Why Didn't FPL (Florida Power & Light) Do More to Prepare for Irma?

[RockaFowler]

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-frustrated-with-fpl-after-hurricane-irma-9666311

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Many of those powerless residents are now asking hard questions of the area's power monopoly, which has spent millions of dollars fighting policies that would have strengthened the grid in the event of a major storm like Irma and, more broadly, stemmed the carbon-fueled climate change likely fueling monster storms.

SNIP

Hurricane Wilma, the last 'cane to hit South Florida, tore through the area in 2005 and killed power to 3.24 million of FPL's then-4.3 million customers (75 percent of the grid). Many of those customers had to wait up to two weeks for power to return. Since then, the company has spent more than $2 billion supposedly girding itself against the next storm, according to a Sun Sentinel piece published before Irma hit.

But after Irma — which by most reports brought only Category 1-strength winds to South Florida — by some measures the company did even worse. Despite all of those upgrades, an even larger percentage of FPL's customer base — 4.4 of 4.9 million customers, almost 90 percent — lost electricity this past weekend.

SNIP

But many Floridians wonder if the large number of residents without power and flubbed website are just the latest signs that the company has spent way too much on lobbying and government affairs and not nearly enough on hurricane-proofing the power grids it maintains in some of the most storm-prone areas of the world.

FPL and its parent company, NextEra Energy, have for years heavily influenced state and local politics through donations, making billions in profits each year ($1.7 billion alone in 2016) thanks to favorable state laws that are sometimes literally written by the power company's own lobbyists.

Why didn't FPL bury lines after Hurricanes Frances & Jeanne or Wilma? Why do we have to still pay for FPL service if we have Solar Panels?? Oh and why don't these panels work when FPL service is out?? This company and their monopoly on this state is unreal.

[bluepen]

1. "Why didn't FPL bury lines after Hurricanes Frances & Jeanne or Wilma?"

Most customers don't want to pay the increased rates to cover the cost of conversion and maintenance. They can opt to do so, but they don't, which is part of the reason why only 1/3 of FL's homes have underground lines.

[RockaFowler]

2. FPL has fought against it

FPL has also resisted some seemingly foolproof solutions to avoid storm outages, such as burying more lines. In a city that names its sports teams for hurricanes, a huge portion of FPL's power lines still sit above-ground and get blown apart even in tropical storm conditions.

The company's stubborn stance on burying lines has been on full display in an ongoing fight over 88 miles of new power lines it wants to build connecting to the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Homestead. That battle has dragged on for the better part of this decade, all because FPL has refused to bury lines. In 2014, the energy-friendly Gov. Rick Scott said FPL could move ahead with the project, but local governments sued. This year, FPL and the City of Miami settled their suit, and the company agreed to bury five miles of lines as long as the city dropped the rest of its complaints.

[bluepen]

4. So have customers.

[RockaFowler]

5. It should be at FPL's cost

Not customers
So no customers have not fought against it. FPL still raises their rates no matter what. Gas went up and boom we were stuck with the bill. Gas went down and I didn't see a rate reduction. Why aren't they using more solar across the state?? We could go on and on with this horrible monopoly.

Oh and don't get me started on local utilities. Lake Worth Utilities took far longer to get power back on and they have 20,000 or 30,000 customers. All utilities need to get updated at their cost not ours!! We pay enough to get the system going and the companies continue to make money above and beyond!

[FM123]

7. Yes, it should be at FPL's cost, residents should not be asked to pay higher bills.

If FPL did not choose to spend way so much $$$ on lobbying and government affairs there would be no need to ask the residents to pony up.

[bluepen]

8. FPL gets their money from customers.

Rates will go up.

And yes, customers have fought against it for that reason.

[bluepen]

10. Furthermore, you can't put underground lines in some

of the most vulnerable areas.

To the larger points you're raising, though, read this: http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20170916/putting-power-lines-underground-can-be-complicated-expensive

[FM123]

3. I am one of those Floridians asking that very same question?!?

Answer me F'FPL

[TexasProgresive]

6. How high an electric bill would you be willing to pay

for all aerial plant to be placed underground?
Buried electrical plant is very costly.
It is susceptible to construction damage.
Underground leakage is very dangerous and a real possibility with higher transmission voltages.

Solar panels produce DC voltage which your home cannot use. There will be an inverter that changes the DC to AC at the proper voltages. The inverter may be powered by the grid. This is especially true if excess solar power is passed through to the grid. I suppose that one could get a backup inverter that would be DC powered. That would require circuitry to maintain the 60 cycle frequency as the regular inverter uses the commercial power to do that.

Two things our crews feared when burying telcom cable or setting poles were undetected buried power and gas pipelines. Water lines are a nuisance but unless you hit a 30 inch line not likely to drown you.

Here's an interesting document on what it takes to bury transmission lines as opposed to lower voltage distribution lines.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&ved=0ahUKEwjr7NeLiq_WAhVEOpoKHSb4C5IQFghfMAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpsc.wi.gov%2FDocuments%2FUnder%2520Ground%2520Transmission.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFzNm1nx9-sPj4ihDE_fF8xvrSwtg

[librechik]

9. easier to apologize than to prepare

and cheaper

[Weekend Warrior]

11. Duke Energy is the same. They have simply been maintaining '70's infrastructure...

While increasing their ability to tell who is down and respond quicker. That's nice but they have to respond often as we have power outages during summer thunderstorms.

[Joe941]

12. They are operating with a tRump like thought process.

[WinkyDink]

13. My conclusion: "billions in profits each year." IOW, "more to prepare" was deemed NOT "cost-

effective."

[HAB911]

14. The PSC is their pocket

[genxlib]

15. I understand your frustration

But your solutions are not as easy as it seems.

First of all, undergrounding of utilities is incredibly expensive. It can easily run 20,000 per household or more. Trying to get all of their customers underground would amount to a cost that would dwarf their profits (even if you thought they deserved no profits). Beyond costs, it is complicated and can take years to implement. Plus, if you get rid of the poles, you have to also move the other utilities that are on them (cable and phone)

Aside from that, I have lived in FPL territory for 33 years. I have lost power for an extended duration 3 times (Andrew, Wilma and Irma). So losing power on a frequency of about ~12 years.

The economics don't add up to make the improvements you are requesting. You can demand that FPL do it at their own cost but it is not reasonable to expect that we won't see that in our rates. I can demand that Tesla give me a car for the same price as a Ford but they won't.

FPL has made investments in hardening and I know this because one is literally taking place in my back yard. All of the wood poles are being replaced with concrete ones that are taller and above the tree canopy.

To answer your other questions about solar panels...you pay FPL because you still use their system. Solar power is intermittent and rarely provides enough power to go completely off the grid. Batteries can help that but are expensive and would only work if you generated more power than you need. Therefore, the grid that is operated and paid for by FPL absorbs your excess power when you make it and feeds you power when you need it. Without them, solar panels rarely make sense. You pay for that service because otherwise you would be an expense to them without generating revenue.

Finally, solar is turned off during storm because it is a safety issue for people working on downed power lines if they have power feeding back through them. In any case, the power generated is not consistent enough to actually power a house without surges and blinking that would damage equipment. The only way around that is to run the power through a battery pack that operates like a UPS which residential systems don't usually have.

[rockfordfile]

16. Same thing can be said for Duke Power