Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) continues to upgrade its system in the Wellington 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 to provide our customers with reliable service year-round, while keeping our typical residential bills among the lowest in the country,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL. “Our ongoing investments in strengthening the grid and using advanced smart grid technology continue to help us deliver electricity our customers can count on in good weather and bad. And, over the next three years, we plan on continuing these efforts, as they have demonstrated their benefit to customers during everyday operations and helping speed the efforts to restore power during severe weather.”
During this year, FPL plans to make the following improvements in and near Wellington:
• Strengthening one main power line, which serves critical services that are necessary for communities to recover faster after storms.
• Clearing tree branches and vegetation — a major cause of power outages — from 134 miles of power lines.
• Inspecting 3,309 power poles and strengthening or replacing those that no longer meet FPL’s standards for strength.
• Installing smart grid technology, including nine automated switches on main and neighborhood power lines to help detect problems and restore service faster when outages occur.
• Inspecting six main power lines and equipment using infrared technology to detect issues before they cause a power interruption.
When the planned 2019 work is completed, FPL will have made the following improvements in and near Wellington since the historic 2004-05 hurricane seasons:
• Strengthened nine main power lines, including those that serve critical services.
• Cleared tree branches and vegetation from 1,498 miles of power lines.
• Installed smart grid technology, including 285 automated switches on main and neighborhood power lines.
• Inspected 70 main power lines and equipment using infrared technology.
“FPL is a national leader in the reliability of service to its customers, but we’re never satisfied,” said Manny Miranda, senior vice president of power delivery for FPL. “We continue to implement projects that have demonstrated their value to our customers, while looking at the latest technology and lessons learned from past storms to develop new ways of enhancing the reliability of our service.”
Since 2006, FPL has invested nearly $4 billion, as well as ongoing maintenance and improvement work, to make the energy grid stronger and smarter throughout Florida. These energy grid investments benefit customers by enhancing service reliability by more than 30 percent in the past 10 years. FPL was named the winner of the 2018 ReliabilityOne National Reliability Excellence Award presented by PA Consulting. This is the third time in four years that the company has received the national award for providing superior service reliability.
The company plans to continue hardening the energy grid over the next three years by investing approximately $2 billion, which includes hardening its main power lines and replacing all remaining wooden transmission structures. By the end of 2022, FPL expects that all of its transmission structures will be steel or concrete. By the end of 2024, the company expects to have hardened or undergrounded all main power lines within its distribution system, including those serving critical and key community facilities.
