FPL underground power lines: do you still need a battery?

It's FPL's program for replacing overhead neighborhood power lines with underground ones, part of the Storm Protection Plan approved by the Florida Public Service Commission. FPL says the main target is trees and branches hitting overhead lines, a leading cause of outages in hurricanes and severe weather.

• Neighborhood lines only. It buries the lines closest to homes (laterals), not the main feeder lines along major roads.
• FPL picks the neighborhoods. Selection uses criteria the Public Service Commission approved: outages in past hurricanes, outages caused by trees and other reliability data. FPL says it can't move a neighborhood up or down its list.
• Poles may stay. FPL removes its own overhead lines, but poles remain if the phone and cable companies don't bury theirs.
• Directional boring. Crews drill underground lines in sideways to limit digging in yards.

There's no upfront cost to homeowners. FPL recovers the cost from all of its customers through the Storm Protection Plan charge on every monthly bill, which also pays for other storm-hardening work. See why your FPL bill is so high for the charges on a 2026 bill.

If your street isn't on FPL's list, a city or community can ask FPL to bury its lines at any time, but then the city or community pays, usually through a special assessment on property owners. Those projects typically include the main lines too.

• A junction box at your meter. Every participating home is asked to sign a Junction Box Acknowledgement, which FPL says is not an easement; it lets FPL add an adapter next to your meter can to switch your service to underground. FPL also photographs your meter and meter can.
• Sometimes an easement. Where a transformer or other equipment is needed, FPL asks for an easement, usually 10 feet by 10 feet, recorded in county records and notarized. Not every home is asked.
• Outreach first. FPL sends a letter and holds community meetings before work starts. Its outreach staff wear FPL uniforms and badges and don't sell products.

If you're planning solar or a battery, tell your installer. Both connect at your meter and main panel, so it's worth knowing where FPL's junction box and any new transformer will sit.

By FPL's figures, underground neighborhood lines performed about five to 14 times better than overhead lines during the 2024 hurricane season (Debby, Helene and Milton), and about 50% better day to day. Those are FPL's own numbers; we found no independent study.

Scale is growing: FPL said in January 2026 that more than 22,000 Palm Beach County customers and more than 6,000 in St. Lucie and Indian River counties had been moved to underground lines.

For backup, usually yes. Buried neighborhood lines remove one cause of outages, falling trees on the lines by your house, but not the others:

• Flooding. In June 2024, Golden Beach, a town with underground power lines, lost power for more than 24 hours in flooding; FPL crews had to wait for the water to go down.
• Main lines and substations. The program doesn't bury the feeder lines along major roads, and a storm that damages them or a substation still cuts power to buried neighborhoods.
• Long restorations. After a major hurricane, your street can be fine and still wait on repairs elsewhere on the grid.

Solar panels alone shut off when the grid goes down. A battery is what keeps a home running, and with panels it can recharge each day. See solar and power outages, what a home battery costs and generator vs. battery.