Daytona Beach, FL - 2020 proved to be a banner year for Florida Power & Light (FPL), who says a number of system improvements allowed the company to improve service reliability for customers.
According to FPL, the company was able to improve service reliability by nearly 40 percent since 2006. A reliability report filed by FPL with the Florida Public Service Commission found that the company was able to improve on the average amount of time customers are in an outage, the average number of outages, and the average number of momentary interruptions to power.
In a press release, FPL cites the number of significant improvements the company has made since the Atlantic Hurricane Seasons of 2004 and 2005 as part of the jump in service reliability. This included strengthening electrical poles and wires, plus a number of "smart" advances that FPL has implemented throughout the years.
"We have a lot of smart technology on our systems," said Marie Bertot, FPL spokesperson. "Switches, for example, that prevent outages. In some cases it's automated repairs."
"We have a total of 155,000 (smart devices) on our equipment," added Bertot.
According to Bertot, these devices include ones such as an automated transformer switch, which allows technicians to remotely reactivate a downed transformer that was overloaded. With that, Bertot says residents can be back up and running within minutes instead of having to wait on a truck to be dispatched, all thanks to these new devices.
“At a time when our customers are depending on us more than ever because of the pandemic, they are experiencing fewer outages and flickers lasting less time than ever before because of the improvements we continue to make,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL.
In 2020, FPL was also awarded—for the fifth time in six years—the ReliabilityOne National Reliability Excellence Award, which honors businesses that have demonstrated sustained leadership, innovation, and achievement in the area of electric reliability.
