news release

To get ahead of an unpredictable hurricane season, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) is working to strengthen and upgrade the energy grid to make it smarter and more storm resilient.

How we’re upgrading your neighborhood: FPL plans to make the following upgrades throughout 2024 in Indian River County as part of its ongoing commitment to avoid outages and restore power faster following severe weather:

• Planning six Storm Secure Underground Program (SSUP) projects to replace overhead neighborhood power lines with more reliable underground lines. 
• Strengthening eight main power lines, including those that serve critical community services. 
• Maintaining trees and vegetation – a common cause of power outages, particularly during hurricanes and extreme weather – along 1,090 miles of power lines.
• Inspecting 1,276 power poles in Indian River County as part of an eight-year inspection cycle, strengthening or replacing those that no longer meet FPL’s industry-leading standards. 

New this year: FPL continuously leverages new and innovative technologies to improve reliability for its customers and is implementing the following innovations this year:

• Piloting the installation of automated underground switches which will help detect and isolate outages, further enhancing reliability of underground lines.
• Using “smart trimming” technology to identify and trim a leading cause of power outages: trees and other vegetation contacting power lines. Smart trimming also helps the company identify areas of concern and assign the work electronically, saving inspection time.

Cumulative improvements in the Indian River County area: When the planned 2024 work is completed, FPL will have made the following improvements since 2006:  

• Completed 164 SSUP projects. 
• Strengthened 51 main power lines, including those that serve critical services.  
• Inspected and maintained vegetation near 3,769 miles of power lines – an average of 209 miles per year.   
• Inspected 50,822 power poles for strength.
• Installed smart grid technology, including 2,018 automated switches on main and neighborhood power lines.  

A word from Matt Moxley, local area manager at FPL: “We are so pleased to be able to offer these system upgrades to our customers in Indian River County. Our dedicated team at FPL is committed to providing you with safe and reliable electric service. These upgrades, including the very latest grid technology, will help get the lights back on faster after storms.”

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. In the most recent statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, FPL’s service reliability was nearly three times better than the national average.