September 24, 2024 • 8 mins
With Potential Hurricane Helene aiming for the Gulf with a possible Florida landfall, the Tampa Bay area could again get a brush with a hurricane. We spoke with Sean Johnson of FPL, which serves Manatee and Sarasota counties, earlier this year on how they've worked to make the system in those counties more hurricane-resistant. (NOTE: This was recorded in June, prior to rain impacts from Debby.)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Of course, it's
hurricane season and we don't want to see a hurricane
in Florida this year, but unfortunately it's been forecast to
be a relatively busy season and there's always that possibility
of a hurricane having an impact in Florida, and particularly
along the West coast of Florida, which is where we
(00:22):
serve on a day to day basis. Now we're speaking
with Sean Johnson, who is a spokesperson from FPL, which
covers basically the west coast of Florida from the Everglades
in Naples right on up to Bradenton and Palmetto, basically
along the west coast, one of the utilities that serves Florida,
and we're going to talk with him about what they've
(00:42):
been doing to improve resilience and recovery from a hurricane
in their Florida West Coast territories, particularly focusing on areas
like Manatee County, Sarasota County, Charlotte County, maybe some of
the inland counties as well that are served by FPL.
And Shawn Johnson, welcome to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thanks for having us. Gordon, very much appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We're glad to have you now. We're talking, of course,
in particular about areas such as Sarasota, Bradenton Islands, Barrier Islands,
Longboat Key, kc Key. You serve right up to the waterline,
and some of those areas as you get farther south,
they of course experienced a direct or near direct hit
from Hurricane Ian back in twenty twenty two. They were
(01:27):
impacted somewhat by Idalia last year. Talk to us about
some of what you saw in Ian and how you've
been applying that knowledge to help harden the power grid
and work with your responses in those communities.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, Gordon, we learned from every single storm at FPL,
and one of our greatest learnings coming out of Hurricanean
was the importance of investing in the grid, strengthening the
grid to be more storm resilient. We've been on a
journey now for almost two decades to build a stronger, smarter,
more stormer zone and grid, and we've continued that ever
since Hurricanean by replacing wooden power poles with stealing concrete ones,
(02:06):
undergrounding many power lines, especially along the west coast of Florida,
and managing vegetation along thousands of miles of power lines,
all with the goal of not just improving day to
day reliability for our customers, but also to improve and
speed the response times following severe weather.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
A couple of things I like to follow up with
you on that. And of course we hear a lot
about lines being put underground, and in a lot of
areas that's a good solution, and in some other areas
it might not be the best solution. So kind of
talk with us about the challenges with that, you know,
where what areas is that a good idea and what
(02:42):
areas are above ground approach is better.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, So we've been undergrounding power lines for decades now.
In twenty eighteen, we began a program called the Storm
Secure Underground Program, which uses a variety of data including
outages during severe weather, vegetation related outages, and other day
to day reliability data to determine which neighborhoods and areas
would most benefit from receiving underground power lines. To your point,
(03:06):
some areas may not be conducive to having their power
lines underground. We use our on hundred year flood plan
to identify which areas might be more risk to flooding,
And then in those areas we'll still strengthen the grid,
but we'll go with more of the overhead approach by
strengthening the wooden poles with more reinforced wooden poles or
steeler concrete poles in those cases.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Now, vegetation is an issue that obviously is best addressed
well before we're dealing with any kind of hurricane or storm.
But from the individual homeowner's point of view, what are
the things they should be looking for as far as
you know, things that they might want to call to
(03:43):
the power company's attention, as far as what you know
where the vegetation might be a threat to bring down
power lines and how best to handle that.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, we want to give our customers some comfort in
knowing that we have a pretty good feel for what
is out there on the front of vegetation. We use
a program called smart Trimming to identify areas where the
trimming or the vegetation has become more dense around power
lines and prioritize our trimming program accordingly in those areas.
But with that said, we do review vegetation management as
(04:13):
a shared responsibility. So if customers have trees on their
property that might become a problem in a storm situation.
