JUNO BEACH, Fla., Dec. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Power
& Light Company (FPL) today announced 140 company lineworkers
and support staff will travel to Puerto
Rico to help restore power to areas impacted by Hurricane
Maria. Hundreds of thousands of customers remain without electric
service nearly four months after the destructive storm made
landfall in the island.
"We remain committed to doing everything we can to help restore
electric service to our fellow Americans citizens of Puerto Rico," said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL. "This is
what we do in the electric utility industry. Our lineworkers are
thoroughly trained, well-equipped and eager to get into the field
to start making a difference in Puerto
Rico where so many of our employees have strong ties. We
recognize just how difficult it is to be without power after a
major hurricane, which is why our leadership team remained on the
island throughout the Christmas holiday. Now, we're working to
quickly assemble crews, trucks and electric equipment to join this
next wave of support. We will remain on the island as long as we're
needed."
All of the island's 3.5 million residents lost power due to
Hurricane Maria in late September. FPL lineworkers and staff are
part of a nearly 1,500-person contingency of electric workers from
Edison Electric Institute (EEI) member, U.S. investor-owned
utilities scheduled to arrive in Puerto
Rico in early January. Ahead of their arrival, FPL will
transport vehicles and electric equipment via barges from the Port
of Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County, Fla.
The company's lineworkers and support staff will work with
the 10-person FPL incident management team (IMT) that's been
working in Puerto Rico since
Dec. 10. FPL employees represent one
of seven IMT assigned to seven regions across the island in
coordination with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA),
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and electric company contractors who
already are restoring power. FPL's IMT will continue to support
power restoration in the region of Bayamon, just west of
San Juan.
FPL's support of power restoration in Puerto Rico began after the energy company
completed its own restoration in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
In the days immediately following Hurricane Maria, NextEra Energy,
FPL's parent company, donated $100,000 and matched the same amount from
employee donations to help those affected by the storm. Many
employees also held fundraisers and supply drives to assist those
impacted across the island.
"With so many of our customers and employees having family and
other connections to Puerto Rico,
we feel a responsibility to help get the lights back on," said
Manny Miranda, senior vice president
of power delivery for FPL. "Our lineworkers and staff are
battle-tested, having just completed the unprecedented restoration
of more than 4.4 million FPL customers in the wake of Hurricane
Irma. I have no doubt that our most-experienced lineworkers –
working hand-in-hand with our leadership team – will hit the ground
running to help restoring service safely and as quickly as
possible."
Operationally, FPL coordinated the delivery of thousands of
power line poles and other equipment to Puerto Rico and accompanied Florida Governor
Rick Scott to the island in
November. Since that time, FPL leadership has remained in
Puerto Rico where it has been
providing technical expertise and guidance to support the
restoration effort. Gov. Scott has made the support of Puerto Rico's citizens a top priority in the
wake of Hurricane Maria, communicating regularly with Governor
Rosselló, traveling to the island to offer the state's assistance,
and regularly meeting with and being briefed by FPL.
Mutual assistance throughout the energy industry plays a
critical role in the restoration of power following severe weather
events, such as hurricanes, ice storms and tornadoes. In September,
crews from 30 states and Canada
came to Florida to support the more than 4.4 million FPL customers
following Hurricane Irma. In fact, those workers, coupled with
FPL's more than $3 billion of
investments over the past decade to build a stronger and smarter
energy grid, helped shave days off the restoration.
In turn, FPL crews have traveled across the nation to help
restore power following major weather events many times in the
past, including the deployment of approximately 1,000 FPL personnel
to the Northeast in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Recently, more than 300 men and women deployed to Maine and Connecticut to assist with restoration
activity following an October Nor'easter.
Florida Power & Light
Company
Florida Power &
Light Company is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving nearly 5 million
customer accounts or an estimated 10 million people across nearly
half of the state of Florida. FPL's typical 1,000-kWh residential
customer bill is approximately 25 percent lower than the latest
national average and, in 2016, was the lowest in Florida among reporting utilities for the
seventh year in a row. 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 utilities nationwide. The company
received the top ranking in the southern U.S. among large electric
providers, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Electric Utility
Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM, and was
recognized in 2017 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric
utilities by Market Strategies International. A leading Florida
employer with approximately 8,900 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 2017 list of "World's Most Admired Companies." NextEra
Energy is also the parent company of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC,
which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's
largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. For
more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these
websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com,
www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.
Note to Editors: B-roll package of trucks being loaded
onto a barge at the Port of Fort
Pierce -
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SOURCE Florida Power & Light
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