FPL enhanced its system reliability while successfully responding to several significant events that tested the company's resources and preparedness

Increased reliability

Power is available to customers 99.98% of the time, but FPL wants to make its service even better. Reliability 2000 is an aggressive three-year, $400 million program launched in mid-1997 to enhance service quality and reliability.

Improvements in 1998 included a 27% reduction in the average time per year that a customer is without power, and a 20% improvement in the average time to restore service. Since the program started, FPL has cleared trees and vegetation from more than 7,500 miles of overhead power lines, replaced or upgraded 145 miles of underground cable and installed more than 500 radio-controlled devices that improve the maintenance of power line voltage. Other efforts include increased lightning arrestor installations to reduce momentary power outages and improved allocation of work crews during storms.

More to come

Plans for 1999 include the replacement or repair of 450 miles of underground power lines and the trimming of vegetation from more than 8,000 miles of overhead lines, a 15% increase from 1998.

Working smarter

Applying the latest technology has also helped improve service quality. FPL began using a technology called Thermovision^TM to improve preventive maintenance and system reliability. Vans equipped with infrared devices measure the temperature of power lines and distribution equipment, looking for "hot spots" that signal a potential problem. Data telemetry is another technology application that provides FPL's power dispatchers with "real-time" information about electricity loads, allowing power to be shifted as needed to prevent service interruptions.

Responding faster

On six occasions in 1998, President Clinton declared parts of Florida as federal disaster areas due to tornadoes, a hurricane and tropical storm, and wildfires. These and other events caused more than one-third of FPL's 3.7 million customers to suffer outages. Repair crews worked tirelessly to restore power to most customers, generally within one day, despite the size and difficult working conditions. FPL's newly renovated command center features a sophisticated storm monitoring and tracking system that enables the company to better model a storm's impact, and plan and execute quicker service restoration.

High availability

FPL's fleet of power plants again achieved excellent performance in 1998. Fossil plant availability reached 93.7% and nuclear plant availability was 93.1% _ record levels for FPL and among the best in the industry. This high level of performance is a result of a consistent emphasis on operational excellence through a standardized model that utilizes process management and reliability techniques. High plant availability allowed FPL to reliably meet peak energy demands in 1998 that surpassed 1997's summer peak on 43 days.

World-class performance

The Turkey Point nuclear plant became the first U.S. nuclear plant to receive three consecutive "superior" performance ratings from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The St. Lucie facility was recognized by the NRC for improved performance. Also, both plants earned excellent rankings based on the World Association of Nuclear Operators performance index, with Turkey Point achieving the top ranking in the nation. The nuclear division beat its goal of reducing operations and maintenance costs per kilowatt-hour to a penny, achieving a level of .98 cents per kwh in 1998.

Customer care

PL improved several key functions that provide service to customers. For example, voice response units that route calls to FPL's customer care centers have been simplified, and the supporting telephone network has been upgraded to increase call-handling capability ten-fold. The new system provides customers who call to report an outage with an "initial time of restoration," or an " estimated time of restoration" in cases requiring more extensive repairs. In addition, customer service representatives have completed intensive training to enhance their knowledge of power distribution equipment and their overall effectiveness in handling customer calls.

Responding to a challenging year

FPL employees met special challenges created by storms, fires, and other major events that plagued Florida in 1998.

First, tornadoes in February and March left more than 750,000 customers without power.

During the summer, some 2,200 wildfires scorched a half-million acres in north and central Florida, destroying or damaging several hundred homes abd businesses and causing extensive damage to FPL facilities. Work crews replaced 800 poles, 200 transformers, 3,0000 insulators and 19 miles of wire and cable. Two major storms during the summer - hurricane Georges and Tropical storm Mitch - put more than 500,000 customers in the dark. A lightening strike in August caused a natural gas pipeline explosion in north Florida, disrupting gas supplies to many of FPL's power plants during record heat-induced power demand. In the same month, two 500-kilowatt power lines, the backbone of FPL's transmission grid, were knocked out of service by the crash of a Navy training plane.

In response to these challenges, FPL invested $39 million rebuilding facilities as repair crews worked diligently to restore power to most customers within 12-24 hours, despite difficult working conditions.