Tim Pearson is president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in South Carolina, which serves approximately 835,500 electric retail customers and 164,000 natural gas customers. He is responsible for the financial performance of Duke Energy’s regulated utilities in South Carolina, along with leading state and local regulatory and government relations, and community affairs.
Prior to assuming his current position in November 2024, Pearson served as a part of the Duke Energy team as an adviser and consultant before joining the company full time as vice president of government affairs in 2023.
Pearson has more than a decade of experience in government and policy in South Carolina. Before joining Duke Energy, he served as an adviser to multiple governors in the state, most recently as general consultant for Henry McMaster’s successful campaigns in 2018 and 2022. He served as chief of staff for Nikki Haley during her tenure as governor, and as executive director of her transition team.
A resident of Columbia, Pearson and his wife, Ashton, have a daughter and a son.
Interview with Tim Pearson
Q. What does a state president for Duke Energy in South Carolina do?
A. Our focus at Duke Energy is in delivering reliable energy 24/7, keeping energy prices as affordable as possible and powering the economic vitality of our communities. That is the job that my team and I are focused on making sure happens every day in South Carolina.
Specifically in my position, I am responsible for leading state and local regulatory and government relations, infrastructure engagement, and community affairs. I am also charged with the financial performance of Duke Energy’s regulated utilities in South Carolina.
In Columbia, that means I am leading our legislative and regulatory initiatives that help make our state economically successful and a place more and more people want to call home.
In Greenville and across the state, my team ensures our customers and communities understand the tremendous effort, professionalism and investment it takes to provide the electricity that powers our lives around the clock. Every day across the state, we work with community leaders and customers on everything from vegetation and rights of way management to power restoration and community philanthropic investments.
Part of that work I’m most proud of is our philanthropy across South Carolina. Through the Duke Energy Foundation, we are strategic in directing grant funding to organizations and efforts that serve identified needs, such as our annual campaign that has provided more than $2 million since 2021 to fight hunger across the state.
We are also very nimble and can respond to crises like the pandemic and natural disasters like Hurricane Helene, quickly supporting organizations like Red Cross or community agencies that help customers with everyday needs until they can get back on their feet.
And none of this is possible without the employees of our company, who last year alone provided more than 4,500 volunteer hours to organizations that directly impact the needs of their friends and neighbors.
Q. You took over the role shortly after Helene devastated much of the Upstate. What have you and the company learned from Helene? How would you say the company responded?
A. Hurricane Helene was one of the most significant storms to ever impact Duke Energy’s power-delivery system in the Carolinas. Though not yet state president, I was actively involved with many of the company’s internal teams that responded to this historic and unprecedented event, and their efforts were truly remarkable.
About 1.34 million Duke Energy customers in the Carolinas lost power. This included more than 99% of Duke Energy’s customers in the Upstate who were perfectly situated in the path of this devastating storm.
The damage was widespread — this was not scattered instances of downed trees like we normally see. The storm brought down trees in nearly every yard with mature vegetation and damaged many homes and businesses.
Navigating the area, assessing damage and getting equipment and material to jobsites was complicated by the volume of downed trees and closed streets. The work by county, municipal and state partners to clear streets was so important, and even our customers played a vital part clearing the way in many neighborhoods. We are so thankful for their tireless efforts that facilitated the quick progress we were able to make in restoring power.
As with every significant event we experience, there are lessons that can be learned, and we have been capturing those through numerous evaluations and discussions of what took place and how we can build the energy grid of the future to better withstand these types of significant weather events.
Q. South Carolina’s energy future has been a topic of conversation that has grown increasingly important in the past few years. The legislature is considering new legislation that would address the need for new generation in our state. Does Duke Energy support the legislation and why?
A. As part of our responsibility to serve more than 830,000 retail electric customers across 30 South Carolina counties, Duke Energy plays a vital role in planning for the region’s growth and prosperity. We are at a critical point in planning for South Carolina’s reliable energy future. Duke Energy needs to build and enable large amounts of new generation quickly to keep up with the success our state is seeing in economic development and growth.
I believe the focus on this topic by the governor and leaders in the General Assembly is appropriate and time is of the essence. Committees in both houses have studied these issues addressing the tremendous growth we are seeing in South Carolina. The current legislative proposal (House Bill 3309) guarantees continued prosperity for our state, necessary protections for our customers, and provides for a diversity of energy sources — an “all of the above” approach — that will reliably and affordably power South Carolina and our economy.
For these reasons, we do support this legislation and look forward to continuing to share our expertise with legislators, staff and others in order to advance comprehensive energy policy that will guide our state’s continued success for many years to come.
Q. You and other utility leaders and lawmakers have discussed the need for an “all of the above” strategy for meeting growing energy demand. What does that mean to you and Duke Energy? Does that strategy have any direct impact on the Upstate?
A. For Duke Energy, this basically means not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Our resource plan recently approved by the Public Service Commission of South Carolina takes an “all of the above” approach with a diverse and reliable set of solutions, including pursuing new generation such as hydrogen-capable natural gas resources and fuel-free renewable energy like solar and battery storage, as well as continuing to evaluate our options, and preserving those options, for advanced nuclear and additional pumped-hydro storage.
Our plan also continues to invest in the proven assets we already have, including relicensing and upgrading our nuclear plants that are the backbone of the 24/7 clean energy we deliver every day.
And we will continue to explore new options in energy-efficiency programs that help us reduce load, which in turn helps reduce the number of plants we have to build, while also helping customers save money.
As we pursue the near-term actions needed to implement this plan, we are evaluating sites across South Carolina — including in the Upstate — that would provide reliable and cost-effective options to implement this strategy on behalf of our customers and the communities we serve.
Q. Severe weather in recent years has underscored the importance of infrastructure resiliency. How is Duke Energy approaching this?
A. Our priority at Duke Energy is to deliver reliable service to all the communities we serve by continuously improving our power plants and electrical grid.
We have already increased the resiliency of the system in South Carolina as Duke Energy works hard year-round on improvements that help avoid outages — and restore power faster when it does go out. These improvements include tree trimming around lines, pole and line upgrades, and installing self-healing technology.
In 2024, our self-healing technology helped to avoid around 130,000 customer outages in South Carolina, saving more than 320,000 hours of total outage time. More than 60% of those benefits were achieved during major storms. About 181,000 hours of savings were achieved in Helene alone (about 56% of annual savings), and while self-healing cannot eliminate outages in such a catastrophic storm, that advanced technology enables restoration to occur faster.
Self-healing works like the GPS system in your car — just like GPS can reroute you around a traffic jam, self-healing can reroute power delivery. About one-third of all Duke Energy customers in South Carolina benefit from self-healing technology today and we continue to add this capability across our system. We have doubled the number of total customers across the Carolinas that are served by self-healing and automated restoration technology over the last two years.
Q. How do technologies like smart home devices and other innovations that are being applied to the electric grid help your customers take control of their energy lifestyle and manage bills?
A. Duke Energy has a growing menu of options that offer customers better control over how they use their energy and more ways they can save money. Smart devices like thermostats and appliances can allow customers to be more active in their energy usage or customize it to best fit their lifestyle.
We are committed to serving our customers who may be experiencing a time of uncertainty or are having trouble paying utility expenses due to financial hardships and are also working on enhanced energy savings options for those who need it most.
Duke Energy has voluntary demand-response programs for both commercial and residential customers that offer bill credits for reducing electricity use during times of peak energy demand. Customers can take part by enrolling a device — including smart thermostats and A/C heat strips — in the program. Benefits include financial incentives for the customer, less electric load on the grid, it’s good for the environment and helps with greater system reliability.
