Florida Power & Light Outlines Plan to Pay for Significant Restoration After Hurricanes Slam Florida
By Space Coast Daily // October 29, 2024
four hurricanes battered Florida in less than 14 months
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Florida Power & Light Company today asked the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) to approve a temporary surcharge on customer bills in 2025 to recover restoration costs after four hurricanes battered Florida in less than 14 months.
FPL’s plan: The petition filed with the PSC seeks to recover restoration expenses for Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton, which ripped through Florida this year. It also seeks $150 million to replenish the company’s storm reserve, which was primarily depleted by Hurricane Idalia last year and then wiped out after Hurricane Debby in August.
If approved by the PSC, the temporary surcharge would reimburse FPL about $1.2 billion and would likely add $12.02 a month to a typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill from January through December next year.
How we got here: Category 3 Idalia struck Florida in August 2023. This year, Category 1 Debby hit Florida in August, then Category 4 Helene and Category 3 Milton pounded the state less than two weeks apart in September and October. The four hurricanes caused more than 3 million combined outages to FPL customers with damaging winds, storm surge and – in the case of Milton – dozens of unusually powerful, long-track tornadoes.
Rapid response: For each hurricane, FPL assembled and strategically pre-positioned thousands of restoration workers from around the U.S. The crews worked around the clock to quickly restore all impacted customers.
Importantly, FPL’s sustained investments to build a stronger, smarter and more resilient energy grid avoided nearly 900,000 outages and enabled faster restorations.
By the numbers:
– More than 3 million outages
– More than 52,000 men and women in restoration workforce
– Nearly 900,000 outages avoided through smart grid technology
– Timeline to essentially complete restoration
– – – Idalia (2023) (Category 3): 1 day
– – – Debby (2024) (Category 1): 1 day
– – – Helene (2024) (Category 4): 3 days
– – – Milton (2024) (Category 3): 5 days
“FPL worked relentlessly to quickly restore power to our customers in the aftermath of each of these hurricanes,” said FPL President and CEO Armando Pimentel.
“We’re mindful that customers pay these restoration costs, which is why we continue to invest in storm hardening and smart grid technology. This avoids many outages, speeds restoration and reduces restoration costs while helping customers bounce back faster, from getting kids back to school to getting Florida’s economy back up and running.”
Estimated 2025 bills: Even with the temporary surcharge, FPL bills in 2025 will remain well below the national average.
