Preparing for hurricane season with Florida Power and Light
Preparing for the storms
Young stressed the importance of preparing. Planning and being prepared is crucial in the event of any disaster.
“Think about what you need to have,” Young advised. “Batteries and charged up phones…being prepared and being ready and knowing where you’re going to go and how you’re going to get there.”
Santa Rosa County emergency officials recommend you have enough supplies in your home to sustain you or your loved ones, including any pets, for a week. In the case of evacuation, residents can visit santarosa.fl.gov to use their know your zone app. By typing your address into their app, you can find out what evacuation zone you’re in, evacuation routes and emergency shelter locations.
FPL is always preparing. In Northwest Florida, they’ve been strengthening the power grid, which means making updates to old infrastructure.
“We have replaced about 75% of all the wood transmission poles in Northwest Florida with either concrete or steel poles, and that process continues…We are also strengthening some of our main lines that we call feeder lines that go into communities,” Young informed. “We are continually looking for ways across the areas that we serve to harden the grid. By making the investments that we’re making in our infrastructure, we’ve seen the results where reliability has improved: close to 60% here in Northwest Florida.”
Being safe in the aftermath of a storm is important as well, Young emphasized. “There’s the likelihood that there’ll be infrastructure on the ground…We want to make sure customers know how important it is to stay clear of any downed wires or transformers, and things that could still be energized.”
In the case of an emergency and in the wake of a storm, some work crews are brought in from other areas to help restore power faster. FPL works in collaboration or “mutual aid” with other utilities to be able to secure those crews.
“We know we’re going to need X number of crews, and so we pre-arrange with certain utilities to acquire that number of crews by a certain time, and we stage them at locations where they’re ready to come in immediately after the storm passes through. We have a lot of coordination,” Young said.
FPL continues to roll out new infrastructure and technology to minimize outage times, and in some areas, are beginning to put utilities underground. While it’s not feasible in all areas, neighborhoods and places that would be able to have accessible underground utilities are starting to get them. These improvements increase the overall reliability of the grid, and every bit of reliability is needed during hurricane season.