Index to this web page
2/21/02 Palm Beach Post FPL Staged Radiation Leak Tests Disaster Response
2/22/02 Palm Beach Post FPL Concedes Errors in Shock Case
2/23/02 Palm Beach Post FPL Crews Get Top Marks For Mock Emergency
2/23/02 Palm Beach Post FPL President Apologizes for Shock Response
2/25/02 Palm Beach Post FPL full page apology (click here for picture)
2/26/02 Palm Beach Post FPL Pledge Incomplete (editorial)
2/27/02 Palm Beach Post FPL Gets To Wreck 48 Minutes After Called
3/02/02 Palm Beach Post FPL admits reaction to car crash was too slow
3/03/02 Palm Beach Post FPL fumbles again  (Opinion)
3/04/02 Palm Beach Post FPL probe obviously didn't go far enough
3/05/02 Palm Beach Post FPL broke bidding rules

BYLINE: Jim Reeder Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATE: 02-21-2002
PUBLICATION: The Palm Beach Post
EDITION: MARTIN-ST.
SECTION: Local-News
PAGE: 1 B

It was a game of "let's pretend" with a serious purpose: Save the ailing St. Lucie Nuclear Plant from a worse disaster and protect thousands of Treasure Coast residents from radiation released in an accident.

Except for hearing warning sirens twice shortly after 11 a.m., most people weren't affected by the mock disaster.

But on paper, Unit 2's cooling system was losing 80 to 90 gallons of water a minute, causing the nuclear core to overheat and radiation to be released into the atmosphere.

"Conditions are quite hostile in the containment building," FPL's Bob Acosta said during a mock news briefing.

Radiation was released around the plant, prompting officials to order the "evacuation" of thousands of schoolchildren within 10 miles. In a real event, they would be moved to Thomas J. White Stadium or to two high schools in Martin County.

Residents from north of Fort Pierce's Orange Avenue to the southern tips of Hutchinson Island and Sewall's Point were told to leave their homes.

A high school in Palm Beach County was "emptied" so evacuees could take shelter there.

The evacuations would have been only a precaution in case the disaster got worse, officials said.

"It would take nine to 11 hours to evacuate all the people," Acosta said.

And, to hear officials tell it Wednesday, all went smoothly.

The problem at the plant had been solved by 2 p.m., and residents could return to their homes.

Dozens of federal, state and local officials and Florida Power & Light employees were involved in the drill to test their readiness if something went terribly wrong at the twin nuclear reactors on Hutchinson Island.

Plant operators in a control room simulator had to deal with numerous equipment failures leading to a loss of coolant and overheating of the reactor in Unit 2.

"Every time they went down a road to solve a problem, we would take it away from them with another equipment failure," FPL's Don Mothena said. "We have to get to the worst case, damage to the fuel core."

FPL officials wrote the scenario, then submitted it to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Federal Emergency Management Agency so officials could be sure it tested enough plant systems and problems among the general population.

"The operators and local emergency officials absolutely did not know what would happen," Mothena said.

Officials from FPL, Martin and St. Lucie counties and the state had mock news conferences to answer mock reporters' questions about the disaster, which in real life probably would have played out over several hours or days.

Federal officials will give FPL and local emergency management officials their performance evaluations Friday morning. A written report will be issued later.

jim reeder@pbpost.com

BYLINE: Antigone Barton Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATE: 02-22-2002
PUBLICATION: The Palm Beach Post
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: Main-News
PAGE: 1A

As tapes from 911 calls replayed a harrowing mix of Pedro Grave's tortured yells and Florida Power & Light call-takers' unhurried responses to 911 dispatchers, a spokeswoman conceded the company made errors as Grave hung from a tree, shocked by a power line.

FPL Group Vice President Mary Lou Kromer also admitted the company released false information about its actions more than once in the days since Grave's ordeal Saturday.

Grave was trimming a tree when a branch fell and touched a power line around 11:45 a.m. Saturday, sending electricity burning through his body. Caught in the tree about 30 feet in the air, he begged for more than half an hour to be killed while rescuers waited helplessly for FPL to turn off power to the line.

On Tuesday, Kromer said one reason for that wait was that 911 dispatchers had made a first call to FPL on a customer-service line rather than an emergency line. But on a West Palm Beach 911 dispatch tape released Thursday, both dispatchers' calls to the utility are greeted with the same recorded message: "Your call is now being routed to FPL's emergency service department."

