Hit on image to enlarge it.While driving through South Dade recently, I could not help but notice the work Florida Power and Light was doing throughout the community. Take a good look at the size of the monstrous poles in the photos above. The picture of the intersection gives a great perspective of the size of the existing poles, cars and the new monsters. The bottom middle photo was a pole being placed today in some lucky homeowner's back yard. What is corporate FPL thinking, putting up poles before the two new nuclear reactors are approved?
The real issue is what our state regulators and governments are doing...or should I say more accurately, not doing. They are meekly accepting the poles and the brutal scarring of our communities in exchange for what? Favors? Money? Campaign dollars?
Back to Corporate think: Do you know of any CEO that would allow his business to put millions of dollars into infrastructure if he was not confident of a done deal that would allow them to use the new infrastructure? That is what we see here in the photos. A done deal. We are looking at six photos of a completed back-room deal which has emboldened a CEO and his Board of Directors to spend the money for infrastructure that they claim they need for TWO unapproved NUKES in South Dade. They obviously aren't sweating not having their approvals.
If I were a CEO, I know I would not be gambling on a business expansion unless somewhere, somehow, somebody promised me something. I only love sure things. Don't you?
18 comments:
YOU HAVE NO CLUE.
I thank FPL for the system upgrades and safety features.
This is progress, learn to live with it.
Oh yeah, I do have a clue.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist or an electrical engineer to look at the existing poles and KNOW that they haven't been maintained.
In fact, the poles they are replacing are not in as bad of condition as many of the other ones that FPL "needed" funding for (from the rate payers) so they could replace them to be hurricane ready. hmmm... when was that claim made? Several years ago? Did they replace any poles? Not that I can see.
So using deductive reasoning, one may assume that if they don't maintain their poles which are cheaper than the mechanical aspects of their operation, THEN what exactly is the level of maintenance done on the very expensive aspect of their business assets?
IT is all about the bottom line. The corporate bottom line. Not the rate payer's.
I live near there, and let me tell you, people are NOT happy about it. It make the neighborhood so scant and dire. People are NOT happy with FPL right now, especially Mr. Gomes, the recipient of a 100 foot pole!
If what Professor Stoddard said in South Miami is true about childhood Leukemia and Alzheimers and power lines, we should all beware. Or is that be aware!
The system upgrades are a requirement of the FERC/NERC confidential stipulation and consent agreement resulting from the February 2008 Florida Blackout. Commissioner Spitzer's comments at the end of the Order are an interesting read. http://www.ferc.gov/eventcalendar/Files/20091008102212-IN08-5-0001.pdf
Youbetcha, There is no maintenance on existing poles only to replace them. The newer design is better for the long haul. Would you like to pay for replacements and/or continue cutting down trees? These new babies will withstand hurricane force winds. FPL is doing an excellent job.
From the above document:
Docket No. IN08-5-000 - 2 -
In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress vested the Commission with the
authority to approve and enforce Reliability Standards. Critical to that responsibility are
clear rules, regulations and policies. Indeed, as I have explained before, such clarity and
transparency is an important means to ensure a meaningful enforcement program. See,
e.g., Tenaska Marketing Ventures, et al., 126 FERC ¶ 61,040 at 61,247 (2009) (Spitzer,
dissenting).
The problem with today’s Order is that, by failing to identify with any specificity
the Reliability Standards that FPL is alleged to have violated or how the facts support the
application of the Reliability Standards, the Commission fails to provide clarity or
transparency to the industry as to what is expected under the relevant Reliability
Standards. I appreciate that settlements are case-specific matters rather than industry-
wide promulgations. This proceeding, however, is the first reliability enforcement matter
in which we impose a substantial penalty and specific mitigation measures in response to
a serious outage. Yet we provide no meaningful information as to why the actions taken
by FPL leading up to and after the Florida Blackout are, in the Commission’s view,
violative of the Reliability Standards. We provide no information as to which Reliability
Standards caused the Commission and NERC to investigate the matter in the first
instance or to impose the penalty and mitigation program herein.
The Commission’s enforcement authority, including the imposition of sanctions, is
a component of the Commission’s mission. However, the Commission’s ultimate
objective is to promote compliance with our rules, regulations and orders. We best
achieve that objective by providing all users, owners and operators of the grid clarity as
to how the Commission will apply the Reliability Standards. Today’s Order fails to
provide that important information.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur in the Order.
_________________________
Marc Spitzer
Commissioner
huh? on my street there are leaning tower poles and all sorts of trees in the wires. they are wooden poles that are beat up.that is what I thought was being fixed.
from the looks of the pictures here, the poles they are putting up are not replacements for anything that we needed.
sorry, FPL should stop with the nuclear infrastructure and get busy fixing the things on my street.
why cant FPL bury this stuff?
