After making significant progress over the weekend responding to devastating Hurricane Ian, Florida Power & Light Company now expects to complete restoration to 95% of customers who remain without power by Friday, Oct. 7 – two days earlier than originally forecast.
FPL’s workforce of more than 21,000 men and women – including mutual assistance from 30 states – has completed restoration in several regions of the state, allowing the company to redirect more crews and equipment to the hardest-hit areas of Southwest Florida and Volusia County.
As of 11 a.m., FPL had restored electricity to 83% of affected customers, with crews fully focused on restoring power to the remaining 369,000 FPL customers safely and as quickly as possible.
The massive effort is currently supported by 18 staging and parking sites strategically positioned for the rapid deployment of crews and equipment to help restore power faster. The number is down from a peak of 38 because, as FPL completes restoration in some areas, the company shifts resources and zeroes in on the hardest-hit areas.
“Finishing our restoration sooner will allow us to free up resources to help others in the state,” said Eric Silagy, chairman and CEO of FPL. “I want to thank our brave men and women who’ve worked around the clock to accelerate our timeline and who continue to go to great lengths to restore a sense of normalcy to the state and our communities. Now that our workforce has energized the majority of main power lines – the arteries of the electrical system – we are fanning out into communities and neighborhoods, and we will not stop until everyone’s power is restored.”
Restoration estimates
In the wake of a hurricane, FPL knows customers need as much information as possible in order to make decisions for their families. Every hurricane is different, but FPL’s goal is to provide customers more accurate information faster than ever before. The full schedule of estimated restoration times is outlined as follows.
Click here to view a map of estimated restoration times.
Some homes and businesses may have suffered damage that makes them unable to safely accept power. Customers who notice damage need to contact a licensed electrician prior to power being restored. FPL continues to work closely with emergency responders and emergency management officials to safely energize areas that can receive power.
In addition to the crews working around the clock to restore power, damage assessment teams are simultaneously working to evaluate inaccessible portions of Southwest Florida and Volusia County. Ground assessment continues to prove challenging due to washed out roadways and bridges, but technologies like FPLAir One – the company’s fixed-wing drone which is taking to the skies again today – provide critical intelligence to put the right crews and the right equipment in the right places to restore power safely and as quickly as possible. In other instances, FPL has found new ways to survey damage – from riding airboats through DeSoto County to even deploying a kayak in Volusia County to put eyes inside a flooded substation.
Storm-hardened system benefits customers during Hurricane Ian
For nearly two decades, FPL has invested significantly in building a stronger, smarter and more storm-resilient energy grid. While no energy grid is hurricane-proof, detailed assessments following Hurricane Ian have confirmed the resiliency of FPL’s storm-hardened energy grid:
- FPL’s power generating facilities: Even given the unprecedented devastation caused by Hurricane Ian, no significant structural damage occurred at any FPL power plant.
- FPL’s transmission system: The backbone of any electrical system, transmission lines carry high-voltage electricity from power plants to substations. FPL did not lose a single transmission structure during Hurricane Ian.
- Underground power lines: FPL is working to systematically underground neighborhood power lines, which are traditionally located in backyards and susceptible to trees and other wind-blown debris. Initial forensics show existing underground neighborhood power lines performed five times better than existing overhead neighborhood power lines in Southwest Florida, which took a direct hit from the high-end, Category 4 storm.