In the first call, a dispatcher tells the FPL call-taker that a man working in a tree has hit a power line - and asks that power be cut off. The call-taker estimates that will take about 30 minutes. In the second call, a dispatcher asks a different call-taker the status of the first call, which he says was placed five minutes earlier. The call-taker doesn't know what he's talking about and has no record of the call. She says she will notify a dispatcher.

Increasingly anxious, the 911 dispatcher asks her not to hang up and asks if power can be turned off from a remote source. She tells him it can't. FPL has since confirmed that it can turn off the power remotely and says it is its policy to do so in a life-threatening emergency.

When he asks if the response can be hurried, he gets a similar response: "No, unfortunately."

As he continues to insist, she puts him on hold, and a music recording plays until another representative gets on the line and says he will hasten the response.

On Thursday, Kromer did not contradict her earlier statement that the two calls were placed to different lines until The Palm Beach Post played a recording of the 911 calls to her.

Then she conceded the company already knew the earlier statements had been false.

"When we first evaluated this and looked at our records, it appeared to us the first call did not come in on our emergency line. Now we know that it did." She said she had discovered the truth Wednesday afternoon.

In addition, Kromer said Tuesday she could find no record of a third call from a West Palm Beach fire-rescue acting battalion chief. West Palm Beach fire-rescue Capt. Cletus Pirtle said he made that call - saying he had a life-and-death situation and needed power turned off immediately - when help still had not arrived.

On Thursday, Kromer said she had discovered a record of a third call and that it came in at 12:16 p.m. That contradicts a timetable released by FPL Tuesday that said a lineman arrived at the scene and spoke to fire-rescue officials at 12:15.

That time, Kromer said Thursday, came from the lineman's memory - and was no more than an estimate of when he arrived. The company's earlier records had indicated the worker arrived at 12:32, but Kromer said later that was because the worker did not enter the time he arrived until after he finished his work.

She said company interviews with the lineman since, along with "records on the grid," indicate that power was shut off about 12:18.

By then, she noted, the electricity that had been tearing through Grave's body had burned through the limb of the tree and the tree was no longer electrified. Also by then, Grave's screams had faded as he began to pass in and out of consciousness and smoke continued to curl from his body.

The bloodcurdling cries of a man being tortured can be heard on a segment of the 911 tape between dispatchers two calls to FPL. In that call a neighbor, not knowing rescuers had arrived, reports what is happening from his back yard and he realizes Graves has stopped yelling.

"He's electrocuted, he's dead, he's passed out," the neighbor tells the dispatcher. "He needs help right now."

It was following that call that dispatchers placed their second call to FPL, discovered the first call had been ignored and, after being told to expect a 30-minute wait, were put on hold.

The call-takers, Kromer said Thursday, "did not realize the magnitude of the situation."

FPL officials will meet with West Palm Beach fire-rescue officials today to discuss how they can better respond to emergencies, she said.

antigone barton@pbpost.com
 

911 tells FPL: 'You've got someone stuck in a tree being electrocuted'

EXCERPTS FROM FIRST CALL ABOUT EMERGENCY TO 911:

Dispatcher: 911, where's your emergency?
Caller: 215 28th St.
Dispatcher: What's the problem?
Caller: There's a tree cutter up the tree, and I think he might have hit the electric.... He's screaming.... He's stuck up the tree very high up.
Dispatcher: Is he able to talk?
Caller: He's screaming.
Dispatcher: All right, we'll be on our way there now, sir.

FIRST 911 DISPATCHER CALL TO FPL:

FPL recording: Your call is now being routed to FPL's emergency service department. Your call may be recorded for training purposes.
FPL call-taker: Hi, this (inaudible). How can I help you?
Dispatcher: Hi, this is West Palm Beach Fire Department. Can you guys send a truck out to 28th Street North Flagler? We have someone who was up trying to cut a limb and hit a power line with an electric saw or something. I don't know if he's shocked or what - we need the power cut off.
FPL call-taker: OK. What is the address that it's located?
Dispatcher: They're at the corner of 28th and North Flagler but the call came from 215 28th St.
FPL call-taker: Thank you. May I have a contact phone number please?
Dispatcher: (gives number.)
FPL call-taker: (repeats number.)
Dispatcher: Yeah, do you have an ETA?
FPL call-taker: Yes, it should be within 30 minutes or less.
Dispatcher: OK, thanks.
FPL call-taker: You're welcome.

