FMEA Recognizes Florida Public Power Utilities with 2024 “Restoring Communities Awards”

The Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) announced its 2024 “Restoring Communities Awards,” which recognize Florida public power utilities for their exemplary power restoration efforts in their own communities or their mutual aid efforts outside of their home communities following hurricanes, other severe weather events and non-weather-related emergencies.

Twenty-eight (28) Florida public power utilities were honored for their efforts to restore power quickly and safely when called on in 2024. These awards follow an incredibly active and destructive hurricane season for Florida, with August’s Hurricane Debby, a Category 1 storm, and back-to-back major Hurricanes Helene and Milton causing widespread power outages within weeks of one another. In addition, Florida’s public power utilities were also recognized for providing mutual aid assistance to Louisiana following Hurricane Francine and to public power utilities in South Carolina and neighboring Florida electric cooperative utilities following Hurricane Helene.

The award also recognized utilities for their mutual aid assistance provided to fellow public power utilities on major infrastructure improvement and reliability enhancement projects.

This year’s recipients include:

• City of Alachua
• City of Bartow
• Beaches Energy Services
• City of Bushnell
• City of Clewiston
• City of Fort Meade
• Fort Pierce Utilities Authority
• Gainesville Regional Utilities
• City of Green Cove Springs
• Town of Havana
• Homestead Public Services
• JEA
• Keys Energy Services
• Kissimmee Utility Authority
• Lake Worth Beach Electric Utilities
• Lakeland Electric
• City of Leesburg
• City of Moore Haven
• City of Mount Dora
• New Smyrna Beach Utilities
• City of Newberry
• Ocala Electric Utility
• Orlando Utilities Commission
• City of Starke
• City of Tallahassee
• City of Wauchula
• City of Williston
• City of Winter Park Electric Utility

“Last year was a particularly rough hurricane season for Florida with powerful hurricanes that brought destructive winds, heavy rain, storm surge, flooding and even a deadly tornado outbreak. Millions of people and communities across the state were impacted, some without enough time to recover from the previous storm before the next one hit,” said Amy Zubaly, FMEA Executive Director. “Thanks to the yearlong work they do to prepare and make their systems more resilient, like hardening their electrical systems and upgrading equipment, Florida’s public power utilities, along with the help of mutual aid crews from all over the country, were able to quickly get the power flowing again following three hurricanes, including two major storms. We appreciate everything our ‘Restoring Communities Award’ recipients did to power our communities forward after this brutal hurricane season.”

Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton left millions of Floridians without electricity. In preparation for these storms, FMEA activated its nationwide mutual aid network to assist with storm response and power restoration. Collectively, more than 4,300 lineworkers, tree-clearing crews and other personnel from across the United States answered the call for help and had crews ready to assist public power communities prior to the storms hitting our shores.

Mutual aid agreements enable electric utilities to call on each other for skilled emergency workers and supplies. Public power utilities across the country benefit from the strong network of mutual aid partners through the American Public Power Association. These connections have created a reliable system where member utilities both request and offer assistance when there’s a need. FMEA is proud to serve as the mutual aid coordinator for Florida’s 33 public power utilities.

For more information on FMEA and Florida’s public power communities, please visit www.flpublicpower.com.