- Smart, self-healing technology in Florida helped save nearly 4 million hours of
total lost outage time last year
- More than 60% of customers served by self-healing
capabilities in Florida, with a
goal of serving around 80% over the next few years
ST.
PETERSBURG, Fla., May 26, 2023
/PRNewswire/ -- As Florida
heads into another hurricane season, Duke Energy Florida is
reminding customers about the benefits of its smart, self-healing
technology to help combat power outages during storms.
Much like a GPS can reroute traffic during an accident,
self-healing technology can automatically detect power outages and
quickly reroute power to restore service faster or avoid the outage
altogether.
Last year, this technology helped avoid approximately 513,000
extended customer power outages in Florida, saving more than 3.8 million hours of
total lost outage time.
"We're working hard to improve reliability for our customers,
strengthen the grid against severe weather and enhance our response
after a major storm," said Melissa
Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. "The
back-to-back storms we experienced last hurricane season serve as
strong reminders of the importance of this grid-strengthening work
and how these investments continue to benefit customers during
power outages."
Self-healing technology also provides a smart tool to assist
crews in the field with power restoration after a major storm,
helping reduce outage impacts and freeing up resources to help
restore power in other locations.
Currently, more than 60% of Duke Energy Florida customers are
served by some form of self-healing or automated restoration
technology, a 45% increase as compared to 2020.
Over the years, self-healing technology has provided tremendous
benefit to Florida customers
during times when Duke Energy experienced major outages on its
system due to severe weather.
In a few years, Duke Energy Florida expects to have at least 80%
of its customers served by some form of self-healing technology.
Click here to view Duke Energy Florida's 2022 self-healing
technology data by county.
Duke Energy Florida
Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 10,500
megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 1.9 million
residential, commercial and industrial customers across a
13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in
Charlotte, N.C., is one of
America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities
serve 8.2 million customers in North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Florida, Indiana, Ohio
and Kentucky, and collectively own
50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves
1.6 million customers in North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,600
people.
Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition
to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural
gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity
generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets
of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for
Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by
2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the
company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy
storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies
such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.
Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2023 "World's Most Admired
Companies" list and Forbes' "World's Best Employers" list. More
information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke
Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos
and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories
about people, innovations, community topics and environmental
issues. Follow Duke Energy
on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Media contact: Audrey Stasko
Media line: 800.559.3853
Twitter: @DE_AudreyS
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SOURCE Duke Energy