Bay Hill Area Grid Improvements

Duke Energy is working hard in your community to improve reliability, reduce outages, strengthen the power grid against severe weather and prepare our system to serve a growing area. As part of this commitment, we are conducting a multiyear grid improvement project in the Bay Hill area.

About the Project

We’re upgrading our electric infrastructure in the Bay Hill area, including improvements in our Bay Hill substation. Work will continue in phases through 2024 and will center around these primary work objectives:

Strengthening the power grid to help avoid power outages: Upgrading power lines, poles and essential equipment
Improving reliability and reducing outage time: Installing smart, self-healing technology that automatically detects power outages and quickly reroutes power to restore service faster
Expanding capacity and preparing the area for sustainable growth: Completing substation improvements, new underground and overhead power lines to provide more capacity to the area

Work began in January of 2023 to extend self-healing technology along the main power lines in your area. Crews are installing automatic sensors and communication equipment, control boxes on poles, switching equipment and reclosers that can automatically isolate outages and restore power. We’ll also be upgrading poles and electric wire in some areas.

Future phases of work will include the installation of smart, self-healing technology to better serve customers in the Bay Hill area, as well as vegetation management and pole and line upgrades in the area. Work will take place along several streets in the Bay Hill area, as well as behind homes in some areas where line and pole work need to be conducted. Duke Energy will communicate with customers affected by this work in advance of the beginning of the work.

Update on In-Progress Targeted Undergrounding Projects

As with any major infrastructure project, schedules may change due to weather, availability of resources and materials and other challenges. Electric utilities, like many other industries, are not immune to temporary supply chain challenges – especially around some of the components needed for undergrounding work. To help ensure needed inventories for outage restoration, major storm response and daily operational needs, we are delaying some proactive underground grid improvements until supplies return to more normal levels.

While some underground work is temporarily delayed, we will continue to make other grid improvements that will benefit your community. Ongoing overhead improvements will support upcoming undergrounding projects, like the one planned for your neighborhood, and add increased capabilities to the grid that serve all customers. While the overhead improvements are in progress, we will continue moving forward with engineering design and field assessments of many of the undergrounding projects previously identified, including yours.

The advancements in grid improvement that we have implemented over the past three years have already shown positive results. For example, as Hurricane Ian made its way across Florida, self-healing technology automatically restored more than 160,000 customer outages and saved nearly 3.3 million hours of total lost outage time. This technology is being expanded throughout our service area to further enhance the grid’s resiliency.

To help ensure that we can keep you informed, please log in to your online Duke Energy account to confirm your contact information is correct, or call our Customer Care Center at 800.700.8744.

Learn more about grid-strengthening technologies

These videos offer more information about two of the types of projects we will be implementing to strengthen your electric grid.

Duke Energy uses smart, self-healing technology to better serve customers when power outages occur.
Moving outage-prone lines underground can significantly reduce power outages and momentary service interruptions.

Contact Us

For more information, please contact us.

Frequently Asked Questions

As Florida continues to grow, we must upgrade and expand the energy infrastructure to power the community. Duke Energy is working hard to help ensure that the energy infrastructure serving the Bay Hill area and other Florida communities can reliably serve customers now and in the future. Improvements such as substation upgrades, as well as new and upgraded power lines, will help increase electric capacity in the area to sustainably support this growth.

In addition to growth, Duke Energy wants to make sure that all customers enjoy the same high level of reliability and service. A recent reliability analysis identified locations that could benefit from new smart technologies, pole replacements and upgrades, vegetation management and other improvements to help ensure reliable service now and in the future.
Various phases of the work along roads will likely include temporary traffic flow changes and potential temporary lane closures. Large utility and construction equipment, as well as utility crews, will be present in work zones. A planned outage may also be necessary to complete certain projects. We will notify affected customers prior to any planned outage.

In some instances, crews may also need to work in our right of way behind a customer's home or business to access a power line or other equipment.
For portions of the project, crews may need to access overhead lines and equipment located behind homes and businesses. This work may require access through gates or fences. If your meter base is not compatible with the new line, construction crews may need to install an adapter, or an electrician will contact you to schedule the installation of a new meter base. We will notify property owners in advance if such access is required.
We are making strategic improvements to the power grid in Bay Hill to help increase reliability, strengthen the grid against severe weather and other threats, expand innovative technologies like solar battery storage, and provide customers with more control over their energy use and tools to save money.

We are conducting many improvements in Bay Hill, such as:
- Pole and line upgrades to strengthen the grid against outages from severe weather
- Self-healing technologies that automatically detect power outages and reroute service to restore power faster
- Additional energy pathways and smart technology around critical areas of the city, such as uptown, the airport and hospitals, to provide new tools to avoid outages and restore power faster when outages occur
- Reliability improvements in areas that have experienced a higher number of outages
- Strategic undergrounding of outage-prone line segments to help improve reliability for customers
- Increasing substation and line capacity in fast-growing areas of Bay Hill and the region
In addition, Duke Energy customers in the area can access new tools and options through their smart meter, including hourly and daily usage information, to help better manage energy use and save money.

Learn more about the ways Duke Energy is working to build a better energy grid in Florida.