Duke Energy’s smart self-healing technology helped keep the lights on during Florida’s first storm season in recent years without a direct hit from hurricanes.

In 2025 alone, the self-healing technology helped avoid more than 280,000 extended power outages for Duke Energy Florida customers.

The self-healing technology automatically detects outages and quickly reroutes power to restore service faster or even avoid the outage altogether. This can help reduce the number affected by an outage by as much as 75% and can often restore power in less than a minute.

Out of two million customers, more than 1.7 million now benefit from self-healing technology. That’s 82%, and more than double the number who were served with the technology in 2020.

The investment has avoided more than 280,000 extended power outages and more than 300,000 hours of outages for customers. Self-healing technology also saved millions of hours of outages during the 2024 hurricane season: 3.3 million hours during Hurricane Milton; 1.8 million hours during Hurricane Helene; and 208,000 hours during Hurricane Debby.

“Even without major storms, we see the benefits of self-healing technology,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “It helps our system respond automatically when something goes wrong, often restoring power in seconds and reducing how many customers are affected. That means fewer outages, faster restoration and a more reliable experience for our customers year-round.”

Outside of storms and severe weather, various factors can impact power reliability, including vegetation, wildlife or vehicles coming into contact with power lines or poles. These often unpredictable events are why investment in self-healing technology is critical to improve reliability and reduce outage minutes.

Duke Energy plans to continue expanding its self-healing technology capabilities during 2026, helping deliver smarter, stronger and more resilient power on both blue-sky days and during severe weather.

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,300MW of energy capacity, supplying electricity to two million residential, commercial and industrial customers across its service area in Florida.

Duke Energy (duke-energy.com), headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, serves 8.4 million electricity users in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 54,800MW of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. 

To see a video of the self-healing technology in action, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6haWLM0Rrs.