Where's Dave? Perhaps he can enlighten Eye on Miami readers as to what mismanagement atrocities FPL committed and haven't been disclosed in the confidential agreement. The reliability violations have to be huge to warrant the $25 million fine and the race against the clock need to upgrade its transmission infrastructure.
Anon above...
Read the whole http://www.ferc.gov/eventcalendar/Files/20091008102212-IN08-5-0001.pdf.
You will see that they said:
“18. FPL’s action were neither intentional nor fraudulent.
19. FPL demonstrated exemplary cooperation throughout the investigation.
20. FPL implemented reliability enhancement measures immediately after the event and throughout the investigation.”
It also says “29. The Agreement shall remain confidential until approved by each party and the Commission issues an order approving the Agreement without modification or condition. The Agreement shall be made public only after the Commission’s approval without modification or condition.”
That tells me that it is not now confidential.
FPL’s action were neither intentional nor fraudulent.
Does that mean that FPL's action was criminal and negligent?
Look for the spin.
They weren't charged a $25,000,000 civil penalty for nothing XFP&Ler.
2. FPL has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $25,000,000. $10,000,000 shall be paid
each to the United States Treasury and NERC and $5,000,000 may be spent, subject to
Commission staff and NERC staff approval, by FPL on BES reliability enhancement
measures that go above and beyond the Agreement’s reliability compliance commitments
or what the Reliability Standards require. Moreover, as stated in the Agreement, FPL is
adding significant additional protection redundancy at several transmission stations.
Also, in the Agreement, FPL has committed to undertake numerous specific reliability
enhancement measures (apart from the $5,000,000 in expenditures noted above)
including: enhancing its compliance program; enhancing training and certification
requirements for operating employees; improving its frequency response; updating
emergency operating procedures; providing additional staffing for BES analysis; and
ensuring that specified equipment is properly inspected and maintained. FPL has also
agreed to make quarterly progress reports to Enforcement and NERC and conduct an
independent audit after one year following the Agreement to ensure compliance with the
Agreement.
At least they are removing the old poles. In Miami Beach they keep the old poles in place next to the new ones. You can find several dozen in South Beach.
exFPLer - We value our regular readers, like you, even though we sometimes give you a hard time. Enjoy the holidays!
Genius, try directing these questions to FPL:
1. What are the maximum voltage and power these poles are designed to carry?
2. Has FPL planned or applied for "upgrades" in voltage or current along this corridor?
Upgrading poles to better withstand winds seems like a good idea. Nobody likes powerpoles to fall over in a hurricane. But the biomedical literature does suggest that increasing power (and thus magnetic field intensity) in someone's yard is probably very bad for that someone and his family.
Dave here;
I have no expertise and little knowledge of the poles and wires side of the business...sorry.
Happy holidays to all!
To exFPLer, Looks like the agreement is still confidential. Just Googled "Florida February 2008 Outage" and results show Florida Public Service Commission docket: http://www.floridapsc.com/dockets/cms/docketDetails.aspx?docket=090505 - Review of Replacement Fuel Costs associated with outage. Virtually every document has been classified as confidential, and it appears FPL and not its customers will bear the cost of the replacement power.
From what I know about the outage and the fine is mostly from the press and talking to friends that still work of the company. What I do know is that the system protection engineer working in the substation did not follow procedures and disabled the redundant system protection systems in order to conduct some troubleshooting. He should not have done this, it was his mistake and processes should have been in place to not let this happen. As one can see by the size of the fine, FERC thought, and rightly so in my opinion, that FPL did not have the proper procedures in place to prevent such actions from happening. In other words they screwed up and got punished for it.
As for the confidential records, some believe, the federal regulatory agencies and the PSC among them, that FPL has the right to keep some information private. If you think that any and all records FPL has should be required to be available to anyone I suggest pushing your legislators to require it.
On the comment “In Miami Beach they keep the old poles in place next to the new ones.” This is a pet peeve with me. I would bet that if you were to look at the poles the electric utility and maybe even the AT&T (aka BellSouth) facilities have been moved to the new pole. What you will probably see is the cable TV attachments have not been moved. The pole cannot be removed until all the facilities have been moved. The cable companies are notorious for failing to remove attachments. Many times you will see poles cut off at a point below the “Power Zone” with the other attachments still there for years.
Another comment on poles. Believe it or not all poles are not owned by FPL. Many of the poles are owned by the phone company (remember the term “telephone pole”) and have power attachments to them. FPL has replaced many of the telephone poles with their own over the years.
Genius – keep up the good work and you and all have “Happy Holidays”.
BTW – I don’t know why I bother to do this as you said “Good public relations has been a fiasco this year for FP&L”. I agree they have arrogant and not forthcoming with information with the community.
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