Duke Energy Florida Marks Peak Of Hurricane Season With A Stronger Grid, Urges Customers To Prepare

Today marks the meteorological peak of Atlantic hurricane season, a time that Duke Energy Florida prepares for year-round. It’s continual grid-hardening work means energy is more reliable for customers when it’s needed most.

Why it matters:

Every pole upgrade and self-healing device on the grid reduces how many customers lose power, and how fast they get it back, when a storm hits.

By the numbers:

• 60% of wooden transmission poles have been upgraded to stronger materials over the last five years
   
• Approximately 50% of the distribution system is now underground, shielded from the elements
   
• 82% of more than 2 million customers are now served by self-healing technology that automatically detects outages and reroutes power
   
• The average outage duration per customer was just 64 minutes in 2025, the lowest in more than two decades, excluding named storms
   
• Duke Energy Foundation has awarded $155,000 in grants this year to local organizations supporting storm preparedness

Our view:

“The lessons we’ve learned from past storms have driven meaningful investments in the grid over the last several years,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “We prepare for hurricane season year-round so that when a storm does hit, we’re prepared, our infrastructure is more resilient and we’re ready to respond to anything this season brings.”

How customers can prepare:

While Duke Energy Florida continues its investments to strengthen the grid, customers can prepare for storm season in several ways.  

• Build a storm kit to include medicine, water and nonperishable food, a portable radio and first aid kit.
   
• Sign up for outage alerts by texting REG to 57801.
   
• Monitor the outage map for real-time restoration status in the event that the power does go out. Customers can also report an outage by texting OUT to 57801 or by calling 800.228.8485.
   
• As always, stay clear of any downed lines and assume the line, and anything touching it, is energized.

For more tips on how to prepare for storm season and how Duke Energy can help, please visit duke-energy.com/StormTips.

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,500 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida. 

Duke Energy

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. The company’s electric utilities serve 8.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 55,700 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio and Kentucky.

Duke Energy is executing an energy modernization strategy, keeping customer value at the forefront as it invests in electric grid upgrades and efficient generation resources to strengthen the system and serve growing energy needs.

More information is available at duke-energy.com. Follow Duke Energy on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook for stories about the people and innovations powering its communities.