Christmas 1989

A strong cold front came through South Florida, and people turned on their heat. FPL (Florida Power and Light) seemed to be caught totally unamware that A: Cold fronts come through in December, and B: That people would turn on the heat.

This resulted in rolling blackouts for 2 days. What we heard from the media was that these would be 15 minutes at a time. No big deal. But in reality, on Christmas day alone, my power was cut 5 or 6 times for no less then 45 minutes each. My neighborhood was not unique in this situation.

The whining in the paper the next day were mostly tales of the Christmas Turkey taking all day to cook (if it finished cooking at all) and homes getting cold. But if it had been during the middle of a work week, it would have been much different. FPL did not announce when the blackouts would affect various areas. I wouldn't have wanted to be in heavy, rush hour traffic when the plug was pulled. Or on an elevator, or halfway through ringing up a weeks worth of groceries for that matter.

I hope that if we do have planned blackouts, the electric companies will be a little more forthcoming that FPL was. It's a lot easier to plan around a known event, then being caught offguard with your turkey in the oven...lol.

Just a little taste of what rolling blackouts could be like. I hope you enjoy these two articles, they cost me $1.95 eachlol

Notice the first article talks about maintenance problems, but the second one places the blame squarely where it belongs - on us! Gee, any parallels to y2k?

THE MIAMI HERALD

MAINTENANCE ERROR A FACTOR IN BLACKOUTS

Friday, December 29, 1989

Section: FRONT

Page: 1A

SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: MARILYN ADAMS Herald Staff Writer

Rolling power blackouts would have been far less disruptive on Christmas Day had Florida Power & Light technicians correctly installed a few simple electrical-box covers at the utility's Turkey Point nuclear plant.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said Thursday that loose metal covers had allowed moisture to leak onto electrical wiring at the plant, forcing the automatic shutdown of one reactor Christmas Eve and the controlled shutdown for safety reasons and repairs of the second on Christmas Day -- when their generating power was desperately needed.

Public Service Commission Chairman Mike Wilson has ordered a formal inquiry into what caused Florida's power blackouts and how well the public was warned.

Meanwhile, Gov. Bob Martinez has formed a working group of top emergency, labor and social service officials to review how the weekend's crisis was handled.

On Christmas Day, Monday, FPL was short 3,000 megawatts of power when demand was at its peak. The two Turkey Point reactors, when in full service, provide nearly 1,400 megawatts. Both were down most of the day.

With record cold and power demands, the reactors shut down and other plants plagued by equipment failures, FPL was forced to cut power to some 300,000 homes on Monday during rolling blackouts throughout South Florida.

When it became clear that blackouts were unavoidable, FPL did not notify South Florida police, fire or emergency management agencies. And spokesmen for the emergency agencies acknowledge that they lack comprehensive plans for dealing with a cold-weather crisis.

"It certainly didn't make a lot of sense that emergency- preparedness officials were not notified," said Brian Ballard, Martinez's director of operations.

The blackouts -- which lasted from 30 minutes during rolling blackouts to several hours when transformers failed -- shut off lights and heaters, refrigerators and ovens, burglar alarms and traffic signals.

Luis Reyes, division director for the NRC in its Atlanta regional office, said preliminary findings of an NRC inspection pointed to improperly installed or assembled metal covers that had loose gaskets or screws. Altogether, five of 75 such covers were found to be leaking and ordered replaced, Reyes said.

"This should not happen," he said. "These boxes should have prevented moisture from entering the electrical connections."

He praised the utility's decision to shut down the second reactor for safety reasons.

FPL spokesman Dale Thomas said Thursday that, had both reactors been running perfectly, the blackouts would have been fewer and shorter.

Thomas said, however, that "we could have had every unit available, and we could have been buying power from Georgia, and rolling blackouts still would have been necessary."

Starting next week, the Public Service Commission will begin investigating the reasons for the weekend's failures at the FPL plants. But nuclear reactor shutdowns must be reported immediately to the NRC and investigated by NRC inspectors.

Although Turkey Point has experienced many shutdowns in the past, FPL has been able to make up for the lost power using other sources.

The cold crisis, blackouts and extensive crop damage are prompting a series of unusual steps by the governor.

On Thursday, Martinez declared the entire state an agricultural disaster area. Next Tuesday, he will begin a long- term review of responses to the crisis.

A major focus of the Public Service Commission inquiry will be why projections of power needs fell 22 percent short of the demand, according to commission figures. Utilities and the government "did not treat this like a natural disaster," Wilson said Thursday.

But FPL spokeswoman Stacey Shaw defended the utility's attempt to reach the public, saying FPL called news reporters Saturday and Sunday with the latest information available.

