Didn’t have this problem when the coal plants were up and running.
Mayo and Roxboro plants ARE coal fired. Dan River used to be, but the 1948 vintage coal plant was demolished five years ago and they built a the Dan River Combined-Cycle Station (natural gas) on the same site. Mayo and Roxboro are indoor plants that normally don’t suffer from freezing weather. The problems were probably in the outdoor coal handling areas.
What I don’t get is Duke knows how to run in cold weather and has done so for 100 years.
The power industry has been brow-beaten, excoriated and besmirched by radical greens for decades now and, as a result, engineers just do not want to work in the power industry. If they do, they want to build windmills, solar cells, and batteries. The average age of workers in coal plants is really old. The vast well of experience operating the plants is drying up.
I think the loss of expertise may be what’s at work here.