Duke Energy shows off mobile command center ahead of hurricane season

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Almost everything Duke Energy crews are able to do at the company’s central control center in St. Pete, they can now do on wheels.

"This vehicle behind us allows us to be incredibly agile," Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state President, said at a press conference Wednesday.

"We have a lot of counties that are much more rural," she said "It allows us to get to the hardest hit areas. It allows our leadership to be there with our crews as they are restoring and quite often rebuilding an infrastructure."

According to Seixas, they’ve long had similar mobile command units that they’ve rented or leased, but recently found it’s much more cost-effective to have their own.

Duke’s unit was deployed after Hurricane Idalia last year. It has Wi-Fi and mobile broadband, which allows field crews to talk to the central control center crews. Those crews are keeping an eye on the power grid across the state with the help of a pretty cool piece of technology.

"Self-healing technology, which basically is kind of like your traffic app, that if there's a traffic accident, it'll automatically reroute you. That is kind of what this self-healing equipment does," Seixas said. "It automatically reroutes power if able, to ensure that customers aren't off and they don't have to wait for us to roll a truck out."

The technology covers about 70 percent of Duke customers in Florida. 

Seixas said Duke works on technology to reduce outages and on infrastructure improvements year-round.

"We are applying, enhancing, improving, going into this storm season, we really are expanding and amplifying the preparedness message to our customers and to our employees and their families," she said.

READ: Sen. Scott urges hurricane preparedness: 'You have to do your part'

It’s a message they aren’t alone in spreading. 

"The police department, the first responders, we're going to do everything possible to keep you safe. but we can't do it alone, and Duke Energy is fabulous at trying to get power restored as quickly as possible," St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said at the press conference. "But again, we have to be prepared and ready to work together as a team so we can make sure, number one, that everyone's safe, and number two, make sure we can get everybody back to what's considered normal form of living."

Duke Energy says staging resources ahead of the storm has been instrumental in helping them restore power quickly. During Hurricane Idalia, they had close to 5,000 people and resources from across the country helping get families' lives back to normal. 

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