FPL installs new poles
Homeowner association president Dan Vernon was grateful after Florida Power & Light Co. installed concrete power poles — to better withstand hurricaneforce winds — in his Weston community.
However, more than a year later, he is frustrated that the Juno Beach-based utility hasn’t removed about 70 old poles at the Village Homes in Bonaventure.
Besides the old poles being unsightly, some are now leaning — and that worries Vernon, who thinks a storm could crash the old poles into the new ones, bringing down wires and knocking out power to the area.
Vernon has contacted the city of Weston, FPL, AT&T and Comcast. He sent the city detailed lists of power poles whose lines had been transferred and were ready for removal. But the old poles remain.
“This is not only a Weston problem, it is a countywide problem,“he said.
Having double poles in cities throughout South Florida has been an issue since FPL began installing new ones more than a decade ago to upgrade its electric grid. But before the old poles can be removed, other utilities have to remove their wires, and all the utilities say that takes time. But more than a year?
There have been other examples of double poles, such as along Wiles Road in Coral Springs and along Boynton Beach Boulevard in western Palm Beach County.
“The number of double poles is very fluid, and it changes daily because of our efforts to strengthen the energy grid,” said FPL spokesman Bill Orlove. Throughout its 35-county territory in Florida, FPL averages removal of nearly 1,500 poles a month, he said.
One problem is that the old poles typically have three utility lines on them: from FPL, Comcast and AT&T.
“We must wait for the other utilities to transfer their equipment to the new pole,” said Orlove, adding that the old poles don’t pose safety or power reliability issues.
As of Sept. 21, about one-
fifth of the poles in Weston have been removed, Orlove said.
“We continue to coordinate with the other utilities as they transfer their equipment to the new poles,” he said. “We estimate that the remainder of the poles should be removed in Weston by the end of October.”
Utilities share information about pole wire transfers through a national database. FPL also meets weekly with AT&T and Comcast to coordinate transfers, Orlove said.
“Due to the coordination among multiple utilities, this sometimes can take longer than customers or we would like,” he said.
Florida’s Public Service Commission spokeswoman Cindy Muir said it is ultimately FPL’s responsibility to remove old power poles after installing new ones. But the commission recognizes that the utility can’t remove a pole that still has wires attached from other utilities.
In March, as a new hurricane season was about to begin, Vernon wrote the city of Weston seeking help.
Weston permits engineer Bryan Williams conducted a meeting with the three utilities on Aug. 8, and that seemed helpful, Vernon said. But two weeks later, the old poles were still there.
“Everybody is blaming everybody else,” Vernon said.
Williams said he couldn’t comment, but Weston Mayor Daniel Stermer said in a late-August email that the parties agreed at the meeting that “the goal was to complete the facility relocation and pole removal by the end of 2018.”
“The city of Weston shares Mr. Vernon’s desire to have the work accomplished as soon as possible, however, it is ultimately up to FPL, Comcast, and AT&T to schedule and perform the work within their means,” Stermer added.
Elizabeth Pate, AT&T’s project manager for south Broward, said the utility can’t take its wires off the Weston poles until Comcast removes theirs, because AT&T’s wires are at the bottom of the pole. She said AT&T typically waits on a “ticket” from FPL to proceed, adding that once that happens, transfer of AT&T’s wires shouldn’t take long.
As of Monday, AT&T had transferred its equipment from “more than half the poles in this area and continues to work with the power company and other providers to complete this project,” said Kelly Starling, spokeswoman for AT&T.
Meanwhile, Comcast spokeswoman Mindy Kramer on Monday said the cable company has removed all its wires from the old poles in Weston.
So now FPL can pick up the old poles, right? Not so simple.
Orlove said FPL would have to work with the city “to safely reroute traffic in the area while the poles are being removed.”
FPL has been replacing poles with sturdier ones and putting more lines underground as part of a more than $3 billion initiative to upgrade its grid since 2006.
Hurricane Wilma in 2005 split or toppled 7,000 to 10,000 utility poles, leaving three-quarters of FPL’s 4.3 million customers in the dark, many for two weeks or more, according to previous reporting by the Sun Sentinel.
Fast-forward 12 years to last year’s Hurricane Irma, and both FPL’s wood and concrete poles that had been “hardened” performed better in the storm, according to FPL’s reports to the Florida Public Service Commission.
Many underground power lines also were more resilient, which is prompting FPL to expand underground power lines as it further upgrades its grid. There were still widespread power outages in Irma, but they were caused mostly by fallen trees and flying debris, FPL has said.
So far, the June-November hurricane season has been a mild one for Florida. In early August, hurricane forecasters even reduced the number of predicted hurricanes for 2018 from their initial May estimates. New predictions call for five to nine more named storms in 2018, in addition to the four already recorded.
Longtime Florida resident Vernon has experienced several hurricanes and power outages, so he intends to remain vigilant about his community’s safety.
“Nobody likes their power out for any length of time,” he said. “I’d like to have the poles removed immediately, so if we do have a hurricane we’re not without power for a number of days.”