Arriving at OIA, solar power plan
Idea is to prevent outages like one that hit Atlanta airport last year.
Orlando’s utility is negotiating a nearly $60 million contract that would provide the city’s airport with its first solar panels and with emergency power to prevent outages like the one that paralyzed Atlanta’s airport late last year.
The solar panels would provide one of the nation’s largest airports with its first significant step toward catching up with other airports already harnessing the sun’s energy.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said he suffers solar envy when traveling to Denver’s airport where he has to “drive past all those solar panels.”
The pending agreement stands potentially to install $500,000 worth of floating solar panels on ponds beneath the tracks of airport shuttle trains.
More than 40 million passengers a year “will get the idea that we are pretty sustainable,” Dyer said.
Emergency power would include a generator able to provide as much as 24 megawatts, or enough electricity for thousands of homes. Orlando Utilities Commission would install the wires and switches for that power and provide a maximum 30-minute response for outages at the airport.
“We really started thinking about this relationship when Atlanta lost power,” Orlando International Airport director Phil Brown said.
That outage caused by an equipment failure in December trapped passengers in airplanes for hours, canceled hundreds of flights and took days to recover from.
The city of Orlando owns the airport and utility but they are separate from city hall and operate under unrelated management and governing boards. OUC is to consider the proposed deal next month. A date for final approval by either the airport or utility has not been set.
The deal would apply to the airport’s new terminal now under construction and an adjoining train station that is open but utilized so far only by airport shuttles. Other components in the venture would be a supply of chilled water for air conditioning, 67 charging stations for electric vehicles and energy-planning services.
OUC’s general manager, Clint Bullock, said the emergencypower system will resemble components of the electric network and 12,000-volt wires that serve much of Orlando.
“Our linemen are trained to handle that voltage and do it on a daily basis,” Bullock said. “That’s the backbone of OUC’s system.”
Another advantage, Bullock said, is the airport’s proximity to OUC crews and supplies.
“We are going to have the equipment – the transformers and the switch gear – that if something were to happen, they are less than 5 miles away,” Bullock said.
“I’ll tell you that some of those other contractors, that’s a service they are not able to offer,” Bullock said.