FPL announces new storm hardening plan, including major investments to enhance the electric system serving the Bradenton area

JUNO BEACH, Fla. — Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) today outlined its electric system upgrades in the Bradenton area, as part of the company’s overall 2016-2018 storm hardening plan. The enhancements, which have helped FPL achieve the best system reliability in Florida and 50 percent better than the national average, will position the company to deliver even greater reliable electric service for customers year-round.

“Our three-year storm hardening plan will help us deliver reliable service to our customers in Bradenton, thanks to a more resilient energy grid,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL. “Our customers are already seeing the benefits of strengthened power lines, with hardened lines showing on average a 40 percent improvement in everyday performance. Through a number of new projects in the area, we will deliver even better service they can count on in good weather and bad.”

Improvements within the statewide plan include the completion of hardening main (feeder) power lines serving critical community facilities, upgrading the main power lines across FPL’s service area, initiating upgrades of smaller neighborhood (lateral) power lines and continuing to replace wooden transmission line structures with steel and concrete towers. FPL will also continue to deploy tens of thousands of intelligent devices and smart switches — in addition to the 36,000 installed to date — to help detect and predict problems and restore service faster when outages occur.

2016 improvements in the Bradenton area

This year’s investment includes upgrades to four main power lines serving key facilities in the area. The projects strengthen the electric system to better withstand major storms and allow for faster service restoration following power outages. The work consists of installing stronger power poles — including, in some projects, concrete poles designed to withstand wind gusts of up to 130 mph.

“FPL is continuing to invest in building a stronger and smarter grid that our customers in the Bradenton area can count on year-round,” said Manny Miranda, senior vice president of Power Delivery for FPL. “For example, we’re upgrading the system supplying energy to the main thoroughfare along Manatee Avenue West and the Southeast Water Reclamation Facility. This not only allows us to restore power to our customers faster, but it aids in getting life back to normal quicker when customers need us the most.”

FPL will also install 12 automated switches on main power lines and 150 automated switches on smaller power lines serving neighborhoods and subdivisions. The automated devices detect and prevent potential problems along the energy grid, as well as restore and reroute power, when necessary, to reduce the number of customers affected by an outage.

Strengthening the grid

When the planned 2016 work is completed, FPL will have made the following improvements in and near Bradenton since 2006:

· Reinforced 11 main power lines, including those serving critical local facilities, such as Holmes Beach City Hall, Manatee Memorial Hospital, Blake Medical Center and two 911 emergency communications centers;

· Inspected 22,540 power poles, restoring or replacing those that no longer meet the company’s standards for strength;

· Cleared 1,590 miles of power lines of trees and vegetation — a major cause of power outages;

· Inspected 47 main power lines and equipment using the latest infrared technology, helping FPL address issues before they cause outages; and

· Installed smart grid technology, including 34 automated switches on main power lines and 444 automated switches on smaller power lines serving neighborhoods, to help detect and prevent power issues and get life back to normal faster if outages occur.

Since 2006, FPL has invested more than $2 billion across its 35-county service area — in addition ongoing system maintenance and improvement work — to make the energy grid stronger and smarter. This includes:

· Strengthening more than 600 main power lines, including those that serve more than 700 critical community facilities such as hospitals, police and fire stations and emergency communication systems;

· Clearing vegetation — a major cause of power outages — from more than 135,000 miles of power lines;

· Inspecting more than 1.4 million poles and upgrading or replacing those that no longer meet our standards for strength; and

· Installing 4.8 million smart meters and 36,000 intelligent devices along the energy grid using advanced technology that helps detect problems and restore service faster when outages occur.

Florida Power & Light Company
Florida Power & Light Company is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving more than 4.8 million customer accounts or more than 10 million people across nearly half of the state of Florida. FPL's typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 30 percent lower than the latest national average and, in 2015, was the lowest in Florida among reporting utilities for the sixth 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 was recognized in 2015 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Market Strategies International. A leading Florida employer with approximately 8,800 employees, FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Fla.-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 2016 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, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.