Utilities

We continue to make progress on our system reliability with a number of large projects going through the plan- ning, engineering, material procurement, and construction contract award process. Using a combination of Lake Worth Beach crews and contractor crews, we completed numerous system hardening and reliability improvement projects that are already yielding significant reductions in outages. Resi- dents and the general public have been able to see firsthand the work of crews installing new poles, transformers, and power lines. While we track outage data to measure progress, we continue to receive comments from customers that they are experiencing fewer outages than in the past. Recognition from customers of improved performance is a reassurance that we’re on the right path.

Continuing on our efforts initiated in 2018 and 2019, in 2020, we significantly increased our attention to rudimentary outage prevention efforts, such as tree trimming, vegetation clear- ing, and installation of animal guards to reduce the ability of climbing wildlife to gain access to our power lines, insulators, and transformers. We also introduced technology such as infrared scanning of critical system components to identify hot spots, a potential source of future outages, and initiated pre- ventive maintenance. Additionally, we increased our practice of maintenance outages to inspect and repair equipment well ahead of the air conditioning season to reliably sustain higher electric loads ahead.