Duke Energy tech saves about 300,000 Florida customers from power outages during hurricanes

While Hurricanes Helene and Milton walloped Florida within two weeks of each other, one power company in the Sunshine State now is thanking its technological advances for preventing more Floridians from experiencing electrical outages.

Duke Energy officials say its “self-healing” tech kept electricity flowing to most customers during the storms that struck Florida in September and October. When natural disasters or other events knock power out, the Duke Energy system isolates the outage. It uses technological sensors to override outages, ensuring electricity flows without interruption.

Duke Energy officials say the self-healing system, which uses tech similar to GPS mapping systems, prevented some 300,000 customers from losing power during the hurricanes. The system instantly restores electrical supply through the grid when the sensors detect possible outages during hurricanes.

“With storms increasing in frequency and intensity, Duke Energy Florida’s Storm Protection Plan, year-round infrastructure work, and preparedness efforts are critical to our ability to respond quickly and safely,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president, in a press release this month. “We’re working around the clock to improve reliability for our customers, strengthen the grid against severe weather, and enhance our response after a major storm.”

Duke Energy officials acknowledged the shelf-healing system won’t prevent every home from losing power during an incident. But it reduces the number of homes affected by about 75%. About the same percentage of Duke customers are on power grids equipped with the technology.

In addition, Duke Energy has provided several upgrades to the grid services in Florida in recent years, including adding storm protection to about 40,000 power poles in the state, moving about 50% of power lines underground instead of being exposed, completing about 4,000 miles of vegetation removal around Duke Energy power sites and facilities, and adding about 16 new electrical power substations in Florida.

Duke Energy has about 2 million customers in Florida, covering an area of about 13,000 square miles.