Florida Power & Light Company honored for technology innovation to predict and prevent power outages

- FPL one of only two companies to receive the distinguished AEIC Achievement Award from the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies

- FPL's "The Powerful Predictors" team was honored for developing a method using smart meter data to predict power outages in advance, enabling repairs to be made before customers were aware they had a problem

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Florida Power & Light Company

Nov 16, 2017, 09:00 ET

JUNO BEACH, Fla., Nov. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) today announced that the company has been awarded the prestigious AEIC Achievement Award from the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies (AEIC) for a technology breakthrough in anticipating intermittent power failures and, in turn, improving the company's ability to take preventative action.

FPL's "The Powerful Predictors" team received the esteemed award for developing a complex algorithm to detect distinct patterns in residential smart meters, allowing it to predict individual customer outages days in advance and avoid power loss.

"At FPL, we are always working on new and innovative ways to provide our customers with the best possible service and power grid reliability," said Manny Miranda, senior vice president of power delivery for FPL. "Because of our smart meter technology and a very talented team, we have developed a system that allows us to foresee where outages are most likely to occur up to three days in advance, and then pre-emptively make repairs before an outage takes place, ultimately benefiting our customers."

FPL's proactive ticket notification system uses smart grid data to predict when a customer is about to experience an outage, enabling crews to deploy to an affected area. In many cases, this allows crews to resolve the issue before a customer is even aware he or she had a problem. In 2016, through the prediction and repair of intermittent power outages, FPL avoided more than 5,000 single customer outages. For customers who did experience power loss, the award-winning technology decreased the average interruption time by approximately 40 minutes, and achieved 70 percent cost savings because of reduced travel time and increased repair efficiency for crews.

"FPL's 4.9 million smart meters are an important piece of our strategy for a more efficient energy grid," said Dave Herlong, director of smart grid & innovation for FPL. "They help us identify outages and diagnose their cause, as well as restore power much faster. Smart meters also provide customers with important information about their energy use, which can be used to save money on monthly bills."

To learn more about FPL's smart meters and smart grid, visit www.FPL.com/smartgrid.

Florida Power & Light Company
Florida Power & Light Company is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving nearly 5 million customer accounts or an estimated 10 million people across nearly half of the state of Florida. FPL's typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 25 percent lower than the latest national average and, in 2016, was the lowest in Florida among reporting utilities for the seventh year in a row. FPL's service reliability is better than 99.98 percent, and its highly fuel-efficient power plant fleet is one of the cleanest among all utilities nationwide. The company received the top ranking in the southern U.S. among large electric providers, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM, and was recognized in 2017 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Market Strategies International. A leading Florida employer with approximately 8,900 employees, FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), a clean energy company widely recognized for its efforts in sustainability, ethics and diversity, and has been ranked No. 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry in Fortune's 2017 list of "World's Most Admired Companies." NextEra Energy is also the parent company of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.

SOURCE Florida Power & Light Company