The Public Service Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities, on Tuesday set into motion its plan “to review electric utility hurricane preparedness and restoration actions during the 2017 hurricane season,” the panel said in a press release.
Duke Energy Florida Inc. hopes to make its power lines friendlier to birds. The company is undertaking a pilot program featuring redesigned electric transmission lines deemed less likely to zap our fine feathered friends into oblivion. That will entail replacing horizontal lines with vertical or stacked models, and replacing some poles to achieve better spacing. “The redesigned elements will help prevent birds from getting in between lines and from perching and building nests on electrical lines and poles,” Duke said in…
He felt it in the breeze. Nearing the end of his long, improbable journey to victory in the presidential race, Donald Trump, the candidate of so much tumult and bluster, waxed nostalgic about how he got there. “I had great parents, great parents,” Trump told the crowd at a rally in steamy Orlando, Florida. “I just felt that nice breeze, so they’re helping us out.” The candidate who for more than a year had unapologetically demonstrated he would say anything…
Duke Energy Florida is getting a new president —Harry Sideris, whose promotion takes effect on Jan. 1. Sideris has served as senior vice president for environmental, health, and safety since 2014. He will work from the company’s Florida headquarters in St. Petersburg. He succeeds Alex Glenn, who will become senior vice president for state and federal regulatory legal support in corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. “Harry’s decades of diverse industry experience have prepared him well for this important role,” said…
More than 169,000 Florida utility customers remained without power Monday as power companies struggled to repair damage caused by Hurricane Matthew. Twenty percent — nearly 92,000 — of those customers live in Duval County. Ranking next was Volusia County, with 44,268; Flagler County, with 16,256; and Brevard County, with 5,460. Other counties affected include Indian River, Putnam, Seminole, St. Johns, and St. Lucie. Gov. Rick Scott released the numbers Monday. Local officials were assessing storm damage, Scott said. A federal…
Tallahassee residents should expect their power on within the next week, officials said Friday night at a Hurricane Hermine Response Roundtable Discussion. Gov. Rick Scott convened a conference room full of local government, law enforcement and utility representatives at the state’s Emergency Operations Center. Teams are working around the clock to restore electricity and ensure public safety, they said. “In Tallahassee, we’ve got a lot of people without power, and that’s a problem,” the governor told the room. He was told…
