JUNO BEACH, Fla., Sept. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) today announced that service has been restored to essentially all of its 4.4 million customers who were impacted by Hurricane Irma 10 days after the massive storm exited its service territory. And now, with limited work left to clean up in the hardest-hit areas, FPL is releasing the majority of its utility and contract workers who responded from across the country and Canada.
"I cannot thank our customers enough for their patience, support and understanding, particularly those who were without power the longest," said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL. "Hurricane Irma was unprecedented by almost every measure – including its size and scope, destructive power and slow movement. Irma's fierce winds, strong storm surge and flooding knocked out power to more than 4.4 million FPL customers, the largest ever in our history. But, we pulled together and completed the fastest restoration of the largest amount of people by any one utility in U.S. history."
Even before Irma exited FPL's service territory, the energy company had restored approximately one million customers, with two million customers restored by the end of the first full day of restoration. The vast majority of customers had their power back on within a week of Irma's passing – but as is the case in any major restoration effort of Irma's magnitude, there are some areas where restoration was more difficult and time-consuming.
Devastating storm
There's no doubt Irma left her mark on our state. The powerful storm spawned tornadoes, uprooted large trees, transformed roads into rivers, flooded isolated areas, tore roofs off homes and businesses, created salt contamination that damaged electrical equipment and left millions of Floridians in the dark. FPL assembled and pre-positioned the largest restoration workforce in U.S. history – and then continued to amass an army that at its peak numbered more than 28,000 hardworking men and women from 30 states and Canada who worked around the clock to get our communities back to normal.
Crews found extensive vegetation challenges in the hardest-hit areas, including fallen trees pulling down power lines and dense debris blocking roadways. In some cases, crews spent hours and days removing debris before it was safe for restoration workers to access equipment and begin making repairs. In anticipation of the massive vegetation challenges, FPL brought in twice as many tree trimming crews to support the Irma restoration effort compared with Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
"In the wake of a natural disaster, it was extremely heartening to see Floridians from all parts of the state join as one Florida," said Silagy. "Governor Rick Scott has been a tremendous leader from the beginning, bringing everyone together before and after the storm, ensuring we all were singularly focused on getting Florida back on her feet, in lock step every step of the way. I also want to pay tribute to those first responders – from the Florida National Guard to police, fire and other emergency responders at the local, state and federal level – who gave so much these past couple of weeks. These individuals, along with our own restoration workers, are the true heroes of Irma and deserve our respect and appreciation. All of these men and women, who manned their posts throughout the storm, were essential to restoration efforts across Florida, including search and rescue operations, convoy and other vehicular support for fuel tankers and utility trucks and responding to fires and other emergencies."
Investments in the grid helped speed restoration
Over the last 11 years, FPL has invested nearly $3 billion to make the energy grid smarter, stronger and more storm-resilient, and those investments are paying off for customers. No hardened transmission structures – the backbone of our system – were lost. All of FPL's substations were up and running within a day following Irma. Hardening helped make the system more resilient and provided for a much faster restoration. In fact, FPL lost only a fraction of its poles, which today numbers 1.2 million, as compared with Wilma – with early estimates of approximately 2,500 downed (0.2 percent) during Irma as compared with roughly 12,000 during Wilma. And, FPL's smart grid positioned the company to restore hundreds of thousands of customers during the storm without the need to roll trucks.
"Every one of the 35 counties served by FPL, stretching from the Florida/Georgia border to south of Miami and up through Bradenton, was affected. In fact, 90 percent of our customers lost power. Irma was a much more expansive and widespread storm than Wilma, yet we restored customers at a much faster pace," said Silagy. "That said, we are a company of human beings and we recognize that no storm restoration is perfect. We will continue to make improvements and incorporate lessons learned so that we are even better prepared for the next hurricane. For example, we understand that what our customers want to know more than anything else is when will their power be restored. Unfortunately we were not able to accurately and consistently provide the kind of useful and detailed restoration estimates that our customers have come to expect from us during normal operations. We are going to get better at this and we're already working on it."
With limited work left to clean up in the hardest-hit areas, FPL is releasing the majority of its utility and contract workers who responded from across the country and Canada. Customers may experience outages over the coming weeks and months due to weakened trees and branches that could fall, impacting power lines and electric equipment. In addition, salt contamination along the coastline and significant wind gusts, which may loosen some electrical connections, may lead to increased outages following the storm. FPL crews will continue to respond as these outages are identified.
"We are still in the heart of a very active and destructive hurricane season," said Silagy. "Irma, along with Hurricanes Maria and Harvey, are stark reminders that we must remain vigilant and ready to respond no matter what Mother Nature throws our way. Please take time now to ensure you and your family are prepared before the next storm strikes."
Florida Power & Light Company
Florida Power & Light Company is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving nearly 5 million customer accounts or an estimated 10 million people across nearly half of the state of Florida. FPL's typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 25 percent lower than the latest national average and, in 2016, was the lowest in Florida among reporting utilities for the seventh year in a row. FPL's service reliability is better than 99.98 percent, and its highly fuel-efficient power plant fleet is one of the cleanest among all utilities nationwide. The company received the top ranking in the southern U.S. among large electric providers, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM, and was recognized in 2017 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Market Strategies International. A leading Florida employer with approximately 8,900 employees, FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), a clean energy company widely recognized for its efforts in sustainability, ethics and diversity, and has been ranked No. 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry in Fortune's 2017 list of "World's Most Admired Companies." NextEra Energy is also the parent company of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.
SOURCE Florida Power & Light Company