Florida Power & Light Company earns achievement award for technology to predict power outages

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) recently announced that it received the AEIC Achievement Award from the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies (AEIC) for a technology that enables the prediction of intermittent power failures.

FPL’s “The Powerful Predictors” team developed an algorithm that uses data from smart meters to predict individual customer outages, which allows the company to take preventative action.

“At FPL, we are always working on new and innovative ways to provide our customers with the best possible service and power grid reliability,” Manny Miranda, senior vice president of power delivery for FPL, said. “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 preemptively make repairs before an outage takes place, ultimately benefiting our customers.”

In many cases, FPL said, the technology has allowed the company to fix problems before customers were aware of them. FPL avoided more than 5,000 single customer outages in 2016 through the use of the technology. For customers who did lose power, it reduced the average interruption time by approximately 40 minutes and achieved 70 percent cost savings due to reduced travel time and increased repair efficiency.

“FPL’s 4.9 million smart meters are an important piece of our strategy for a more efficient energy grid,” Dave Herlong, director of smart grid & innovation for FPL, said. “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.”