JUNO BEACH, Fla., Sept. 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Power
& Light Company is urging customers to remain vigilant and
prepare for power outages as extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian
moves close to Florida's east coast. The company has pre-positioned
equipment and the largest pre-storm restoration workforce in
company history in preparation for this Category 4 hurricane.
"Dorian remains a very dangerous hurricane with an unpredictable
track and intensity as it inches toward Florida. Customers should
stay vigilant as significant parts of our service territory remain
within the cone of uncertainty," said Eric
Silagy, president and CEO of FPL. "This is a challenging and
very slow moving storm that will impact our service area with
tropical storm-force winds for an extended duration. Rest assured,
as long as it is safe to do so, our crews will be out restoring
power as the first bands of severe weather move through, and we'll
work continuously after the storm clears until all customers have
power again."
FPL has assembled the largest pre-storm restoration workforce in
company history, with approximately 17,000 ready to respond,
including FPL employees and workers from other utilities and
electrical contracting companies. FPL has also undertaken a massive
logistics operation to prepare for Dorian.
The company has pre-staged:
- Sleeper trailers with more than 4,000 beds.
- Almost 60 drone teams.
- Thousands of pre-positioned transformers and poles.
- 75 fuel trucks able to supply more than 3.5 million gallons of
fuel.
FPL has set up more than a dozen staging sites, from the Calder
Race Course in Miami-Dade County
to north of Jacksonville, so that
workers will be in place to restore power safely and as quickly as
possible.
Restoration estimates
"As soon as it is safe to do so after the storm passes, FPL
personnel will be out in the field actively working to determine
the extent of damage from this powerful hurricane," added Silagy.
"They must do this before we can provide an estimate of how long it
will take to restore service."
FPL knows how important information is in times of crisis, so we
will communicate our best estimates. Approximately 24 hours after
the storm has cleared an area, our goal will be to communicate when
we believe restoration will be completed for 95% of FPL customers
affected by the storm in that area.
These preliminary estimates will be based on actual wind speeds
and storm track, historical storm data, sophisticated computer
modeling and data gathered from initial drone imaging before our
field teams are able to complete thorough damage assessments. As we
gather more information from the field, estimated restoration times
will be refined.
FPL has made significant upgrades to our customer communication
channels – specifically our website and mobile app. During a storm,
we adjust how power status information is presented on the FPL app
and FPL.com. We update your power status throughout the day.
For our customers not already feeling the effects of Dorian, FPL
urges customers to complete their final preparations, heed warnings
and evacuation orders from local, state and federal officials and
prepare for potential prolonged outages in areas where vegetation
and flooding present challenges. Most importantly, make safety the
highest priority. If you come to an intersection with a non-working
traffic signal, Florida law requires you treat it as a four-way
stop. Be sure to heed the Move Over Law, and move over or slow down
whenever there is a utility worker, law enforcement officer or a
first responder on the side of the road.
Additional resources
- How FPL restores power
- Stay safe before a storm
Customers can download the FPL app for on-the-go, instant and
secure access to their accounts. Customers can report or get the
latest information on an outage. The app is available for download
in the App Store and Google Play. To quickly download the FPL app,
text the word "App" to MyFPL (69375). Customers also can sign up
for storm updates by texting the word "Join" to MyFPL (69375).
How to stay informed
FPL communicates restoration
information to customers frequently through the news media and the
following resources:
- FPL website: FPL.com
- Twitter: twitter.com/insideFPL
- Facebook: facebook.com/FPLconnect
- FPL blog: FPLblog.com
- FPL Power Tracker: FPL.com/powertracker
- FPL app: Download from the App Store or Google Play, or text
the word "App" to MyFPL (69375)
Florida Power & Light
Company
Florida Power & Light Company is the
largest energy company in the United
States as measured by retail electricity produced and sold,
serving more than 5 million customer accounts or an estimated 10
million+ people across the state of Florida. FPL's typical
1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 30 percent
lower than the latest national average and among the lowest in the
U.S. FPL's service reliability is better than 99.98 percent, and
its highly fuel-efficient power plant fleet is one of the cleanest
among all electric companies nationwide. The company was recognized
in 2018 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by
Market Strategies International for the fifth consecutive year. A
leading Florida employer with approximately 8,700 employees, FPL is
a subsidiary of Juno Beach,
Florida-based NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), a clean
energy company widely recognized for its efforts in sustainability,
ethics and diversity, and has been ranked No. 1 in the electric and
gas utilities industry in Fortune's 2019 list of "World's Most
Admired Companies." NextEra Energy is also the parent company of
Gulf Power Company, which serves more than 460,000 customers in
eight counties throughout Northwest
Florida, and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together
with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of
renewable energy from the wind and sun and a world leader in
battery storage. For more information about NextEra Energy
companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com,
www.FPL.com, www.GulfPower.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.
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SOURCE Florida Power & Light
Company