{"id":327482,"date":"2026-07-02T17:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T17:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/327482\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T17:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T17:27:07","slug":"this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/327482\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 With hurricane season underway, Florida Power &amp; Light says storm readiness isn\u2019t just about what homeowners buy at the store. It\u2019s also about infrastructure work that happens throughout the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cWhat we really want our customers to know is that at FPL, we prepare year-round for hurricane season,\u201d said Kam Eppinger, an FPL spokesperson, on &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/topic\/This_Week_in_Jacksonville\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/topic\/This_Week_in_Jacksonville\/\">This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition<\/a>,&#8221; Eppinger said that includes a three-part approach: strengthening overhead systems, managing vegetation near power lines, and undergrounding some neighborhood distribution lines through the Storm Secure Underground program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">PREVIOUS EPISODE | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/this-week-in-jacksonville\/2026\/06\/25\/this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition-tim-cost-reflects-on-14-years-leading-jacksonville-university\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/this-week-in-jacksonville\/2026\/06\/25\/this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition-tim-cost-reflects-on-14-years-leading-jacksonville-university\/\">Tim Cost reflects on 14 years leading Jacksonville University<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Another key piece is smart grid technology designed to reduce outages before they spread. Eppinger called it \u201cone of my favorite tools in our toolkit,\u201d saying it \u201callows the grid to self-heal on its own and in turn avoid widespread outages.\u201d He likened the concept to a phone\u2019s GPS -rerouting around problems to keep service moving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Undergrounding is also expanding, but FPL says it\u2019s guided by data. \u201cIt takes a data-driven approach at determining which lines to place underground,\u201d Eppinger said, looking at hurricane-related and vegetation-related outages to target neighborhoods that would benefit most. Since the program launched in 2019, he said FPL has completed \u201cmore than 2,400 projects\u201d across its service territory, including in the Jacksonville area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Even with upgrades, Eppinger stressed limits. \u201cMother Nature will always win. There is no 100% stormproof grid,\u201d he said, adding that underground lines can also face problems &#8211; especially flooding &#8211; after a storm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">His advice now: treat hurricane readiness as a plan, not a last-minute purchase. \u201cNow is really the time to start thinking about your emergency plans and\u2026 act on those plans should you need to,\u201d he said &#8211; especially for families who rely on electricity for medical equipment, and for anyone who owns a generator that needs to be tested and operated safely.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 With hurricane season underway, Florida Power &amp; Light says storm readiness isn\u2019t just about what&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7364,116,118,117,7363],"class_list":["post-327482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-business-edition","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-this-week-in-jacksonville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}