![]() “I’m happy that the governor raised the fact that, frankly, we all work together as an industry,” Silagy said. “We are in good shape from a material standpoint,” he said.Īs for helping Lee County, Silagy said the nation’s electric companies - investor-owned and municipal providers as well cooperatives - know everyone works together and that the public power utilities also prepare for hurricanes. Silagy said FPL goes into storm season with enough transformers, breakers, wires, poles and other equipment to handle a Category 4 storm or stronger. When asked whether FPL faced any shortages of material at the Saturday evening press conference, Silagy responded quickly with one word. Indeed, the increase in intensity of hurricanes is among the issues at play when the utility industry has raised concerns about a misalignment between supply and demand. “This is something we were concerned about because of the supply chain, and Eric and some of his other peer companies said, ‘We’ve got infrastructure, we have the ability to help,’” the governor said. In a news conference Saturday, DeSantis said he spoke with Silagy, asking if FPL could help. In a news release Sunday, the cooperative said more resources have been arriving as the area faces an “unprecedented recovery” that will require substantial rebuilding in certain areas. Lee County is home to Cape Coral, North Fort Myers and Sanibel and Pine islands, areas that were among the hardest hit by Ian. Ron DeSantis (R) called out Lee County Electric Cooperative to get outside power companies to help. Public power utilities also help each other restore electricity after a natural disaster through their own mutual-assistance programs.īut, worried that many customers in popular coastal cities lacked power Saturday, Florida Gov. ![]() Ian knocked out power to more than 300,000 electrical cooperative customers in Florida, with co-op officials warning that repairing parts of the grid and restoring electricity may take weeks to finish in some areas, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said. Municipalities and electric cooperatives serve the state as well, including some areas that have been among the hardest hit. Questions about Lee CountyįPL is one of three investor-owned utilities in Florida. In other places, concrete poles stand alone, having no businesses or homes to deliver power to because the structures have been destroyed, he said. He said he saw buildings knocked off their foundations due to Ian’s unprecedented storm surge and warned that many homes and businesses on barrier islands and the coast aren’t structurally sound enough to receive electricity. Silagy spent days in southwest Florida assessing damage to the hardest-hit areas. “That’s a testament to the investments that we have made,” Silagy said. ![]() The company is on a restoration pace that’s faster than that of Hurricane Irma, a Category 4 storm that hit Florida in 2017. Silagy, the FPL chief executive, said the company’s power grid investments have allowed it to restore electricity more quickly than in the past. Over 12,000 workers were committed to help with power restoration in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, EEI said. More than 44,000 workers from 33 states and Washington, D.C., traveled to Florida to help restore electricity, according to the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for the nation’s investor-owned electric utilities. The hurricane’s 150-mph winds toppled trees and destroyed homes and businesses, and life-threatening storm surge washed away bridges and other infrastructure. Ian - a Category 4 storm - slammed into Florida’s west coast Wednesday, dumping at least 17 inches of rain in some parts of the state. East Coast that were affected by Ian and its remnants. That was down from at least 2.7 million Florida power users without grid electricity Thursday, a federal report indicated.Īlso Monday morning, showed a relatively small number of outages in other parts of the U.S. Over 600,000 Florida customers - including a considerable chunk from FPL - remained without electricity Monday morning, according to. “We have to wait until the floodwaters recede in order to get the power back on.” “Electricity and water don’t mix,” Silagy said. In Volusia County, home of Daytona Beach, crews used a kayak to get to a substation, which had 3 feet of water inside. ![]() But crews have had to reach some parts of FPL’s system by air boats and high-water vehicles. ![]()
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