JUNO BEACH, Fla., March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Florida Power & Light
Company continues to improve the quality and reliability of service to its
customers and now ranks among the top 35 percent of U.S. utilities. A recent
benchmarking study shows that FPL improved the average time customers are
without service by about 50 percent since 1997.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010621/FPLLOGO )
"FPL has worked hard to provide the infrastructure and upgrades necessary
to ensure electricity is available to meet growth and that reliable service is
maintained," said Armando Olivera, FPL senior vice president of Power Systems.
"Our goal is to give our customers our best service, meet their expectations
and maintain their trust. We hope to accomplish this by continuing to improve
our infrastructure and service reliability."
Key indicators used to measure the quality of electric service show that
FPL has improved the average time a customer is without power during a year
and it is nearly half what it was in 1997, improving from 2.3 hours (137
minutes) to 1.2 hours (69 minutes) in 2001. Other U.S. utilities average 107
minutes.
While the number of interruptions per customer in a year has improved by
27 percent in the last four years, the average time to restore service has
improved by 30 percent during the same time.
Since 1997, the company has spent nearly $600 million to upgrade its
electricity delivery system. FPL has replaced or upgraded nearly 4.5 million
feet of underground electrical cable and built 318 main distribution power
lines. The upgrades are necessary to keep up with the growth within FPL's
service territory as well as improve service reliability.
FPL employs state-of-the-art technology, preventive maintenance and
service restoration processes by expanding its use of data telemetry, which
provides real-time information to employees, enabling them to re-route power
and prevent interruptions. This advanced technology is complemented by FPL's
customer care center operations, which provide customers with better, faster
information about outages and when they might expect service to be restored.
"Our customers expect us to plan for the future, providing them with
electricity as they go about their day," said Mr. Olivera. "It is our
responsibility to report to them what causes an outage, how widespread it is
and when they will have their lights back on."
"We've come a long way toward improving the reliability of our service
over the last four years," said Mr. Olivera. "We are building and
strengthening our system, and the result is better service for our customers."
Florida Power & Light Company is the principal subsidiary of
FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE: FPL), one of the nation's largest providers of
electricity-related services with annual revenues of more than $8 billion.
The company serves approximately 3.9 million customer accounts in Florida.
FPL Energy, LLC, an FPL Group energy-generating subsidiary, is a leader in
producing electricity from clean and renewable fuels. Additional information
is available on the Internet at http://www.fpl.com .
Reliability 2001 Annual Progress
2001 2000 1999 1998 1997
Average time customer
is without power
(in minutes) in a year 69.1 70.3 75.2 100.2 136.8
Average restoration
time (in minutes) 56.6 58.3 60.6 64.9 80.9
Average number
of outages per customer 1.22 1.21 1.24 1.54 1.69
Average number of momentary
interruptions per customer 11.0 10.8 11.1 11.7 N/A
SOURCE Florida Power & Light Company
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Related links:
http://www.fpl.com
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Company News On-Call:
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CONTACT:
Florida Power & Light Company, Corporate
Communications Department, Media Line, +1-305-552-3888
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