Last month, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) launched FPLAir One, a remote-operated drone the size of a small plane that is capable of flying from South to North Florida, then to the edge of the panhandle, and back in one continuous flight. During its flights, the drone captures high-quality images and videos of FPL infrastructure, which FPL will use to monitor the energy grid.

FPLAir One is equipped with LiDAR technology, which allows it to create a digital twin of FPL infrastructure to detect changes in heat on the equipment and help prevent outages, while onboard cameras can help scope vegetation work for FPL infrastructure.

The drone also is able to fly in tropical-storm-force winds, giving FPL the ability to gather real-time information and identify the causes of storm outages before it is safe for lineworkers to begin restoring power. The varied abilities of FPLAir One should increase FPL’s outage restoration time and also improve service reliability in day-to-day operations.

“We’re always looking for new ways to improve on our industry-leading reliability and enhance the way we serve more than 12 million people each day,” said FPL Chairman, President, and CEO Eric Silagy. “FPLAir One is a game-changer for our customers and a prime example of how our employees are not afraid to lead and challenge the status quo. Being able to quickly put eyes on infrastructure in our service area – which extends across more than half the state – is a huge benefit to our customers and will help us continue to push the envelope as we work to improve the resiliency of our system.”

FPLAir One is the first commercial uncrewed fixed-wing drone of its size to be used outside of a Federal Aviation Association (FAA) test site for research and development. It joins FPL’s growing drone fleet, which conducted 120,000 flights in 2021 alone.

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