Stronger storms, stronger power grid

FPL workers are installing underground power lines throughout Southwest Florida COURTESY PHOTO

Florida Power & Light Company prepares year-round for hurricane season and is ready for 2024, said Jack Eble, FPL spokesman.

“We know the price of paradise here in Florida is hurricanes and severe weather.”

In a statement on hurricane season, FPL said it is working continuously “to build a stronger, smarter, more storm-resilient energy grid to serve customers in Lee County and throughout its service area . . . We also know that it’s not a matter of if but when the next storm will hit our state. Our grid enhancements have helped shorten outage times and reduce restoration costs during severe weather – while also helping improve day-to-day reliability 45% since 2006.”

The improvements throughout Southwest Florida and the rest of FPL’s sprawling coverage area include strengthening power poles, maintaining trees and vegetation near power lines, regularly inspecting equipment, installing smart grid technology and burying more neighborhood power lines underground.

EBLE

Eble said FPL serves 43 counties: Florida’s west coast south of Tampa through Naples; most of the east coast; northwest Florida in the panhandle from Panama City to Pensacola.

During the second week of May, FPL held its annual week-long storm drill, challenging its 3,000 employees with a simulated Category 4 “Hurricane Benito” to prepare for whatever the 2024 season brings.

FPL is also investing in a stronger, smarter and more storm-resilient energy grid.

Grid enhancements cited by FPL include:

• Smart Grid – Installing more than 215,000 intelligent devices along the energy grid to detect and prevent outages and minimize restoration times when outages occur. In recent years, smart-grid technology has helped avoid more than 600,000 outages during significant hurricane events.

• Undergrounding – Replacing more overhead neighborhood power lines with more reliable underground lines through the Storm Secure Underground Program. These lines performed up to 12 times better during previous hurricanes.

• Hardening – Strengthening nearly all main power lines serving critical community facilities and services. More than 76% of these lines are now hardened or underground. FPL has also replaced nearly all its transmission structures with steel or concrete.

FPL also uses drones to help crews see what they are up against in dealing with a storm’s aftermath. The drones can survey the damage, including severe flooding, which helps crews plan where to target their resources more efficiently. They also protect the safety of the men and women out in the field.

FPL Improvements

Lee County

2024:

• 21 main power lines will be strengthened.

• 14,333 power poles will be inspected for strength.

• Installed 4,934 smart grid devices to help detect and prevent power issues.

• Maintain vegetation along 1,814 miles of power lines.

• Inspect 12 main power lines.

Since 2006:

• upgraded and strengthened 100 main power lines.

• Inspected 128,902 power poles.

• Managed vegetation along 8,780 miles of power lines.

• Inspected 369 main power lines. ¦

The post Stronger storms, stronger power grid first appeared on Fort Myers Florida Weekly .