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FPL discusses power restoration efforts after Hurricane Ian

FPL discusses power restoration efforts after Hurricane Ian
Many of you may know Florida power and light actually is is the largest producer of electricity in the country. From solar energy as an electric utility, we have 50 solar plants right now across Florida and 16 more in construction, these are large facilities, they cover 5 to 600 acres. Each one has 300 plus 1000 solar panels. 35 of our facilities were impacted by hurricane in. It was *** massive storm that cut across the state. I am very pleased to say that the solar facilities which are designed and engineered with wind load with hurricanes in mind to meet all building codes or exceed all building codes area. They did really, really well. We have less than 3/10 of 1% solar panels impacted by the storm. So it's *** couple of 1000 out of literally 35 plus million solar panels that were installed being impacted. Uh, it is *** real testament to the men and women on the engineering design and construction of these facilities that our solar plants are up and running today, producing electricity that are serving customers across the state today. Another viewer question. We've heard some customers have had their power with all the equipment. Another question from *** viewer, we've heard some customers have had their power for *** few hours or *** day and then it goes off again, Why does this happen? Yeah. So this storm brought in *** massive amount of destructive force. Whether it be through storm surge or whether it be through high winds. Our goal is to be *** maximum number of people up as quickly as possible. What that means though sometimes is not everything is exactly the way we would do it on *** regular basis. So if *** poll is able to take the power even though it may not be perfectly straight, we're gonna go ahead and energize it equipment that was actually covered in salt water. We are going to quickly clean it and then we are going to energize it as long as it's safe to do so however, it does mean that in the days and weeks and months ahead pieces of equipment will fail. Trees that were damaged during the storm but are still standing are going to fall over. We are gonna have weather that comes back in regular florida thunderstorms that normally would not knock the tree down and suddenly *** tree's gonna fall over because it was damaged and in it's unhealthy and it dies and it falls over. That's going to happen now in florida for months and probably more than *** year and so we're gonna have outages and equipment fail that normally wouldn't because Hurricane Ian damaged it Along the way. We are committed to making sure that everybody's power remains safe and we will come in and fix that quickly. So please be patient and understand the system has been damaged and just like when you get sick and you're in recovery it takes *** little while to get fully back up on your feet after you've been hit with *** really bad case of the flu, It takes *** little while to get the electrical system back up to 100% health.
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FPL discusses power restoration efforts after Hurricane Ian
Florida Power and Light held a news conference Thursday morning with updates on power restoration efforts. FPL Chairman and CEO Eric Silagy spoke at 10 a.m. Thursday. "Our goal is to get the maximum number of people up as quickly as possible," Silagy said.FPL has 50 solar plants across Florida, and more than 21,000 people have been working to safely restore power following Hurricane Ian."We have crews fanned out all over our service territory," Silagy said. "We do this very methodically based on what we can see. Our smart grid technology has told us where the damage is. Our drones have been able to show us where damage is."Silagy said progress has continued in areas such as Charlotte County. "We've made great progress in Charlotte County overnight as well. We are nearly complete in Charlotte County," Silagy said. As FPL works to restore power, Silagy advised residents to contact a licensed electrician to inspect the damage to their home and ensure it's safe for power to be restored.

Florida Power and Light held a news conference Thursday morning with updates on power restoration efforts.

FPL Chairman and CEO Eric Silagy spoke at 10 a.m. Thursday.

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"Our goal is to get the maximum number of people up as quickly as possible," Silagy said.

FPL has 50 solar plants across Florida, and more than 21,000 people have been working to safely restore power following Hurricane Ian.

"We have crews fanned out all over our service territory," Silagy said. "We do this very methodically based on what we can see. Our smart grid technology has told us where the damage is. Our drones have been able to show us where damage is."

Silagy said progress has continued in areas such as Charlotte County.

"We've made great progress in Charlotte County overnight as well. We are nearly complete in Charlotte County," Silagy said.

As FPL works to restore power, Silagy advised residents to contact a licensed electrician to inspect the damage to their home and ensure it's safe for power to be restored.