FPL is prepared to respond to Tropical Storm Hermine
September 1, 2016
  • More than 5,000 FPL employees and contract personnel are ready to restore power to affected customers; crews will work in-between bands of severe weather and through the night
  • Based on the current forecast path, intensity, and FPL’s historical modeling, the company anticipates that approximately 100,000 customers could experience outages
  • FPL expects to restore power to all affected customers within 24 hours after the storm clears

 

JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) today announced that final preparations for Tropical Storm Hermine are complete, with more than 5,000 employees and contract personnel in position and ready to restore power to affected customers.

Based on the current forecast path, intensity, and FPL’s historical modeling, the company anticipates that approximately 100,000 customers could experience power outages due to Tropical Storm Hermine. This number could increase should the storm change direction or intensify. FPL expects to restore power to all affected customers within 24 hours after the storm clears.

Current National Hurricane Center forecasts predict that Tropical Storm Hermine will make landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast, potentially as a Category 1 hurricane, later this afternoon or evening. FPL customers on the West Coast and in the northern parts of the state should prepare for high winds and possible tornadic activity, flying debris and vegetation, and potential flooding from heavy rainfall. 

“Our focus today is on making final preparations related to both crews and equipment, ensuring our workforce of more than 5,000 is as prepared as possible to respond once Hermine’s effects are felt,” said Eric Silagy, president and chief executive officer of FPL. “As soon as it’s safe to work, our crews will be out in force, though we fully expect to encounter flooding and wind-blown debris, both of which can affect the speed of our restoration efforts. That said, as a result of our pre-planning and significant investments in FPL’s smart grid, we expect to restore service to affected customers within 24 hours after the storm clears, with most being restored more quickly.

“FPL has been investing heavily in its system each and every year since 2006 to develop one of the nation’s most advanced smart grids,” said Silagy. “We have made the electric system stronger by upgrading main power lines that serve critical local facilities and other community needs. Not only does this prepare our system to better withstand severe weather, it enables us to restore power to our customers faster following major storms such as what we’re anticipating with Hermine.” 

The company’s system upgrades include local facilities, including all major hospitals, and essentially all 911 facilities and emergency operations centers in the 35 Florida counties FPL serves. FPL also has upgraded lines serving facilities that address other community needs, such as pharmacies, grocery stores and gas stations. By year-end 2016, FPL will have strengthened all main power lines serving critical facilities.

FPL’s enhancements to the energy grid over the past decade also include:

  • Strengthening more than 600 main power lines, including those that service more than 700 critical community facilities;
  • Placing more than 450 main power lines underground;
  • Clearing vegetation – a major cause of power outages – from more than 135,000 miles of power lines;
  • Completing more than 1.4 million pole inspections – and upgrading or replacing those that no longer meet our standards for strength; and
  • Installing 4.8 million smart meters and 36,000 intelligent devices along the electric grid using advanced technology that helps detect problems and restore service faster when outages occur.

FPL urges customers to stay safe, keep a close watch on Tropical Storm Hermine’s path, and follow the advice of local government. Safety tips are available at FPL.com and customers can report an outage as well as check the status of an outage at FPL.com/outage.

Please stay safe

Even when winds have subsided, conditions can be dangerous. We urge customers in stormy and flooded areas to:

  • Stay far away from downed power lines, flooding and debris; lines could be energized and dangerous.
  • Use extreme caution while driving. Power interruptions may cause traffic signals to stop working without warning. If you come to an intersection with a non-working traffic signal, Florida law requires that you treat it as a four-way stop.

We are committed to keeping you informed

FPL communicates restoration information to customers frequently through the news media and the following resources:

 

Florida Power & Light Company

Florida Power & Light Company is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving more than 4.8 million customer accounts or more than 10 million people across nearly half of the state of Florida. FPL's typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 30 percent lower than the latest national average and, in 2015, was the lowest in Florida among reporting utilities for the sixth 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 2016 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Market Strategies International. A leading Florida employer with approximately 8,800 employees, FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Fla.-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 2016 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.

 

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