"I think we were in a lot of competition with other things," she said. "People were concentrating on shopping and cooking. I'm not sure that, despite a great deal of effort, that (the threat) registered."

She said emergency-preparedness agencies, along with the general public, had access to television, radio and newspaper reports.

Not only were emergency agencies not directly notified by the utility, but they also had no comprehensive plans of their own for dealing with the crisis. Emergency-preparedness officials in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties have detailed plans for coping with hurricanes and for housing the homeless in severe cold. But none have a plan on the books for emergency traffic direction, housing for people whose homes lack heat, and other contingencies.

Kate Hale, Metro-Dade's emergency management director, said FPL had contacted the Water and Sewer Authority on Friday to warn of possible blackouts and the possible need for backup generators. But police, fire, traffic engineering and emergency- preparedness officials were not notified, she said.

"I don't have a plan for dealing with cold weather," said Philip Weinfeld, the director of planning and operations for Broward's Emergency Preparedness Division. "This is a 100-year event."

THE MIAMI HERALD

FPL BLAMES USERS FOR ITS BLACKOUTS DEMAND STRAINED SYSTEM, UTILITY SAYS

Wednesday, December 27, 1989

Section: FRONT

Page: 1A

SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: MICHAEL HUBER Herald Business Writer

Memo: THE FLORIDA FREEZE

Illustration: map: FPL power plants and counties served in Florida with chart: list of units with capacity

Selfishness, the antithesis of the holiday spirit, caused the Christmas-weekend power shortage that left hundreds of thousands of South Floridians shivering, Florida Power & Light Co. said Tuesday.

"If consumers had kept their thermostats 4 degrees lower and had cut unnecessary usage, we would not have had to have the rolling blackouts," said FPL spokesman Gary Mehalik.

FPL cut power to neighborhood after neighborhood Sunday and Monday as record cold pushed the demand for electricity far beyond supply.

While frustrated customers were still fuming Tuesday, the utility and industry analysts said FPL did all it could do.

The utility estimates that it would have taken 15,300 megawatts to meet demand.

FPL could deliver about 14,200 megawatts. It had never before been called upon to produce more than 13,425 megawatts, a record set last August.

The system's capacity is 16,070 megawatts, but industry experts agree that the number is a theoretical peak that could be met only if every generator were operating nonstop and full- tilt.

Technical problems shut down two FPL units during the cold spell. A boiler ruptured at the Manatee plant, and a condenser went down at Turkey Point.

Another technical limitation was the utility's inability to increase the amount of power it buys out of state. The lines that carry the wholesale electricity to Florida from Georgia cannot handle more than 3,400 megawatts without melting down.

FPL buys two-thirds of that electricity, with the rest spread among the state's other major utilities.

Charles Winn, administrative manager of the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council, said geography severely limits Florida's ability to borrow power from other states in emergencies.

"Since it's a peninsula, the lines all have to come in from one direction instead of four," Winn said.

This cold snap was particularly wicked, he said, because it flash-froze every corner of the state.

"Usually, if a utility has a random breakdown, its neighbors within the state can help out," Winn said. "But this time, everyone was in trouble. Nobody had any power to spare."

John Hughes, director of technical affairs for the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, said the fact that the crisis came at Christmas not only increased usage, it also tied FPL's hands.

"They had no choice but to black out residential users," he said. "When you're running short on a workday, you can curtail your industrial customers."

Consumers, Hughes said, wouldn't want to pay for the capacity needed to deal with aberrant occurrences.

"The problem here was an unanticipated phenomenon. It puts the utility in a bind: Should they maintain supplies for something that can't be anticipated?" Hughes said. "As a consumer group, we would have trouble if a utility tried to have enough supply for any and all contingencies. It comes down to: How much insurance are you willing to pay for?"

All of Florida's electric utilities had to resort to rolling blackouts, said Bob Trapp, assistant director of the state Public Service Commission's Electric and Gas Division.

"I honestly don't see how they could prepare for a one-in- a-hundred-year cold spell," Trapp said.

He said December can be the cruelest month for Florida utilities because heating systems -- particularly the simple "strip heaters" that are prevalent here -- use much more electricity than do air conditioning systems. That's compounded, he said, by the fact that Florida houses are built to dissipate heat, not hold it.

"This was an aberration," Trapp said, "but it may have the effect of expediting the building of additional generating capacity."

FPL's 13 power plants can generate 13,629 megawatts. On top of that, the utility has contracts to buy 2,441 megawatts, 85 percent of which comes from the Georgia-based Southern Cos.

