As president of Florida Power & Light Company, Eric Silagy leads the thousands of employees who bring affordable, reliable power to you every day. He’s raising his family here in the sunshine state, something that fuels his drive to always look for ways to make tomorrow better for all of us.

If you’ve experienced a hurricane here in Florida, you know how important it is to be prepared. For me, and the rest of us here at FPL, that means always working to make the system that brings power to your home stronger.

We’re doing this by accelerating our ongoing work to make our system more resilient against storms, now rather than years down the road. In fact, we’re investing approximately half a billion dollars between 2013 and 2015 to make improvements, such as installing stronger poles, putting in more resilient equipment and working to protect our system against storm surges. This work continues the multi-year storm strengthening effort we began following the devastating hurricanes in 2004 and 2005.

Some of the improvements we’ll make over the next three years come after seeing the successes of previous efforts to reinforce our system. For example, our experience with recent storms shows that power lines that we’ve already strengthened are roughly half as likely to have an outage during severe weather. That means fewer outages, faster restoration and better everyday reliability for you. We’re also using key lessons learned from previous storms, including Superstorm Sandy.

While Florida hasn’t experienced a major hurricane in several years, Sandy’s devastation in the Northeast served as a stark reminder to Floridians how powerful Mother Nature can be. It also supported my belief that it’s not a matter of if Florida will have another severe storm, but when. I am committed to doing what it takes to get your life back to normal quickly after a storm. Our improvements will help us do that for generations to come.

This is how all of us here at FPL are preparing for future hurricanes. At home, I’m making sure my family is prepared, too. We can help you get ready. Just visit our Storm Center for important information that will help everyone get through this storm season safely.

- Eric Silagy

As president of Florida Power & Light Company, Eric Silagy leads the thousands of employees who bring affordable, reliable power to you every day. He’s raising his family here in the sunshine state, something that fuels his drive to always look for ways to make tomorrow better for all of us.

While it’s been almost eight years since a hurricane impacted our service territory, we have not forgotten the challenges that one brings. We’ve been fortunate in recent years to avoid a direct impact from a major storm, but it’s only a matter of time before Florida is hit again.

We know our customers and the state’s economy depend on us to be prepared for hurricanes. When a storm strikes, it’s critical that we get communities up and running and residents’ lives back to normal safely and as quickly as possible.

Every storm, large or small, reinforces our belief that we must continually hone our response plans and strengthen our system. After the devastating hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, we embarked on a multi-year effort to strengthen our infrastructure, investing nearly half a billion dollars over the last five years to better protect our system.

Now we’re accelerating these improvements, with plans to invest another approximately half a billion dollars during the next three years to continue improving the overall resiliency of the electric system for our customers. We’re stepping up efforts to deploy wind-resilient equipment throughout the backbone of the grid. And we’re also continuing to harden power lines serving critical facilities and community needs, such as hospitals, police and fire stations, 911 facilities, water-treatment plants, grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies.

While essential during a major storm, these improvements also benefit FPL customers year-round, enabling faster restoration after severe weather and improving everyday service reliability for your business.

As hurricane season gets underway, I invite you to visit our Storm Center for information that can help your business and employees prepare for severe weather.

- Eric Silagy

Road to savings

When you think about buying an electric vehicle, the up-front purchase price isn’t the only thing you should consider. Owning an electric vehicle can be cheaper than owning a regular car in the long run.  That’s because it’s far less expensive to “fill-up” with electricity than with gas – particularly because FPL’s rates are 26 percent below the national average. Electric vehicle owners also typically save on repairs and routine maintenance costs because oil changes and transmission work is not needed. Imaging that? This can all add up to thousands of dollars of savings over the life of the car. Here’s how:

• Charge for about 80 percent less than what you spend at the gas pump. It’s like paying 77 cents per gallon.
• Save approximately 35 percent on scheduled maintenance and 30 percent on repairs.

Available incentives

Another way to get the most value out of owning an electric vehicle is by taking advantage of available federal, state and local incentives. Search the different incentives available for electric vehicle owners.