It's a good opportunity now to have a licensed, qualified
line clearing professional to come out and trim those trees
so that they don't become an issue in an eventual
storm situation.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Now, in addition to that, of course, we're looking at
the kinds of situations that you're going to have after
the approach of a storm and the timetable for getting
service back in place if we and we hope we
don't have to encounter a hurricane in twenty twenty four
(04:49):
along the Florida West coast. Where will people see the
improvements and the lessons you've been able to apply in
terms of your response in in terms of getting the
power back on in communities.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So, I think it's a variety of ways. We talked
about underground power lines. Those performed significantly better in southwest
Florida during Hurricanean. In many cases, they were able to
avoid the leading cause of power edges, which is vegetation, debris,
other things coming into contact with our power lines. So
by being able to essentially ensure that those areas are
in good condition, we can refocus our resources accordingly in
(05:25):
a severe weather event. We've continued to underground power lines
this year and that's something we're going to be doing
for decades ahead as well, and other efforts like we
talked about the vegetation management program. By being able to
trim the trees away from the power lines, that just
goes that much further to minimize the issue that vegetation
could bring in a potential storm situation.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Talk to us about the way that you manage the
response after the storm. You have, of course, a whole
operation center, and you have resources, you have agreements with
other utilities. That's always a massive undertaking, but you bring
a lot to the game, as it were.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Your weather strikes Florida, it's very much one team team Florida.
So we work hand in hand with our partners across
the state, local emergency management officials and on the whole.
You know, we have a we have a team of
thousands at FPL that work closely together to respond together
for customers when severe weather strikes. Because ultimately, when a
(06:21):
storm's coming our way, our main focus is safety and
getting the lights back on for our customers safely and
as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
What are the best ways to stay in touch as
far as if you're encountering a storm, if you need
to report a power outage, find out when you're expected
to get power back. What's the best way to stay
in touch. Let's say you you don't have your power,
but you have your phone and hopefully you have a charger.
And obviously we want people to listen to the radio
(06:49):
to get hurricane updates, which is what we do. It's
our business, it's our stock in trade. But what are
some of the options that you have for people who
need to stay in touch with you during a hurricane.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, there are a few different tips. I would recommend.
For one, download the FPL mobile app to stay in
form before, during, and after a storm. That's one of
the best ways that customers can stay in touch with
us and get the latest updates as far as estimated
times of restoration and so on. In addition, we have
a variety of tips again before, during, and after a
storm on FPL dot com slash storm, which is very
(07:22):
helpful if customers are working through their own hurricane or
emergency plans as well. And the last thing I would
note is if a customers experiencing an outage following severe weather,
they don't need to feel the need to report it
to us because we have these smart meters on customer
homes which communicate with our diagnosa centers, so we know
when a customer is without power. However, I will say,
if it's been a few days and your whole neighborhood
(07:43):
has power but you don't, that's we want to hear
from our customers calling us at one eight hundred and
four outage, because that could be an indication of potentially
damage customer own equipment, or something else that might need
additional diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Sean Johnson, spokesperson from FPL. We're talking about what to
do and working with the power company in a hurricane situation,
and we certainly hope that we don't have to deal
with one this year. Sean, thank you very much for
joining us on Beyond the News
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Of course, it's
hurricane season and we don't want to see a hurricane
in Florida this year, but unfortunately it's been forecast to
be a relatively busy season and there's always that possibility
of a hurricane having an impact in Florida, and particularly
along the West coast of Florida, which is where we
(00:22):
serve on a day to day basis. Now we're speaking
with Sean Johnson, who is a spokesperson from FPL, which
covers basically the west coast of Florida from the Everglades
in Naples right on up to Bradenton and Palmetto, basically
along the west coast, one of the utilities that serves Florida,
and we're going to talk with him about what they've
(00:42):
been doing to improve resilience and recovery from a hurricane
in their Florida West Coast territories, particularly focusing on areas
like Manatee County, Sarasota County, Charlotte County, maybe some of
the inland counties as well that are served by FPL.
And Shawn Johnson, welcome to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thanks for having us. Gordon, very much appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We're glad to have you now. We're talking, of course,
in particular about areas such as Sarasota, Bradenton Islands, Barrier Islands,
Longboat Key, kc Key. You serve right up to the waterline,
and some of those areas as you get farther south,
they of course experienced a direct or near direct hit
from Hurricane Ian back in twenty twenty two. They were
(01:27):
impacted somewhat by Idalia last year. Talk to us about
some of what you saw in Ian and how you've
been applying that knowledge to help harden the power grid
and work with your responses in those communities.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, Gordon, we learned from every single storm at FPL,
and one of our greatest learnings coming out of Hurricanean
was the importance of investing in the grid, strengthening the
grid to be more storm resilient. We've been on a
journey now for almost two decades to build a stronger, smarter,
more stormer zone and grid, and we've continued that ever
since Hurricanean by replacing wooden power poles with stealing concrete ones,
(02:06):
undergrounding many power lines, especially along the west coast of Florida,
and managing vegetation along thousands of miles of power lines,
all with the goal of not just improving day to
day reliability for our customers, but also to improve and
speed the response times following severe weather.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
A couple of things I like to follow up with
you on that. And of course we hear a lot
about lines being put underground, and in a lot of
areas that's a good solution, and in some other areas
it might not be the best solution. So kind of
talk with us about the challenges with that, you know,
where what areas is that a good idea and what
(02:42):
areas are above ground approach is better.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, So we've been undergrounding power lines for decades now.
