No further Duke Energy outages expected for eastern N.C. Here's what happened this weekend.

Abnormally cold temperatures across eastern North Carolina over the Christmas holiday left thousands of Duke Energy customers without power.

Eastern North Carolina saw its coldest Christmas in decades this past weekend, and according to a Christmas Eve news release from Duke Energy, the extreme temperatures and increased demand for power left electricity supplies tight.

Because of this, Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress urged customers to conserve their energy use and even implemented rolling blackouts in several areas.

"We were taking emergency steps to help maintain customer electric use and we do this for a couple reasons," Duke Energy spokesman Keith Richardson told The Daily News. "We don't want to create further damage for the grid and create more widespread outages."

CBS17 reported on Christmas Day that many customers were taking to Twitter in frustration with the outages saying they received no advanced warning. The outlet reported more than 2,200 customers were without power on Christmas Day in North Carolina.

A Christmas Day news release from Duke Energy quoted Carolinas Storm Director Jason Hollifield, who said he was grateful to the customers who saved energy and encouraged them to conserve energy again throughout Christmas evening into Monday morning.

The release added the company expected an increase in customer demand Monday that could require more rotating outages as people began returning to the workplace and open businesses.

However, Monday, Duke Energy announced they had met the day's expected peak energy demand in the Carolinas and as a result of gradually warming temperatures and improved power availability, no additional conservation measures would be needed.

“Whether you lost power from interruptions in service or conserved energy to help others, we are deeply grateful for your patience and understanding,” said Carolinas Manager Grid Operations Daniel Fain in the release.

Customers with other energy companies in eastern North Carolina didn't experience the outages Duke Energy customers did, though, but Richardson said he couldn't speak on why that was, as he doesn't know the operations of other companies.

"The system essentially determines how the outages work," Richardson said. "The system works to stabilize and return to normal. It's not a thing where any particular person is looking on a map saying, we need an outage over here. It's essentially where we're trying to get the system back online, so the grid system picks where those service interruptions should occur."

A Tuesday morning update from Duke Energy said no additional conservation measures are needed from customers at this time, adding emergency power outages and requests for energy conservation are a rare occurrence and a situation they always strive to avoid.

"Unfortunately, in this unique case, the temporary outages were necessary to protect the grid from more extensive damage, which would have meant lengthier repairs and longer, more widespread power outages," the update concluded.

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@jdnews.com. 

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: No further Duke Energy outages expected for eastern N.C.