EXCERPTS FROM A NEIGHBOR'S CALL TO WEST PALM BEACH 911:

There's a worker stuck in a tree.... He's about 40 feet up in the air. He's electrocuted, he's dead, he's passed out.... He's now hanging in the tree.... He's passed out. ... He's electrocuted, sir, he needs help right now.

EXCERPTS FROM SECOND 911 DISPATCHER CALL TO FPL:

FPL recording: Your call is now being routed to FPL's emergency service department. Your call may be recorded for training purposes.
Dispatcher: This is West Palm fire, do you guys have an ETA on 215 W. 28th St.?
FPL call-taker: I'll check for you.... Sir, we have no reports in the area of any outages.
Dispatcher: You don't have an outage, you've got someone stuck in a tree being electrocuted.... Is there any way you guys can, uh, you can shut the power down in that area?
FPL call-taker: We can turn off the power when we arrive, yes, in order to make the location safe, that's no problem.
Dispatcher: I mean from where you're at.
FPL call-taker: No, they have to come out.
Dispatcher: You can't get a better ETA than under 30?
FPL call-taker: No, unfortunately.
Dispatcher: You don't have a way of telling who's in the area, do you?
FPL call-taker: Let me see if I can contact the dispatcher for you. Is that a gated community

BYLINE: Jim Reeder Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATE: 02-23-2002
PUBLICATION: The Palm Beach Post
EDITION: MARTIN-ST.
SECTION: Local-News
PAGE: 1 C

Local emergency managers and Florida Power & Light Co. handled Wednesday's mock nuclear emergency very well and with only minor problems, two federal officials said Friday.

"There were no deficiencies or inadequacies noted," Tom Reynolds of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said. "We did note a few suggestions for improvements. They should take into consideration the wind and weather. It was very windy, and that's not always the case in Florida."

He would not elaborate and said that's the only suggestion he could remember during Friday's news conference.

"They were all minor, just little bits and pieces to improve the process," Reynolds said.

FEMA evaluates the responses of Martin and St. Lucie county officials in notifying the public and taking protective action, such as ordering evacuations.

FEMA will issue a draft report within 30 days, gather local officials' responses and release a final report within 90 days, Reynolds said.

The chief evaluator for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which watched FPL's handling of staged nuclear reactor problems, was equally pleased.

"Things went very well on site," the commission's Bill Sartor said. "We did not identify any issues that FPL didn't recognize. I'm 100 percent certain they can protect the public."

Wednesday's mock disaster tested the reaction of hundreds of Martin, St. Lucie, state and FPL officials to an "accident" that resulted in radiation being released from the plant.

Thousands of people would have been ordered to evacuate to shelters in Palm Beach, Indian River or Brevard counties.

Although Wednesday's drill was completed in hours, a real disaster would play out over days, officials said.

FPL officials wrote the script for the mock disaster, but sometimes those in the know were surprised by what happened.

BYLINE: Noah Bierman Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATE: 02-23-2002
PUBLICATION: The Palm Beach Post
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: Local-News
PAGE: 1 C

Florida Power & Light's president formally apologized Friday for "a series of human errors" that prolonged the agony of a tree-trimmer stranded in an electrified tree for more than a half-hour last week in West Palm Beach.

"We accept full responsibility for this delay, and apologize to Mr. (Pedro) Grave, the fire department and all of our customers," FPL President Paul Evanson said in a company-issued statement.

FPL Group Vice President Mary Lou Kromer said company representatives have been trying to contact Grave personally, so far unsuccessfully.

Evanson's statement maintained the "right systems and processes" were in place. But FPL managers promised in the statement and to local firefighters Friday that they would reexamine training and communication, and use that information to speed response to similar incidents statewide. The company serves 8 million Floridians, or about half the state.

Last Saturday, as Grave was cutting a tree, an errant limb fell on an FPL line - electrifying the entire tree and shocking Grave, 30 feet in the air. While he sustained continuous shocks, FPL operators told 911 dispatchers they could not hurry to turn the power off.

Grave was released from St. Mary's Medical Center this week and could not be reached for reaction to FPL's apology.

Thursday, FPL officials admitted they had made mistakes and misinformed the public during the company's subsequent investigation. Friday's statement went a step further.

