- November 21, 2024
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by: Kristine Janata
rbb Communications
Florida Power and Light Company plans to upgrade the energy grid in Ormond Beach in 2022 to enhance day-to-day reliability for customers and improve resiliency in the face of severe weather.
Strengthening power poles, maintaining trees and vegetation near power lines, installing smart grid technology, regularly inspecting equipment and undergrounding neighborhood power lines in targeted areas have helped improve service reliability by 45% for FPL customers over the past decade.
“We understand how much our customers depend on the critical service we provide," said Eric Silagy, chairman and CEO of FPL. "That’s why our team works tirelessly to continuously improve the energy grid across our service area — from Miami to Pensacola. We know that in Florida it’s not a matter of if, but when, the next storm will impact our state. Our disciplined infrastructure and technology investments are improving day-to-day service for customers and helping us speed restoration after a storm.”
2022 improvements in the Ormond Beach area
FPL plans to make the following improvements in and near Ormond Beach this year:
When the planned 2022 work is completed, FPL will have made the following improvements in and near Ormond Beach since the historic 2004-2005 hurricane seasons:
FPL’s adoption of emerging technology helps improve day-to-day service reliability. Drones and robots are used to conduct regular assessments and locate potential power issues to fix many problems before they affect customers. Intelligent devices can automatically redirect power, self-heal and eliminate or minimize customers affected — resulting in more than 10 million outages avoided over the last decade.
FPL is also continuing to boost reliability by putting more power lines underground in neighborhoods that can most benefit based on analysis of past hurricane outages, vegetation-related service interruptions and other reliability data. FPL’s Storm Secure Underground Pilot Program, launched in 2018, has completed about 600 neighborhood projects through the end of 2021, and FPL plans to bring the benefits of undergrounding to more neighborhoods across Florida in the future.
“We continue to deploy innovative and industry-leading solutions that improve the grid – investments that are paying off for our customers,” said Manny Miranda, executive vice president of power delivery for FPL. “We are always looking for new ways to enhance the reliability of our service. From examining lessons learned from past storms to incorporating new advancements, we are seeing the value of our efforts every day.”
Strengthening the FPL grid throughout Florida
Since 2006, FPL has made significant investments to harden the grid against hurricanes and extreme weather and enhance day-to-day reliability. Highlights include:
The improvements continue to benefit customers across FPL’s service area in many ways. In 2021, the average FPL customer experienced the fewest outages and momentary interruptions or flickers of any year in company history and the shortest overall duration of outages ever. FPL in 2021 won the ReliabilityOne National Reliability Award for the sixth time in seven years. Presented by PA Consulting, the award is widely regarded in the energy industry as one of the most prestigious honors and reinforces FPL’s commitment to provide its more than 5.7 million customers with the nation’s most reliable service.
