Florida Power and Light crews install underground powerlines; in efforts mitigate power outages

With hurricanes less than 5 months away, power crews like the Florida Power and Light are already taking proactive steps to mitigate power outages we commonly see during an event of a severe storm.

More than 2.1 million people in Florida lost power during Hurricane Ian back in 2022, according to the Washington Post.

Those outages affected several communities across Southwest Florida.

One of the hardest-hit areas was Charlotte County, where serval communities were without power for days leading into weeks or months.

One of those people who were affected was Gary Ogle and his wife Sandy who was without power for eight days.

“People’s cars were all over the place. Some of the roofs had come off and were in the roadways,” said Ogle. It took three days to clear the roads due to the trees falling on the road and broken powerlines. It was pretty bad here.”

On Wednesday, March 27, the Florida Power and Light crews were out in Port Charlotte to install three powerlines underground.

While no energy grid is hurricane-proof, underground lines perform significantly better than overhead lines day-to-day and during severe weather – including six times better during Hurricane Ian in 2022 and 12 times better during Hurricane Idalia last year, according to FPL.

“The issue with these overhead lines is vegetation,” said McKenzie Herron, Senior Project Manager for Florida Power and Light. Tree limb comes down and takes out the power line, it takes time for the crews to come back out with these underground lines, that type of timeline of vegetation to come out and clear lines in the overhead crews is significantly decreased.”

“FPL is an excellent company that does excellent work and works with our county hand in hand very well,” said David Whidden, Public Works Engineering and Specter for Charlotte County. As far as putting everything out front and underground, it helps out the fact of outages during hurricanes or major storms from the overhead lines.”

Herron says underground powerlines have more longevity and sustainability than overhead lines.

“Our powerlines are good for at least for at least 20 years or more they are water resistant,” said Herron. So any type of water intrusion can decrease those amount of outages.”

The underground power line installation not only helps to mitigate power outages but also gives neighbors like Gary Ogle peace of mind.

“We’re just looking forward to hurricane season not taking anything out like it did before and if it does, hopefully, the power outages will be very minimal,” said Ogle.