Automation helps Florida Power & Light restore power along grid

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Florida Power & Light Company’s workforce is restoring power in between bands of severe weather.

"Despite Irma's exceedingly high winds, tornado activity, storm surge and severe flooding, FPL has restored power to hundreds of thousands of customers, due largely to automation along its energy grid," said Eric Silagy, president, and CEO of FPL.

"We understand how challenging it is to be without power. Just like our customers, we too live here and take this personally, and all of us at FPL are dedicated to getting the lights back on safely and as quickly as possible," added Silagy.

"We assembled the largest pre-storm restoration workforce in our nation's history, but this will likely be a recovery effort of historic proportions, extending for weeks. You have my personal commitment that we will continue to work around the clock until every customer's electricity is back on."

FPL will begin restoring power in multiple locations and follow an overall plan that calls for restoring power to the largest number of customers safely and as quickly as possible.

How they restore power

First, they start by repairing any damage to power plants and the power lines that carry electricity from plants to the local substations.

Next, they restore power to critical facilities, such as hospitals, police and fire stations, communication facilities, water treatment plants, transportation providers, and shelters.

Then, service is returned to the largest number of customers in the shortest amount of time − including service to major thoroughfares that host supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations and other needed community services.

After that, they repair the infrastructure serving smaller groups and neighborhoods.

Finally, they converge on the hardest-hit areas until every customer's power is restored.

Hurricane Irma continues to impact Florida as a powerful Category 3 storm. FPL anticipates that customers will likely experience more than one outage throughout the duration of the storm, particularly as Irma's speed has slowed.