By Jason Evans

Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

COUNTY — Both Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative and Duke Energy have taken steps to help both customers and employees in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  “Because we are a service provider for more than 67,000 members in the Upstate, our concern for our communities, our members and our employees is paramount in our decision process,” Blue Ridge said in a news release. “We know that keeping our workforce healthy and ready to respond to any situation that arises on our system is our priority.”

Both companies said they will not disconnect any customer’s service for non-payment. Duke officials said the company will continue to read meters and send bills and urged customers to pay what they can to avoid building up a large balance that will be harder to pay off later.

“Through a carefully planned process, Duke Energy has directed employees who are not involved with power generation, power delivery, customer service or other critical functions to work from home, where possible,” a news release from the company said.

Duke technicians will continue to complete service orders, such as new electric connections and requested disconnections, according to the release, and if technicians need to interact with customers in-person, such as in an emergency, they will follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s safety guidelines, including social distancing.

Services that are not urgent or time-sensitive, but require in-person customer contact by Duke Energy employees, will be rescheduled. Duke Energy will contact customers to reschedule those appointments.

Customers can perform nearly all customer service functions online, through Duke Energy’s automated voice phone system, or through the company’s mobile app, the company said.

Blue Ridge offices are closed to walk-in service, but drive-in windows are still open for monetary transactions. All service requests should be made through the company’s customer service center by calling 800-240-3400. Additionally, the Blue Ridge website, blueridge.coop, provides many online options for service orders and payments. The Blue Ridge App is another avenue for account information, payments and a means to report a service outage. Service orders requiring face-to-face contact will be evaluated according to need.

“Rest assured that we are prepared to respond to any power-related problem, including outages, as normal,” the release said.