We’ve been working to educate customers about these vehicles because they cost far less to fuel than traditional cars, which is good for your wallet. They’re also helping to reduce dependence on foreign oil and keep our air clean, something that’s good for everyone.

At Florida Power & Light, we are passionate about plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), and so are our customers. With PEVs’ ability to lower fuel costs by 80 percent, while emitting 70 percent fewer emissions compared to gas-powered cars in FPL’s service territory, we certainly believe these vehicles live up to their hype and excitement.

I recently spoke with an FPL customer who is so hooked on his all-electric Nissan Leaf that he plans to own one for the rest of his life. After transitioning to a Leaf from a Lincoln Navigator, which he says got about 12 miles to the gallon, David Douglas shared his enthusiasm with us in this brief interview:*

Q: What motivated you to purchase an electric vehicle?
A: I used to drive a Navigator that got about 12 miles a gallon. I got so tired of driving a tank with me being the only passenger.

Q: How did you learn about the Leaf?
A: The first time I saw a commercial about the Leaf, I went online to investigate. In ten minutes, I was hooked. I went to Naples Nissan and test-drove one, then went home and placed an order for a Leaf. Once getting my new car, I fell in love with it. The Leaf replaced the Navigator, and I have never looked back.

Q: What’s your favorite part about the car?
A: No more gas stations. No more oil changes. The Leaf is also fun to drive, quiet, and very fast. I was shocked how fast the Leaf is.

Q: Approximately how much have you seen your electric bill increase each month?
A: I have only seen an increase of about $35 a month. That’s with recharging every day. I was spending $80 a week on filling the beast Navigator.

Q: How do you charge your Leaf?
A: I plug my Leaf in at the end of the day into a 110 volt outlet, and by morning, the Leaf is fully charged. One thing I do not understand is why Nissan is pushing a charging station.

Q: So, you don’t think it’s necessary for EV owners to install a charging station at home?
A: Don’t waste your money on the charging station.

Q: Have you ever used a public charging station, then?
A: I have never used a public charging station, never needed to.

Q: What is your typical day of driving like in the Leaf?
A: My day with my Leaf: drive to the grocery store, drive to the health club, go out for dinner, and then back home.

Q: How far do you get on a single charge of your battery?
A:  On a full charge, I am getting about 100 miles per charge. I also find the gauge for miles left is very accurate. I have been down to two miles left, and the performance was great.

Q: You seem pretty happy with your Leaf. Would you buy another electric vehicle (EV)?
A: I am very hooked on my EV. I will always own an EV for the rest of my life.

Q: What would you tell people who are curious about owning a Leaf or another electric vehicle?
A: I must have 10 people a day ask me about the Leaf. What I can’t figure out is why people can’t figure it out. It’s the greatest thing since the invention of the tire.

To learn more about electric vehicles, you can visit www.FPL.com/ElectricVehicles.

We’d love to hear from you! If you own a PEV, or are considering buying one, we want to hear what you think. Contact us at electricvehicles@fpl.com.

*Please note that not all opinions of our customers reflect those of FPL.

One of the things I love about my job is being able to create something that’s good for not only customers, but the environment, too. In October 2012, we  removed and replaced 130 concrete poles in Port St. Lucie with 60 poles that are more storm-resilient. The donated poles, weighing a total of about 2,000 tons — that’s the same as 1,250 mid-sized cars — were submerged off the coast during four deployments toward the end of 2012.

These new reefs, located about 11 miles from the Fort Pierce Inlet, are in addition to an artificial reef created in 2005 using FPL-donated material. The poles mark the largest and second donation of material from FPL for St. Lucie County’s artificial reef program.

Interested in visiting our new reefs? Plug these coordinates into your GPS:

• 27 degrees 23.511 minutes north latitude and 80 degrees 2.961 minutes west longitude; and
• 27 degrees 32.083 minutes north latitude and 80 degrees 11.433 minutes west longitude.

We’re excited to not only offer our customers in St. Lucie County more reliable energy, but now they have two new reefs that will draw residents and tourists to enjoy the some of the recreational features of our beautiful area. And we hear the reefs are already attracting some fish. Hope you enjoy!