Duke Energy Florida recently announced the company’s large-scale battery facility in the Alachua County town of Micanopy is now capable of providing backup power to the local community, including homes, businesses, schools, public safety buildings and more, when it is needed most – during storms.
The 8.25-megawatt lithium-based battery facility in Micanopy is the first site in Duke Energy Florida’s portfolio that is able to automatically disconnect from the electric grid during storms and supply power to approximately 800 customers for up to eight hours, helping prevent outages.
While Duke Energy Florida placed the Micanopy battery facility in service in August 2022, it has been only operating with this functionality, often known as “islanding,” since January 2025.
“Basically, an ‘islanded’ battery facility is to an entire community what a standard generator is to a single home or business,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “This innovative technology helps keep the lights on for our customers in and around Micanopy when hurricanes, or even just afternoon thunderstorms, threaten to interrupt the power.”
Duke Energy Florida currently owns, operates and maintains six battery facilities throughout the state. Ultimately, the goal is for most of them to be able to enter “island mode” by 2026.
This technology is one of many investments Duke Energy Florida has made to help create a stronger, more resilient electric grid on behalf of the two million customers across its 35-county service territory. To date, the company has hardened more than 40,000 power poles, replacing wooden poles with those that are made of more durable concrete or steel, and 50% of its primary power lines are now underground, shielded – for the most part – from the elements during storms.
Additionally, over 75% of all Duke Energy Florida customers currently benefit from self-healing technology, which quickly identifies outages and reroutes power to restore service faster. It has saved hundreds of millions of outage minutes during storms, including more than 300 million minutes during the 2024 Hurricane Season alone.
Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,300 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to two million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in the Sunshine State.
