FPL strengthens energy grid serving Doral as part of 2020 reliability and storm preparedness efforts

The company continues to strengthen and modernize energy grid amid COVID-19 pandemic, including undergrounding neighborhood power lines as part of its three-year Storm Secure Underground Program pilot

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) continues to upgrade its system in the Doral area as part of its ongoing work to strengthen the energy grid and improve the reliability of its service for customers. Company investments, which include strengthening power lines and poles, trimming trees near power lines, and installing smart grid technology, help make the grid more reliable day-to-day and speed restoration efforts following major storms.

“We continue to build one of the nation’s strongest, smartest, and most storm-resilient energy grids using advanced smart grid technology to continue delivering reliable electricity that our customers can count on,” said Eric Silagy, president, and CEO of FPL. “Last year, FPL customers experienced record-setting electric service reliability, in part due to smart devices, and we will continue to use emerging technology to find innovative ways to deliver cleaner energy while keeping costs 30% below the national average.”

2020 improvements in the Doral area

During this year, FPL plans to make the following improvements in and near Doral:

• Inspecting and clearing tree branches and vegetation — a major cause of power outages — from 59 miles of power lines
• As of this year, will have inspected 66% of power poles in the city over the past eight-year inspection cycle, strengthening or replacing those that no longer meet FPL’s standards
• Installing smart grid technology, including 277 automated switches on main and neighborhood power lines to help detect problems and restore service faster when outages occur
• Inspecting two main power lines and equipment using infrared technology to detect issues before they cause a power interruption

When the planned 2020 work is completed, FPL will have made the following improvements in and near Doral since the historic 2004-2005 hurricane seasons:

• Strengthened 20 main power lines, including those that serve critical services
• Reviewed 855 miles of power lines, clearing an average of 61 miles of tree branches and vegetation per year
• Inspected all 3,084 power poles every eight years
• Installed smart grid technology, including 166 automated switches on main and neighborhood power lines
• Inspected 79 main power lines and equipment using infrared technology

The Storm Protection Plan that FPL filed recently with the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) is a continuation of the existing comprehensive hardening programs that the company has undertaken for nearly 15 years. These programs have benefited customers by successfully reducing restoration costs and outage times during major storms, as well as improving day-to-day service reliability. FPL’s Storm Protection Plan also builds on the company’s long-standing track record of building America’s strongest and smartest energy grid while keeping customers’ bills among the lowest in the country.

Strengthening the FPL grid throughout Florida

Since 2006, FPL has invested over $5 billion, as well as ongoing maintenance and improvement work, to make the energy grid stronger and smarter. This includes:

• Hardening more than 99% of main power lines serving critical community facilities and services, such as police and fire stations, hospitals and 911 centers
• Installing more than 5 million smart meters and more than 120,000 intelligent devices along the energy grid using advanced technology that helps detect problems and restore service faster if outages occur
• Reviewing about 15,000 miles of power lines each year and trimming and removing vegetation where necessary to keep lines clear and help prevent outages
• Completing one full inspection of the company’s 1.2 million power poles and upgrading or replacing those that no longer meet FPL’s standards for strength (approximately 150,000 poles inspected annually), and already starting the next 8-year inspection cycle

Last year, the company announced an investment of $2 billion to harden its main power lines and replace all remaining wooden transmission structures with steel or concrete. By the end of 2022, FPL expects that all of its transmission structures will be steel or concrete. 

FPL will also continue its Storm Secure Underground Program, a three-year pilot to find cost-effective ways to replace overhead power lines with more reliable underground lines in select neighborhoods to further enhance customers’ service and the energy grid’s resiliency. The pilot targets neighborhoods that experienced an outage during Hurricanes Matthew and/or Irma and have a history of outages caused primarily by vegetation, which in Florida grows year-round. To date, 35 neighborhoods have participated in undergrounding power lines.

Historically, reliability results indicate that, on average, customers served by underground main power lines tend to have fewer outages compared to overhead main power lines. Nearly 50% of FPL’s 68,000 miles of distribution power lines are already underground.