GE and Florida Power & Light Co. last week celebrated the fourth anniversary and completion of Energy Smart Florida, an initiative implemented to modernize the grid and build out a more reliable and efficient electrical infrastructure. GE helped FPL achieve two important milestones in the final phase of ESF: the installation of 4.5 million smart meters across its 35-county service territory and the successful completion of grid modernization projects funded by a grant FPL received from the U.S. Department of Energy. With GE’s help, FPL created a highly integrated, advanced, modern grid that helps prevent outages, restore power more quickly and empower FPL’s customers to take control of their energy use.
In 2009, FPL received a $200 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help fund Energy Smart Florida and $600 million in grid improvements throughout FPL’s 35-county service territory. At the start of Energy Smart Florida, FPL enlisted GE to perform 145 substation upgrades, which are helping to improve the grid’s reliability and anticipate system disturbances. Additionally, FPL has installed more than 4.5 million GE smart meters.
GE’s smart grid solutions enable two-way communication between FPL and its customers. For example, FPL’s advanced metering infrastructure provides its customers with hourly data on their energy usage. It also delivers outage notifications that can help FPL restore power more quickly. In addition, GE transformer monitoring equipment provides FPL with real-time diagnostics on transformer health, helping to identify and resolve potential transformer issues that can cause large system outages.
Through its robust grid modernization efforts, FPL has empowered its customers to take more control over their energy use through an Energy Dashboard that enables its customers to view their energy use by the hour, day or month. At today’s anniversary celebration, FPL showcased its distribution and transmission performance and diagnostic centers in Jupiter, Fla. Attendees were able to see firsthand how FPL is leveraging GE technologies and end-to-end integrated solutions to prevent power outages and maintain a safe, secure and reliable grid.
