Commission plugs into north-end power issues

Commissioner Pat Zunz has been keeping track of power failures and outages in her neighborhood. In November alone, Zunz, a north-end resident, counted at least four failures.

“I’m not talking about outages when there is a storm,” Zunz said at the Dec. 5 Longboat Key Town Commission meeting. “I’m talking about when there isn’t a leaf moving and the sun is shining.”

Often, when she calls Florida Power & Light (FPL) about outages, she hears that 751 homes are affected.
So Zunz offered a suggestion to Rae Dowling, FPL’s area manager for external affairs, who updated the commission about FPL projects at Monday’s meeting.

“I think that at the very least, FPL should be asked to put surge protectors on those houses at no cost to us,” she said. “We are paying for but not getting the same level of service that other people are getting.”
Dowling said that at least three out of four momentary outages on the Key relate to trees.

“What we see, and what we have seen time and time again, is that especially the Washingtonian palms that are often above the power lines, just as a part of their life cycle, they lose those palms,” she said.
The palms often strike the power lines, resulting in outages. FPL has trimmed palms at the request of many north-end residents, Dowling said.

But Zunz asked Dowling why the north end experiences more power outages than the rest of the island, which is also lined by trees. Dowling agreed to look into the issue further.

After the meeting, Dowling said that FPL does offer surge protectors to customers at a cost of approximately $10, but that FPL would rather “get to the root of the problem.”

During the meeting, Commissioner Lynn Larson asked if burying power lines would be a possibility for the Key in the future, pointing out the damage they can cause during a hurricane.

“Just think about all those trees you wouldn’t have to trim,” she joked.

But Mayor Jim Brown remembered discussions from years ago about placing the power lines underground.

The price tag: $80 million.

Lighting log
Commissioner Pat Zunz has documented the following power outages and failures on the north end of Longboat Key:
March, 2010: 3
April, 2010: 2
May, 2010: 3
June, 2010: 2
October, 2010: 5*
September, 2011: 1
October, 2011: 4
November, 2011: 4
* All five outages occurred between 1:55 and 3:56 p.m. Oct. 26