midst of your own expensive crisis, right?

- Absolutely.

- Can you talk a little bit about the role of corporations in giving to the nonprofits to build up communities - Right.

- and broadways?

- So, at Duke, our purpose is to power the lives of our communities, or our customers and the vitality of our communities.

We're part of the communities, and you talked earlier about the media going away, and we will still be in Asheville helping rebuild, helping hook up customers that their businesses are destroyed.

'Cause we've been there for over a 100 years.

We're gonna be there for the next 100 years.

So, being part of the community and investing in that community is very crucial to what we do.

And our teams and our employees go above and beyond to help.

They put on their little blue shirts and they go out and help the community any which way they can.

And the storm was just something that we felt not only do we have to get the power up, but we have to help these communities in other ways.

And our foundation stepped in and did a lot of help.

And we appreciate the work that both of your foundations and agencies do and other agencies in the community.

- Your, I'll call 'em linemen, but they're both men and women out there that are, they qualify, I think, clearly as first responders.

And when you're out on the edge of a helicopter blade, like they are, it has to impact them in a mental health and behavioral health issue.

How do you deploy and assess the support that they need?

- Yeah, that is a great question, and I always use the phrase, I don't know who coined it, but I love it, is, "Not all heroes wear capes.

Some of 'em wear hard hats."

And it really applies to these folks.

And they did some incredible things to get people's power back, hiking up mountains, pulling very innovative things together to do things.

But it's impactful to them.

These are folks that their own homes were destroyed, their own families were uprooted, and they've never seen damage and impacts like this as well.

The best way to describe it from talking to some of our line workers was they went and helped Katrina in New Orleans, and they saw the devastation there, and they felt like Asheville area, and some of the mountain areas with the flooding was very similar to Katrina.

So, it had an impact on them.

So, we stepped in and made sure that we had our Employee Assistance Program activated, sending counselors up to the western North Carolina mountains and upstate South Carolina, as well as our storm center here in Charlotte to give them an opportunity to talk through with a counselor.

- Was it utilized, did they take it back?

- It was utilized, significantly, 'cause of the impacts that they saw, the devastation that they saw really impacted those folks.

We also have a relief for employees fund at Duke Energy where other employees contribute to that folks that were impacted by the storms, that had damage, that had car damage can pull on that fund and help them get themselves back on their feet.

So, we really try to take care of not only our communities but our employees in those situations.

And if we've never had to do this, a Employee Assistance Program during a storm.

So, this one was different in that manner.

- We have about three minutes - Sticking with workforce for a second.

We are rapidly growing Carolinas, lots of companies are concerned in the longer term about having an adequate workforce, having well-trained workforce to fill the jobs of the future.

Is that something Duke Energy is concerned about and what do you think can be done to address those needs?

- Absolutely John, when you think about the growth that's coming at us, that's gonna need more workforce to build the grid, to build the power plants, to operate the power plants.

But we've been very successful working with our state agencies and communities, especially the community colleges, the 22 community colleges that we've set up line worker programs that allows local folks to come to school, be trained on basics of line work, and then they get hired by Duke, or one of our partners.

And that's been a very successful program.

We've donated equipment, we actually have retirees that are instructors at these facilities.

So, those folks get a chance to get trained, get a good career job, and then we get a pipeline of resources to help continue to our states growing.

So, it's a great relationship that we've set up with those folks.

- We've only got two minutes, Georgia.

So, I'm gonna pull some rank here 'cause I'm gonna ask a question before we run out.

- Okay.

- North Carolina Department of Transportation, Secretary Joey Hopkins was here and he said, during the rebuild and all during this rebuild, he said, "We used to go out and fix roads after a disaster, and if there was a line down across the roads, we'd move on to the next site until Duke came around and repaired the line."

He said, "We knew we couldn't do that anymore.

So, we started working together in real time.

They changed their protocols, they shortened the waiting period for a whole lot of things."

What have you learned differently, strategically, and short term protocols that maybe that'll hold over and you'll carry forward?

- Yeah, we've always had a strong relationship with the state agencies like the DOT, we sit at the EOC in the capitals together.

But this, like I said earlier, the storm was different.

So, we had to act differently and work differently with these folks.

And you're exactly right, we were more hooked at the hip with these folks.

They were telling us what they needed from us and we would go out and help them, and we would tell them what roads we needed to clear, what access we needed to get power back, and they would work with us.

So, it was the DOT, the telecom communications vendors that, you know, we had issues with up there.

All of that was working seamlessly and everybody was focused on helping that community recover as fast as they could.

- Yeah.

- And I think that's something that we learned a lot from and we'll continue in future storms.

- Really, you'll deploy some of that in the everyday operation.

- Absolutely.

- And just a quick follow up, supply line, logistics.

Do you have enough transformers?

Do you have enough power?

What's holding you back?

- Yeah, so during storms we, - In 30 seconds.

- we spend a lot of time planning for storms year round, making sure we have the materials, making sure we have places to put folks.

And it's a military operation.

Moving people around.

(speaker chuckling) We brought people in from 28 states in Canada.

We had to feed 'em, - Gosh.

- we had to have a place for them to sleep.

It is an amazing operation to watch, and we've gotten good at it, 'cause we practice a lot with it.

- Yeah, it sounds like a Boy Scout jamboree actually.

- Oh, absolutely.

- Looks like you got that kind management.

Thank you for your leadership.

- Oh, thank you.

- Thanks for being on the, and actually making time because I know you're drinking out of a fire hose over there, and- - I appreciate you having me.

- Thank you.

Please come back.

- Yeah.

- Good luck.

Georgia, good to see you.

Please come back.

(Georgia indistinct) Hope we didn't scare you off.

- Thank you.

- Okay.

- It was fun.

- Hope he didn't scare you off.

(chuckling) - It was good.

- I tried.

- Appreciate it.

- He tries.

(John laughing) John, always nice to see you.

Thanks for making the trip.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for watching our program.

We certainly wish you a very happy and healthy holiday season and brand New Year, and we'll be here every week if you wanna watch.

Until next week, I'm Chris William, goodnight.

(uplifting instrumental music) - Great.

Gratefully acknowledging support by Martin Marietta (uplifting instrumental music) Truliant Federal Credit Union.

(uplifting instrumental music) Foundation For The Carolinas.

Sonoco.

(uplifting instrumental music) Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina.

High Point University.

(uplifting instrumental music) And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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