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to withstand the hurricane , as opposed to having to recover .”
Cathryn adds : “ Since Hurricane Irma in 2017 , we ’ ve focused on hardening our grid . We ’ ve replaced several wooden poles with steel ones , for instance , and added features on our lines to automatically prevent outages .”
Such investments have enabled Lakeland to significantly reduce the time it takes to restore power . “ Sixty percent of our customers lost power due to Hurricane Irma ,” Mike reveals . “ We restored some of the major damage and got a substantial number of those reconnected within the first 24 hours , but it took us a total of 12 days to restore power completely .
“ However , if we compare that to the hurricane we experienced last year , where we had a similar volume of outage , we managed to restore power in just six days . This shows that the investments we ’ ve made over the last five years or so have halved the time it takes for us to restore power to all those who lost it .
“ We ’ ve also investigated the advantages of underground versus overhead power lines , but it can be more or less challenging depending on how populated an area is , as well as its geographical nature ,” he continues . “ While we are installing these lines where possible , we ’ re strategic about the locations , as not all areas are a successful fit for underground cables , like areas prone to flooding , for example .”
First for us
Returning to the topic of renewable energy , Cathryn explains : “ We closed our last coal plant in 2021 and we ’ ve
Although coal did a lot of great things for our country , it ’ s time to move on to more sustainable sources
already reduced our carbon emissions by 50 percent . We ’ ve also recently purchased six reciprocating internal combustion engines ( RICE ), which fire up much quicker than traditional gas turbines and can take on load in a matter of minutes .
“ We ’ re quite excited about the generators , as it ’ s the first installation of MAN Energy Solutions ’ engines for electric generation in the US ,” she adds . “ They ’ re 20 megawatts each and we can move them around to match demand , which is crucial as we increasingly rely on renewable energy , specifically solar .”
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