Nearly a year after hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Florida, Duke Energy Florida continues to invest in strengthening its energy infrastructure. The two storms, which made landfall within weeks of each other, affected nearly 2 million customers and required the mobilization of about 25,000 workers and resources for power restoration. Most outages were restored within 72 hours.
In the aftermath of these storms, Duke Energy Florida has focused on year-round improvements to its grid. The company has implemented self-healing technology that can detect outages and reroute power automatically, often restoring service in less than a minute. Over the past five years, approximately 60% of wooden transmission poles have been replaced with concrete or steel alternatives, with full completion targeted for 2028. Additionally, around half of the distribution system is now underground to protect against extreme weather.
Other efforts include hardening projects at 38 substations—with more underway—and over 4,000 miles of vegetation maintenance on distribution lines completed. This year, nearly 660 miles of work are planned on transmission lines. An “Assess and Address” program proactively identifies equipment upgrades before storm seasons begin.
These investments have contributed to faster restoration times and saved an estimated 313 million minutes of outage time during storms in 2025.
“Duke Energy Florida stands ready to respond to any storm activity that impacts our state,” said Melissa Seixas, president of Duke Energy Florida. “We prepare for this time all year and every investment we make helps to keep our customers’ lights on and speed restoration when an outage does occur.”
Antonio Price, vice president of zone operations at Duke Energy Florida, noted specific improvements in Pinellas County: “Particularly in Pinellas County, we are seeing significant improvements in our restoration times because of our grid hardening efforts over the last years,” he said. “In Pinellas County, 90% of our residents are served by self-healing technology, and that allows us to quickly restore outages without dispatching personnel. It also allows us to narrow down where the outages are so we can restore even more quickly.”
Duke Energy Florida serves approximately 2 million customers across a service area spanning 13,000 square miles in Florida and owns a capacity of 12,300 megawatts.
The parent company, Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It provides electric utilities for about 8.4 million customers across several states including North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Its natural gas services reach about 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.
Duke Energy is pursuing a broad energy transition strategy focused on reliability while upgrading its electric grid and expanding cleaner generation sources such as natural gas, nuclear power, renewables and energy storage.
More information is available at duke-energy.com and through the Duke Energy News Center.
