Florida Strengthens Its Power Grid with 2,000 Miles of Underground Lines

Florida continues to strengthen its electric infrastructure against the impact of hurricanes and severe storms. Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) announced that it has completed 2,000 miles of overhead-to-underground neighborhood power line conversions across communities in its service area.

The scale of the milestone is significant. Those 2,000 miles are roughly equivalent to driving two and a half times from Pensacola to Key West, or about four and a half times the length of Florida.

The projects are part of FPL’s Storm Secure Underground Program, an initiative that strategically identifies communities where neighborhood power lines can be moved from overhead poles to underground infrastructure. More than 200,000 customers have benefited from the conversions completed so far.

FPL uses several factors to determine where projects are implemented, including outages during named storms, vegetation-related interruptions and other reliability metrics.

The goal is to reduce the exposure of electrical infrastructure to strong winds, falling trees and flying debris, all of which can cause significant damage during hurricanes and severe weather.

Performance during recent storms has shown notable differences. According to FPL, underground neighborhood power lines performed approximately five times better than overhead lines during Hurricane Ian in 2022.

During the 2024 hurricane season, which included Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton, underground neighborhood lines performed between five and 14 times better, according to company data.

FPL emphasizes that no electric grid can be completely stormproof and that underground lines can still experience outages. However, because the infrastructure is less exposed to wind, trees and other debris, undergrounding can reduce the amount of storm-related damage crews must repair following severe weather.

Moving power lines underground is one part of FPL’s broader storm-hardening strategy. Other measures include strengthening overhead poles, trimming trees and vegetation near electrical equipment and monitoring substations for potential flooding.

“Reaching 2,000 miles of projects completed under the Storm Secure Underground Program is the result of true partnerships between FPL, our customers and the communities we serve,” said Michael Jarro, FPL vice president of Power Delivery.

The company plans to continue strategically expanding the program to additional communities.

For Florida, where every hurricane season puts electrical infrastructure to the test, reaching 2,000 miles of underground power lines represents another step toward strengthening the grid, reducing storm damage and improving communities’ ability to recover when the next major storm arrives.