Duke Energy Florida Implements Self-Healing Power Grid Technology
Takeaways
- Self-healing technology automatically detects outages and reroutes power, reducing restoration times to under a minute.
- Since January 2024, the system has prevented over 950,000 extended outages and saved nearly 6.3 million hours of power loss.
- The technology has proven especially effective during hurricanes, minimizing outage durations for storm-affected customers.
Duke Energy Florida is upgrading its power grid with “self-healing” technology that automatically detects outages and reroutes power. According to the release, this is capable of restoring service often in under a minute.
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. It helps restore service faster for customers – often in less than a minute – on blue-sky days and during storms, including hurricanes. (Click here for a visual explanation.)
Since January 2024, the system has helped prevent over 950,000 extended outages and saved customers nearly 6.3 million hours of lost power. During last year’s hurricane season, it spared millions of outage hours from storms including Milton, Helene, and Debby, according to the company.
About 80% of Duke Energy Florida’s customer base now benefits from this tech, with coverage as high as 90% in Pinellas County, 80% in Orange, and 60% in Polk County.
“With reliable power being so critical for families, businesses, and daily life, we will continue expanding this capability across our 35-county service area,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president.