JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) crews are traveling to the Florida Panhandle to provide mutual assistance to customers of Gulf Power who have been impacted by Hurricane Sally.
“FPL always stands ready to support our partner utilities in their time of need, just as they have supported us in previous hurricane restoration efforts,” said Eric Silagy, FPL president and CEO. “In this case, we’re lending our support to our sister company – Gulf Power – whose customers are feeling the worst of Hurricane Sally including severe flooding and power outages.”
FPL has committed an initial team of approximately 1,800 FPL lineworkers and contractors to support the Gulf Power restoration effort. These crews, many of them veterans of other hurricanes, will be prepared to work side-by-side with the team at Gulf, working 16-hour days and keeping restoration going around the clock until every customer is restored.
Before making the decision to send help, FPL makes sure its customers are taken care of and that no other storms are on the immediate horizon.
Providing mutual assistance after natural disasters is a hallmark of the energy industry. In the past, FPL has provided assistance to areas impacted by major weather events, including last week’s return of 1,300 employees and contractors who went to support the rebuild effort in Louisiana following Hurricane Laura and last month’s deployment of approximately 600 FPL employees and contractors to central New Jersey after Hurricane Isaias. In 2018, FPL crews deployed four times to assist in power restoration efforts after a natural disaster, some working six months away from home. FPL crews helped restore power in the Bayamon region of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria; in the Carolinas, Florida’s Panhandle and Georgia in some of the hardest hit areas impacted by Hurricanes Florence and Michael; and in Northern California to areas devastated by the Camp Fire.
###
Florida Power & Light Company
Florida Power & Light Company is the largest energy company in the United States as measured by retail electricity produced and sold, serving more than 5.1 million customer accounts or an estimated 10 million+ people across the state of Florida. FPL’s typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 30% lower than the latest national average and among the lowest in the U.S. FPL’s service reliability is better than 99.98%, and its highly fuel-efficient power plant fleet is one of the cleanest among all electric companies nationwide. The company was recognized in 2020 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Escalent for the seventh consecutive year. 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 2020 list of “World’s Most Admired Companies.” NextEra Energy is also the parent company of Gulf Power Company, which serves approximately 470,000 customers in eight counties throughout northwest Florida, and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun and a world leader in battery storage. For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.GulfPower.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com