FPL wants to spend $2.8 billion to build and upgrade generators in Fort Lauderdale and Martin County. The proposed projects, which are to go before the state Public Service Commission in March, would add nearly 2,000 megawatts of generating capacity.

Here are some follow-up stories

*********************

THE MIAMI HERALD

HOSPITALS, AIRPORTS, BASES GOT NO BLACKOUT WARNING

Friday, January 19, 1990

Section: LOCAL

Page: 14A

SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: MARILYN ADAMS And TOM DUBOCQ Herald Staff Writers

Memo: FLORIDA NEWS

Florida Power & Light repeatedly blacked out power to hundreds of hospitals, police and fire stations, airports and military bases during the Christmas freeze -- and gave many of them no warning.

In documents filed Wednesday with the state Public Service Commission, FPL said it also cut power to dialysis machines, iron lungs and aircraft navigational aids in 20-minute, rolling blackouts.

The planned power outages affected far more safety facilities than was reported before. FPL said it knew of no one hurt by those outages and that it had no choice but to cut the power to customers.

"We did a lot of things right," he said. "We did a lot of things we can improve on and we're bound and determined to improve on. We can't be responsible for guaranteeing power all the time."

The new information is part of FPL's report on the blackouts requested by the Florida Public Service Commission, which is investigating the unprecedented outages.

In Dade and Broward counties power was cut off 10 times to each of 128 health, safety and airport facilities on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, FPL said. In its report, FPL also said:

* 30,000 customers systemwide had no power for four hours or more during the holiday weekend.

* FPL had no detailed plan for coordinating with emergency management agencies in a cold weather crisis. On Christmas Eve, an employee in the company's communications department tried twice to call the state's emergency management director in Tallahassee, but no one answered on a nonemergency telephone line. No further attempts were made.

* FPL did not give special consideration to farmers who needed power for watering crops to protect them from freeze damage

FPL: SYSTEM FLAWED HOLIDAY BLACKOUTS DEMONSTRATED NEED FOR EMERGENCY PLAN

Friday, February 23, 1990

Section: BRWD N

Page: 1BR

SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: MARILYN ADAMS Herald Staff Writer

Illustration: photo: Don Foster tells about his Christmas Day without electricity, Don Foster waits to talk about the blackout (b)

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Two months after widespread Christmas blackouts, Florida Power & Light told state legislators that it could have done a better job.

"There were many areas where our performance can be improved," FPL executive vice president Wayne Brunetti said Thursday. "This is particularly true in the area of communications and telephone service."

In the third hearing by a House select committee, legislators heard accusations that FPL never answered its phones and failed to make basic calls to emergency officials when the crisis hit.

"Something could have been done to warn us of this impending disaster," said Plantation resident Don Foster, who said his television, VCR and computer were damaged.

Cooper City Fire Chief Russell Brown said Southern Bell Telephone told him FPL had taken phones off the hook, which Brunetti said was not the case. Fort Lauderdale resident Leola McCoy, who lost power for eight hours Christmas Day, said the utility should do more to help inner-city customers insulate homes. She also questioned whether race had played a role in blackout decisions.

"That's not possible," Brunetti said afterward. "It's not how our company works."

FPL has said from the beginning that rolling blackouts during the sub-freezing cold were unavoidable and prevented a collapse of the power system, and that transformer and line breakdowns then caused hours-long blackouts. Some homes lost power for 24 hours, while those hit by rolling blackouts were blacked out for up to 20 minutes at a time.

The legislators -- who already have heard testimony in Orlando and Tampa -- are considering recommending better emergency planning, better communication and possibly less plant maintenance during times of expected high energy demand. The last hearing will be March 5 in Tallahassee.

Brunetti said that since the blackouts, FPL has drafted a cold weather communications plan, like one it uses during hurricanes, and is rewriting its internal emergency plan. The company also is studying use of alternate fuels at power plants and better protection of plants from cold-related breakdowns, he said.

The Florida Public Service Commission, which regulates electric utilities, also has called for a statewide cold weather emergency plan.

"It's obvious FPL realizes there was a lack of communication and they need to be better prepared," said Rep. Jack Tobin, D-Margate, chairman of the House Science, Industry and Technology Committee.

Despite state efforts, Metro-Dade emergency management director Kate Hale said communities need local plans. The Metro- Dade Commission in January asked FPL to write a Dade plan by March.

"There's no excuse for not taking this information and turning it into a productive tool," she said. The cold-weather blackouts "were our hurricane exercise, and everyone failed."

-- Online2Much (ready_for_y2k@mindspring.com), December 23, 1999

Answers

Nice find and re-run!

I guess it's arrogance that keeps us learning from history.

-- W (me@home.now), December 23, 1999.

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