JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Florida Power & Light Company crews recently returned to Florida after restoring power to thousands of energy customers that were impacted by Hurricane Florence. FPL deployed more than 900 employees and contractor workers to North Carolina to help restore electric service and aid in the recovery efforts in the aftermath of a storm that caused historic rain and flooding in the Carolinas.
Once the storm passed, crews worked 16-hour days in difficult conditions to restore power in Columbus County, North Carolina, which was one of the hardest hit areas in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. In addition to restoring power to 25,000 homes and businesses, FPL crews helped residents in need, such as repairing a flat tire for a driver and providing phone charging stations.
“We are eager and ready to help other energy companies because they often provide assistance to us when FPL's customers are impacted by a hurricane, such as last year’s Hurricane Irma,” said FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy. “Living in Florida, we understand and are empathetic to the circumstances after Hurricane Florence, and provided the personnel and resources to restore electric service safely and as quickly as possible. I applaud the great work completed by our men and women who worked long hours and were away from their families to help our fellow Americans in need.”
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. As a result, crews sent were staggered to make sure FPL was prepared to address any outages that may hit its service area so the company can continue to provide customers with the reliable electricity they expect.
FPL participates in a mutual assistance program with other energy companies from across the nation. Companies from outside Florida sent crews to help Floridians after major storms, and FPL crews were more than ready to help return the favor and to restore power to those affected by Hurricane Florence. Last year, FPL’s workforce of 28,000, including thousands of workers from 30 states and Canada, played a critical role in the restoration of more than 4.4 million customers following Hurricane Irma.
In addition to supporting the restoration efforts after Hurricane Florence, FPL previously sent crews to help areas throughout the country impacted by extreme weather events, such as providing approximately 1,000 FPL workers to the Northeast to assist in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
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Florida Power & Light Company
Florida Power & Light Company is the third-largest electric company 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 30 percent lower than the latest national average and among the lowest in the U.S. 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 electric companies nationwide. The company was recognized in 2017 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Market Strategies International for the fourth consecutive year. A leading Florida employer with approximately 8,700 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 2018 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.