Duke Energy Florida Is Prepared For Hurricane Season With Stronger Infrastructure, Smarter Tools

While the 2025 hurricane season began on June 1, Duke Energy Florida has been preparing year-round, strengthening the company’s infrastructure and employing smart tools to help prevent power outages and allow for quicker restoration for its 2 million customers.

“I’m extremely proud of how we’ve responded to storms in the past, but we’re determined to keep getting better,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “We’ve been working, and will continue working every single day, to harden our equipment and implement state-of-the-art technology that will make our electric grid more efficient and resilient, ready for when the next storm hits. Our customers deserve nothing less.”

Strengthening Infrastructure: Duke Energy Florida is constantly upgrading its system to help prevent power outages during storms. The company has:

• Replaced approximately 60% of its wooden transmission poles with more durable concrete or steel over the last five years, with a completion target of 2028
   
• Placed approximately 50% of its distribution system underground, shielded from some of the elements brought on by extreme weather conditions, while continuing to underground more of its existing overhead facilities in outage-prone areas
   
• Completed distribution hardening projects across 38 substations, and over 30 more are currently in progress

Teams of professional arborists also maintain trees and other vegetation that could pose a threat to equipment. In 2024 alone, they completed more than 4,000 miles of maintenance trimming on Duke Energy Florida’s distribution lines, and this year, they plan to complete nearly 660 miles of work on the transmission side. 

Employing Smarter Tools: Similar to a GPS navigation system that can identify an accident ahead and update a route, Duke Energy Florida uses self-healing technology to automatically detect outages and reroute power to other lines. This technology helps restore service faster for customers – often in less than a minute – and over 75% of customers currently benefit from it.

Millions of hours of outages have been saved during storms because of self-healing technology, including approximately:

• 3.3 million hours during Hurricane Milton
   
• 1.8 million hours during Hurricane Helene
   
• 208,000 hours during Hurricane Debby

A More Efficient and Resilient Electric Grid: These efforts have helped Duke Energy Florida quickly restore power outages after storms. During the 2024 hurricane season:

• 95% of outages (outside of the hardest-hit areas) were restored within 96 hours after Hurricane Milton
   
• 95% of outages (for those able to receive power) were restored within 72 hours after Hurricane Helene
   
• 95% of outages were restored within 24 hours after Hurricane Debby

Additionally, between 2018 and 2024, the company reduced the average length of a customer outage by 27%.

Important Reminders for Customers: Duke Energy Florida reminds customers that prioritizing personal preparedness now, before a storm hits, is critical. Customers are advised to:

• Create (or update) an emergency supply kit, including everything an individual or family would need for at least two weeks, especially medicines, water and nonperishable foods
   
• Prepare in advance in case of extended power outages and consider making plans for the elderly and those with special medical needs should prolonged outages occur
   
• Sign up for Outage Alerts and know how to report an outage – online and through the Duke Energy mobile app, or by texting OUT to 57801 or calling 800.228.8485
   
• Understand Duke Energy Florida focuses on restoring power in a sequence that enables restoration to public health and safety facilities and to the greatest number of customers as safely and quickly as possible

For more tips on how to prepare for storm season, please visit duke-energy.com/StormTips and download the Red Cross Emergency mobile app.

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 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 54,800 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. 

Duke Energy is executing an ambitious energy transition, keeping customer reliability and value at the forefront as it builds a smarter energy future. The company is investing in major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including natural gas, nuclear, renewables and energy storage. 

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