In twenty eighteen, we began a program called the Storm
Secure Underground Program, which uses a variety of data including
outages during severe weather, vegetation related outages, and other day
to day reliability data to determine which neighborhoods and areas
would most benefit from receiving underground power lines. To your point,
(03:06):
some areas may not be conducive to having their power
lines underground. We use our on hundred year flood plan
to identify which areas might be more risk to flooding,
And then in those areas we'll still strengthen the grid,
but we'll go with more of the overhead approach by
strengthening the wooden poles with more reinforced wooden poles or
steeler concrete poles in those cases.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Now, vegetation is an issue that obviously is best addressed
well before we're dealing with any kind of hurricane or storm.
But from the individual homeowner's point of view, what are
the things they should be looking for as far as
you know, things that they might want to call to
(03:43):
the power company's attention, as far as what you know
where the vegetation might be a threat to bring down
power lines and how best to handle that.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, we want to give our customers some comfort in
knowing that we have a pretty good feel for what
is out there on the front of vegetation. We use
a program called smart Trimming to identify areas where the
trimming or the vegetation has become more dense around power
lines and prioritize our trimming program accordingly in those areas.
But with that said, we do review vegetation management as
(04:13):
a shared responsibility. So if customers have trees on their
property that might become a problem in a storm situation.
It's a good opportunity now to have a licensed, qualified
line clearing professional to come out and trim those trees
so that they don't become an issue in an eventual
storm situation.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Now, in addition to that, of course, we're looking at
the kinds of situations that you're going to have after
the approach of a storm and the timetable for getting
service back in place if we and we hope we
don't have to encounter a hurricane in twenty twenty four
(04:49):
along the Florida West coast. Where will people see the
improvements and the lessons you've been able to apply in
terms of your response in in terms of getting the
power back on in communities.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So, I think it's a variety of ways. We talked
about underground power lines. Those performed significantly better in southwest
Florida during Hurricanean. In many cases, they were able to
avoid the leading cause of power edges, which is vegetation, debris,
other things coming into contact with our power lines. So
by being able to essentially ensure that those areas are
in good condition, we can refocus our resources accordingly in
(05:25):
a severe weather event. We've continued to underground power lines
this year and that's something we're going to be doing
for decades ahead as well, and other efforts like we
talked about the vegetation management program. By being able to
trim the trees away from the power lines, that just
goes that much further to minimize the issue that vegetation
could bring in a potential storm situation.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Talk to us about the way that you manage the
response after the storm. You have, of course, a whole
operation center, and you have resources, you have agreements with
other utilities. That's always a massive undertaking, but you bring
a lot to the game, as it were.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Your weather strikes Florida, it's very much one team team Florida.
So we work hand in hand with our partners across
the state, local emergency management officials and on the whole.
You know, we have a we have a team of
thousands at FPL that work closely together to respond together
for customers when severe weather strikes. Because ultimately, when a
(06:21):
storm's coming our way, our main focus is safety and
getting the lights back on for our customers safely and
as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
What are the best ways to stay in touch as
far as if you're encountering a storm, if you need
to report a power outage, find out when you're expected
to get power back. What's the best way to stay
in touch. Let's say you you don't have your power,
but you have your phone and hopefully you have a charger.
And obviously we want people to listen to the radio
(06:49):
to get hurricane updates, which is what we do. It's
our business, it's our stock in trade. But what are
some of the options that you have for people who
need to stay in touch with you during a hurricane.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, there are a few different tips. I would recommend.
For one, download the FPL mobile app to stay in
form before, during, and after a storm. That's one of
the best ways that customers can stay in touch with
us and get the latest updates as far as estimated
times of restoration and so on. In addition, we have
a variety of tips again before, during, and after a
storm on FPL dot com slash storm, which is very
(07:22):
helpful if customers are working through their own hurricane or
emergency plans as well. And the last thing I would
note is if a customers experiencing an outage following severe weather,
they don't need to feel the need to report it
to us because we have these smart meters on customer
homes which communicate with our diagnosa centers, so we know
when a customer is without power. However, I will say,
if it's been a few days and your whole neighborhood
(07:43):
has power but you don't, that's we want to hear
from our customers calling us at one eight hundred and
four outage, because that could be an indication of potentially
damage customer own equipment, or something else that might need
additional diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Sean Johnson, spokesperson from FPL. We're talking about what to
do and working with the power company in a hurricane situation,
and we certainly hope that we don't have to deal
with one this year. Sean, thank you very much for
joining us on Beyond the News
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