"We can neither condone nor tolerate such errors. We will be carefully scrutinizing staffing, training programs and all of our procedures," Evanson stated, promising future emergencies would be handled sooner.

Kromer would not say whether corrective actions included disciplining or firing employees.

FPL does run frequent advertisements and bill inserts warning customers to call the company if they plan to trim trees near power lines.

Part of the effort to review procedures included Friday's meeting between seven or eight FPL officials and 10 firefighters, nine of those from the West Palm Beach Fire Department, which responded to the incident.

Skip Milkins, a West Palm Beach assistant fire chief, said his department would coordinate training activities with FPL and discuss communication improvements as part of a task force. Few specifics were addressed Friday, he said.

One issue will be the power company's policy on shutting off power from a remote location, rather than waiting for a company lineman to arrive to an accident scene in person. Company policy allows that in life-and-death situations, but operators told a 911 dispatcher handling Grave's call that it was impossible.

Still, Kromer said Friday that the remote process isn't always the fastest or wisest way to stop power. It takes three to seven minutes and, sometimes, a nearby lineman can do the job quicker, she said.

Both sides agree emergency workers and FPL operators need a common language so they can assess what individual situations require. That could include more specialized codes than emergency workers already use when dealing with FPL.

Staff writer Alexandra Navarro Clifton contributed to this story.

noah_bierman@pbpost.com

Click here to view a picture of the ad and comments from Debbie Courtney

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL FPL CUSTOMERS

Dear Customers,

Mr. Pedro Grave, a local tree trimmer, sustained an electrical shock when the limb of a tree that he had cut fell on an FPL line. We apologize to Mr. Grave, the West Palm Beach Fire Department, and all of our customers for our delayed response to the accident.

We accept full responsibility for the delay and have now completed a thorough review of the facts. We have concluded that, while we had the right systems and processes in place to respond appropriately to such a situation, a series of human errors delayed our response to calls from the Fire Department.

We can neither condone nor tolerate such errors. We will be carefully scrutiniziing our staffing, training programs, and all of our procdures. And you have my commitment we will make whatever changes are necessary to ensure that we respond in a timely manner to future emergencies.

In fact, last Friday a team of FPL managers met with representatives from the West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County Fire Departments to review our emergency response procedures. We are committed to working in partnership with emergency response agencies in Palm Beach County, and other areas in our service territory, to streamline our communications processes and enhance our response effort.

Safety is a core value for FPL. We are dedicated to ensuring the safety of our customers, employees, and anyone coming in contact with our facilities. Our employees demonstrate this commitment every single day as they work to produce and deliver electricity to homes, schools and businesses. Overall we have had an outstanding safety record, and I can assure you that all of us at FPL will be working even harder in the future to maintain the highest safety standards prossible.

Sincerely,
Paul Evanson
President

an FPL Group company

BYLINE:
DATE: 02-26-2002
PUBLICATION: The Palm Beach Post
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: Opinion
PAGE: 16A

Florida Power & Light President Paul Evanson has made a public apology for his company's poor response to rescue Pedro Grave, the West Palm Beach tree trimmer who was shocked for more than a half-hour 10 days ago by an electrified limb.

Mr. Evanson invited representatives of the West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County fire departments to FPL on Friday. The purpose was to make sure that firefighters don't get an ear full of elevator music the next time they ask FPL to shut off power in a life-and-death situation. Mr. Evanson's apology, however, appears to put all the blame on individuals rather than procedures. "We have concluded," he says, "that, while we had the right systems and processes in place to respond appropriately to such a situation, a series of human errors delayed our response to calls from the fire department."

Mr. Evanson proposes retraining for his employees, but the meeting with firefighters underscored the need for new methods. Safety and fire officials want direct lines to FPL supervisors and common code languages to describe emergencies. Still unresolved are wider issues. Under what circumstances should rescuers request a remote power shut-off to a wide area? How many emergency workers does FPL keep on standby, and is the number adequate? Firefighters and FPL officials will work to improve communication.

When they finish, they should communicate their improvements to the public. It took FPL five days to give an accurate account of what went wrong during Mr. Grave's botched rescue. Company officials misstated the facts even as they apparently were trying to tell the truth. The release of the 911 dispatchers' tapes forced FPL to change its story for the last time and acknowledge mistakes. Absent in Mr. Evanson's apology is a promise to tell the public the truth.

