The company’s smart grid technology prevented more than 800,000 outages during active 2024 hurricane season
Submitted by Kristine Janata
The company’s smart grid technology prevented more than 800,000 outages during active 2024 hurricane season
We’re upgrading your neighborhood: In 2025, FPL plans to make the following upgrades in Broward County as part of its ongoing commitment to reduce outages and restore power faster following major storms[1]:
- 339 Storm Secure Underground Program (SSUP) projects planned, which replace overhead neighborhood power lines with more resilient underground lines.
- 45 main power lines will be strengthened, including those that serve critical facilities such as hospitals, 911 call centers, police and fire stations, water treatment facilities, and county emergency operation centers. Stronger poles can help speed restoration times following a storm.
- 1,770 miles of power lines will undergo inspection or vegetation trimming – addressing one of the leading causes of power outages.
- 20,142 power poles in Broward County will be inspected, strengthening or replacing those that no longer meet FPL’s industry-leading standards.
- 20 intelligent devices will be installed as part of smart grid technology upgrades on main, neighborhood and underground power lines. These automated smart switches help identify outages and reroute power to prevent more widespread interruptions.
Across the state: FPL continuously pioneers new technology and strengthens the energy grid to improve reliability for its customers and avoid outages during good weather and bad, including:
- More than 2.7 million customer interruptions avoided in 2024 due to self-healing smart grid technology.
- 227,000 intelligent devices installed across the FPL grid to detect potential issues.
- More than 3,000 projects completed to underground neighborhood lines since 2019.
- 82% of FPL’s main power lines have been hardened or placed underground systemwide to improve resilience against storms.
- 96% of transmission structures are now steel or concrete, replacing wooden transmission structures with new ones.
- State-of-the-art techno-logy is being used to detect, maintain, and limit the impact of trees and debris that come into contact with FPL equipment.
A word from Juliet Roulhac, director of corporate philanthropy and external affairs for FPL in Broward County and Southwest Florida: “Our dedicated team is committed to providing customers in Broward County with safe and reliable electric service while keeping bills as low as possible. Although no energy grid is storm proof, these upgrades have improved service reliability by more than 40% in the past two decades enhancing reliability day-to-day and during hurricanes and severe weather for our customers.”
For perspective: An annual report filed March 1 with the Florida Public Service Commission details how FPL delivered the best service reliability in company history last year. This includes the company’s lowest average number of minutes an FPL customer experienced an outage-surpassing the previous company-best performance set in 2023.