- Smart, self-healing systems in Florida helped save more than 300 million
minutes of total lost outage time during recent hurricanes
ST.
PETERSBURG, Fla., Nov. 12,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- While Florida grappled with back-to-back hurricanes
this fall, Duke Energy's year-round grid-strengthening work and
advanced technology helped to reduce outage impacts for customers,
enabling swift restorations.
During hurricanes Helene and Milton, the company's self-healing
technology prevented more than 300,000 customer outages, saving
customers more than 300 million minutes of total outage time.
Similar to a GPS navigation system that can identify an
accident ahead and update your route, self-healing grid technology
quickly identifies power outages and reroutes power to restore
service faster for customers when an outage occurs.
This advanced technology can help isolate the cause of an outage
and reduce the number of customers affected by up to 75%, often
restoring power in less than a minute. Approximately 77% of Duke
Energy Florida customers are directly served by this
technology.
"With storms increasing in frequency and intensity, Duke Energy
Florida's Storm Protection Plan, year-round infrastructure work and
preparedness efforts are critical to our ability to respond quickly
and safely," said Melissa Seixas,
Duke Energy Florida state president. "We're working around the
clock to improve reliability for our customers, strengthen the grid
against severe weather and enhance our response after a major
storm."
In addition to investing in advanced technologies, the company
manages vegetation near power lines, installs stronger poles,
upgrades wires and places lines underground to make the energy grid
more resilient, reduce outages and restore power faster for
Florida's growing population.
- Over the past three years, more than 40,000 poles have been
hardened through Duke Energy Florida's Storm Protection Plan. Duke
Energy Florida continues to inspect more than 100,000 poles and
structures annually and plans on hardening nearly 15,000 poles and
structures per year.
- Nearly 50% of Duke Energy Florida's primary power lines are
buried under ground. The company will continue to install
underground cable in targeted areas where it is most practical,
considering many factors including accessibility, vegetation
coverage, asset age, cost and reliability.
- Last year, teams completed more than 4,000 miles of vegetation
maintenance on Duke Energy Florida's distribution lines and 600
miles of planned work on the transmission side, including trimming
trees and removing trees that present a hazard to power
operations.
- Additionally, the company is expanding capacity of the electric
grid by building new substations, expanding existing substations
and installing new or larger power lines to provide reliable
service in the growing state. Since 2021, teams have completed more
than 100 miles of new transmission lines, conducted nearly 100
miles of transmission line upgrades and built approximately 16 new
substations in Florida.
These grid improvements and technological innovations help
support the efforts of thousands of restoration personnel working
to restore power to customers following a major storm. The company
works to improve after every storm and applies lessons learned to
future response efforts. Duke Energy Florida also relies on key
relationships with first responders, emergency response
organizations, other utilities and contractors to provide the
resources and expertise needed to serve customers effectively every
storm.
Duke Energy Florida
Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,300
megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 2 million
residential, commercial and industrial customers across a
13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.
Duke Energy
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in
Charlotte, N.C., is one of
America's largest energy holding companies. The company's electric
utilities serve 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio
and Kentucky, and collectively own
54,800 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities
serve 1.7 million customers in North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.
Duke Energy is executing an ambitious clean energy transition,
keeping reliability, affordability and accessibility at the
forefront as the company works toward net-zero methane emissions
from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions
from electricity generation by 2050. The company is investing in
major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including
expanded energy storage, renewables, natural gas and
nuclear.
More information is available at duke-energy.com and the Duke
Energy News Center. Follow Duke Energy
on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and visit illumination for
stories about the people and innovations powering our energy
transition.
Contact: Audrey Stasko
Media line: 800.559.3853
Twitter:
@DE_AudreyS
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SOURCE Duke Energy