FPL opens $6 million storm center in Jupiter

11 more buildings to house employees, work crews planned

Florida Power & Light Co. employees have a place to work and sleep during a storm, thanks to ratepayers.

The Juno Beach-based electric utility opened its $6 million, Category 5-rated storm center in Jupiter on Wednesday, one of 12 throughout the state geared toward housing employees, and even some out-ofstate crews, during and after a storm.

Eight of the new buildings will be in South Florida, including ones in West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale and South MiamiDade County.

“They’re designed to help us pre-stage employees before and right after a storm so we can respond as quickly as we can,” said Bryan Olnick, vice president for distribution operations at FPL. “These buildings will sleep up to an extra 100 personnel … the quicker we can get out, the quicker we can restore.”

Olnick said he could not identify the total cost of the 12 buildings because some of the centers are smaller and one is larger. But he said six are similar in size to the Jupiter center, which means FPL is spending tens of millions on the new storm centers, paid for through customers’ utility bills.

Since Hurricane Irma swept through the state in September, FPL has been touting its nearly $3 billion in upgrades in its grid since 2006.

“Shame on us if we end up hardening all of our infrastructure and a storm came through and we didn’t have a place to work out of,” Olnick said.

Olnick said FPL looked historically at where storms have hit and chose 12 locations from South Dade to North Florida and along the west coast that were a 30-minute drive zone from concentrations of customers.

The storm centers also will serve as regional command centers during a storm to better deploy crews to locations for restoration, and allow even some out-of-state crews to sleep and shower before returning to restoration.

A total of 19,000 out-of-state crews helped with power restoration after Hurricane Irma, which took 10 days after Irma left the state. And FPL has about 9,000 employees, most of whom work during a storm, spokesman Bill Orlove said.

In September, Hurricane Irma served as the first test of a 10-year upgrade of FPL’S grid. Despite upgrades, the storm knocked out power to 90 percent of customers.

Some FPL customers and legislators have been questioning whether they got their money’s worth.

Asked why FPL didn’t spend the money on more underground utility lines, instead of new employee buildings, Olnick said, “I think it’s a different focus.”

“We certainly promote and like to underground. During Irma, it showed undergrounding at the right place and right time can be an advantage. The focus of this is quicker storm restoration, a place where you can stage people,” he said.

Olnick said he didn’t know when FPL would be providing hard data on Irma restoration, but probably in “a few months.”

Florida’s Public Service Commis-