Duke Energy Florida reflects on one-year anniversaries of hurricanes Helene and Milton, plans for future

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• Nearly one year after hurricanes Helene and Milton impacted the state, Duke Energy Florida continues to complete energy infrastructure investments to boost power reliability, strengthen the grid

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Nearly one year ago, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida within just weeks, impacting nearly 2 million customers. The two storms resulted in an unprecedented level of activation as Duke Energy Florida mobilized nearly 25,000 workers and resources to restore outages. Most outages were restored within 72 hours of the storm strikes.

Over the last several years following storm impacts, Duke Energy has been working year-round to strengthen its infrastructure, including investments in self-healing technology and grid hardening. This investment has enabled faster restoration and even saved 313 million minutes of outage time during storms in 2025.

Now, on the one-year anniversary of the storms, Duke Energy Florida reflects on storm response, shares its extensive investments in power reliability and looks ahead to the 2025 storm season.

Investments in customer power reliability

Year-round, Duke Energy Florida conducts infrastructure upgrades to further strengthen power reliability and reduce restoration times. The company has:

• Invested in self-healing technology throughout its service territory, which automatically detects power outages and reroutes power to other power lines to restore service faster for customers, often in less than a minute
  
• Replaced approximately 60% of its wooden transmission poles with more durable concrete or steel over the last five years, with a completion target of 2028
  
• Placed approximately 50% of its distribution system underground, shielded from some of the elements brought on by extreme weather conditions, while continuing to underground more of its existing overhead facilities in outage-prone areas
  
• Completed distribution hardening projects across 38 substations, and over 30 more are currently in progress
  
• Completed more than 4,000 miles of vegetation maintenance trimming on Duke Energy Florida's distribution lines, and this year, they plan to complete nearly 660 miles of work on the transmission side
  
• Executed an "Assess and Address" program to proactively identify and complete equipment upgrades before storms arise

Investments in energy infrastructure directly benefit Duke Energy Florida customers

"Duke Energy Florida stands ready to respond to any storm activity that impacts our state," said Melissa Seixas, president, 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."

"Particularly in Pinellas County, we are seeing significant improvements in our restoration times because of our grid hardening efforts over the last years," said Antonio Price, vice president, zone operations, Duke Energy Florida. "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

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,300 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 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 54,800 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.

Duke Energy is executing an ambitious energy transition, keeping customer reliability and value at the forefront as it builds a smarter energy future. The company is investing in major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including natural gas, nuclear, renewables and energy storage.

More information is available at duke-energy.com and the Duke Energy News Center. Follow Duke Energy on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and visit illumination for stories about the people and innovations powering our energy transition.

Contact: Laitin Sterling
24-Hour: 800.559.3853