Duke Energy confirms it is offering buyouts to some of its employees

Duke Energy has offered voluntary severance — commonly called buyouts — to some of its IT and nuclear employees, the utility confirmed on Monday.

Duke declined to say how many employees are affected.

Duke is “continuously reviewing our operations to identify opportunities for improvement,” said spokesman Neil Nissan. “This includes our workforce strategy and staffing levels to ensure we’re appropriately staffed with the right skillsets and number of teammates to execute our long-term vision for Duke Energy.

“As part of this process, we’re working closely with our employees to help them understand this voluntary opportunity,” he said.

Duke Energy is headquartered in Charlotte and employs about 29,000, according to its August earnings report.

The utility has six nuclear plants, three in North Carolina and three in South Carolina. Two of those nuclear plants are in the Charlotte area — McGuire Nuclear Station on Lake Norman and Catawba Nuclear Station on Lake Wylie in York County, S.C.

In May 2017, Duke said it planned to slash about $100 million in expenses to offset lower financial results from warm winter weather.

In March 2016, Duke shed 900 employees as part of a cost-cutting initiative begun the year prior. The vast majority of those departures were voluntary, the company said at the time.

And Duke announced last month plans to close its coal plants over the next 30 years, in filings with state regulators.

Duke’s electricity division serves 7.6 million customers across six states, including North and South Carolina.

Duke residential power customers in the Charlotte area saw their bills increase slightly in August. Duke had said higher bills are needed to make up costs it had incurred to generate cleaner electricity and modernize the state’s electric grid.

This story was originally published October 8, 2018 at 2:53 PM.