Print Story Email Story Discuss Story (1)

Recommend ( 0 )

Photo courtesy of the Avon Park Chamber of Commerce A Progress Energy lineman responds quickly to an outage at the 2007 Avon Park Christmas Parade. Progress Energy responded within minutes of a call of an outage during the parade in the downtown area which killed power and delayed the parade.

Related Links

advertisement

published: Friday, June 26, 2009

Quick response to power outages comes with a cost

By ED BALDRIDGE

ed.baldridge@newssun.com

AVON PARK -- With hurricane season upon us, and the summer thunderstorms in full swing, Progress Energy says it is prepared this year for whatever Mother Nature can throw at Highlands County.

About 50 Progress Energy customers lost power last Thursday night when a driver struck a power pole on State Road 64 near Avon Park High School.

The power went out at about 8:20 p.m. and repair crews were dispatched immediately.

The damaged pole was replaced and most customers had their power restored by about 10 p.m., with the remaining customers restored by about 1:30 a.m. Friday.

Pretty quick response for just 50 customers out of the 53,000 customers Progress Energy services in Highlands County.

Monday, high winds and lightning affected more than 1,000 customers in Avon Park. Crews were on the scene before the storm had fully ended, and power was restored within six hours.

On Tuesday, about 10,000 customers in Avon Park and Sebring lost power due to a quick-moving storm.

Again, the lights were back on within hours.

According to Progress Energy spokesperson Suzanne Grant, during this year the company has continued to take aggressive action to strengthen its system, such as comprehensively inspecting power poles, upgrading the distribution system and thoroughly trimming and pruning trees and other vegetation that may contribute to outages if a storm strikes.

According to the company's Web site, in 2009 the electricity conglomerate expects to invest more than $98 million on storm hardening improvements and system maintenance.

"Living in Florida means living with lovely tropical winds," Grant said. "Progress Energy is prepared for the storm season. We have been drilling storm crews, inspecting poles, replacing poles to make the grid more stable, and communicating that power restoration is our primary goal.

"We have folks now stationed 24 hours a day to monitor our distribution system so that we can be as quick as possible to respond," she added.

Grant restated that the biggest help that Progress Energy can get is from its customers.

"It helps tremendously when customers call into our automated lines and report an outage. It helps us to track it and refine our responses," Grant said.

The economy has not had an impact on the workforce of the industry as much as expected.

"The economy has not effected us as much as the storms in Florida have. We have added some to our workforce to keep up," Grant said.

But that little extra and quick response comes at a price.

In January, Progress Energy raised rates about 31 percent, according to Grant, but has adjusted back to 25 percent due to fluctuations in fuel costs and savings like converting to natural gas.

"We have a rededication of the Bartow plant coming up on Friday. That plant went back into service on June 1 after converting to natural gas. We hope that in the long run the stable price of natural gas will help maintain the costs for customers," Grant said.

Additionally, Progress Energy has asked for another 4 percent increase in July of this year, which, according to Grant means about $4.52 more per every 1,000 kilowatt hour for customers.

Additionally, Progress is asking the Regulatory Commission for an additional 30 percent increase in 2010 to help defer costs for the maintenance and planned nuclear power plant plans.

To report an outage, Grant encourages customers to immediately call the automated reporting line at 800-228-8485.