Two Years After the Storms: Duke Energy Florida powers customers with a stronger grid

• On the two-year anniversary of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Duke Energy Florida reflects on storm response and efforts to strengthen the grid

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Two years ago, Hurricanes Helene and Milton impacted Florida, resulting in nearly 2 million reported power outages. Since then, Duke Energy Florida has continued its investments in energy infrastructure, resulting in increasingly more reliable service ahead of any future storms.

Saving customer outage times during Hurricanes Helene and Milton

Duke Energy Florida's year-round storm hardening efforts, including its advanced self-healing technology and year-round infrastructure work, made a difference in improving reliability during the storms.

• Hurricane Helene, a category four storm, hit Florida on September 27. During the hurricane, the company's self-healing technology saved more than 113 million minutes of outage time and automatically restored 127,000 outages.
  
• Hurricane Milton, a category three storm, followed less than two weeks later, on October 9. More than 200 million minutes of outage time was saved during the storm by self-healing technology and 190,740 outages were automatically restored.

Storm warriors

Storm warriors who respond following a hurricane often must manage impacts to their own homes.

Each time a hurricane hits one of Duke Energy's service territories, the company's employees transition to a storm role. Whether it's feeding thousands of lineworkers, arranging temporary housing for teams or clearing fallen vegetation, everyone has a role to play.

One such team member is Will MacDonald, manager of lighting programs at Duke Energy Florida. His storm role in a hurricane is to coordinate line clearing crews to remove powerlines from state roadways so that county and city emergency operations can reach those who need help.

After Hurricane Helene made landfall, MacDonald served the community for more than two weeks, as his own home and neighborhood were impacted by 36 inches of storm surge. The flooding caused devastation to his home, vehicles and garage.

"About 96 hours before a storm hits, I'm engaged in active storm duty and I stay to coordinate support for as long as it's needed," said Will MacDonald, manager, lighting programs, Duke Energy Florida. "For hurricanes Milton and Helene, I remained in a storm role for over two weeks before taking time off to repair my home. Working through storm restoration, especially while handling personal impacts, is never easy but we proudly work to restore communities as quickly as possible, because this is the place we call home too."

Staying ahead of future storms

Physical infrastructure upgrades occur year-round to strengthen the poles and wires and reduce outages. Approximately 60% of wooden transmission poles have been upgraded to stronger materials over the last five years and approximately 50% of the distribution system is now underground.

Vegetation trimming is also a critical piece of storm preparation. Each year, thousands of miles of trees are pruned along the power lines, helping to prevent vegetation-caused outages.

Our view:

"In the aftermath of a storm, our teams work incredibly hard around the clock to restore our customer's power," said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. "The response is truly incredible to see as every one of our team members works to support the communities we serve. For any future storms, our infrastructure and teams are ready for anything hurricane season may bring."

For more tips on how to prepare for storm season and how Duke Energy can help, please visit duke-energy.com/StormTips.

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,500 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.

Duke Energy

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. The company's electric utilities serve 8.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 55,700 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio and Kentucky.

Duke Energy is executing an energy modernization strategy, keeping customer value at the forefront as it invests in electric grid upgrades and efficient generation resources to strengthen the system and serve growing energy needs.

More information is available at duke-energy.com. Follow Duke Energy on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook for stories about the people and innovations powering its communities.

Media Contact: Laitin Sterling
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