All South Floridians have a stake in how the ubiquitous utility, whose parent company's offices are in Juno Beach, responds to safety concerns. FPL power lines cover half the state, and the next life-threatening emergency could fall on anyone. Mr. Grave's misfortune was fortunate for the public. His accident exposed problems that would have gone untreated until claiming some other victim. Besides expressing regret, Mr. Evanson should pledge changes in a defensive corporate culture that favors obstruction over candor. If the company president does, consumers will have a tree trimmer to thank.

BYLINE: Kathleen Chapman , Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATE: 02-27-2002
PUBLICATION: The Palm Beach Post
EDITION: MARTIN-ST.
SECTION: Local_News
PAGE: 1B

A critically injured young woman and seriously hurt man lay in their car after crashing into a utility pole on Orange Avenue in far-western St. Lucie County Tuesday afternoon, waiting for help and surrounded by downed power lines.

At 3:53 p.m., seven minutes after a witness called 911, an emergency dispatcher who called Florida Power & Light to report concerns that the lines encircling the car could be live was greeted by an FPL operator who spoke limited English -- and was put on hold twice, said St. Lucie County Fire District spokesman Tom Whitley.

By the time FPL officials arrived 50 minutes later, paramedics already had stepped around the wires, loaded the critically injured woman into a helicopter and sent her to Holmes Regional Medical Center, Whitley said.

In this case, the wires weren't live, and FPL's response time did not affect the rescue, Whitley said. But the incident did rattle rescuers less than a week after the company publicly apologized for its response in the case of a Palm Beach County tree-trimmer who was stuck in a rain soaked tree in contact with a live power line for more than half an hour. Rescuers stood by helpless as the man begged to die as electricity coursed through his body.

FPL spokesman Bill Swank said he had not heard about the St. Lucie County incident Tuesday evening. In cases of life-threatening emergency, he said, it is FPL's policy to turn off the power by sending a crew to the scene, or through a remote location, whichever is faster. He said FPL would investigate its response to Tuesday's incident and issue a report.

Whitley said dispatchers frequently call FPL's emergency hot line to ask for help in car accidents, house fires and tree limbs falling on power lines. He said he cannot remember a case where FPL's response put anybody's life at risk in St. Lucie County.

Tuesday's accident was in remote St. Lucie County, just a few miles from the Okeechobee County line. Whitley said paramedics arrived at the scene at 4:03 p.m. FPL dispatchers confirmed at 4:10 that their crews were on the way.

"We literally had units on the scene before we could even get FPL dispatched," Whitley said.

Shortly after they arrived, paramedics decided it was unlikely that the wires were live. Because at least one person in the car was critically injured, they decided to take the risk of shock, stepping carefully around the wires to get the victims out of the car, Whitley said.

At 4:43 p.m., the emergency helicopter reported that paramedics were on their way to Holmes Regional with the young woman. The FPL crews were just arriving, Whitley said.

The names and conditions of the crash victims were not available Tuesday night.
 

kathleen_chapman@pbpost.com

By Kathleen Chapman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 2, 2002

Florida Power & Light employees should have reacted more quickly to reports that a critically injured woman was trapped in a wrecked car surrounded by downed power lines in western St. Lucie County earlier this week, a company spokesman said Friday.

Rescue workers waited 13 minutes from the first call at 3:53 p.m. Tuesday afternoon for FPL to confirm that crews were on the way to the accident on Orange Avenue.

"We are taking the responsibility here," FPL spokesman Bill Swank said of the delay, adding that the company is looking at ways to streamline its handling of emergency calls.

When rescuers called FPL Tuesday afternoon, they believed that a car that had crashed into a utility pole was covered with live wires.

They feared paramedics would not be able to get inside 18-year-old Holly Hines' Camaro to save her. It took FPL crews 48 minutes to get to the scene, by which time paramedics had already sent her by helicopter to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne. She was still recovering there Friday night.

FPL's reaction time did not impede rescue efforts because the wires were not live, as initially thought, and were circling the Camaro on the ground, not draped over the car. But paramedics were still facing some risk of getting shocked as they worked around the downed power lines, waiting for FPL to arrive, St. Lucie County officials said.

The delay happened one day after FPL bought a full-page ad in The Palm Beach Post to apologizing for an incident that left a tree trimmer shocked by a live power line for more than half an hour in West Palm Beach.

Rescue workers were disappointed it took 48 minutes for FPL to arrive to Tuesday's wreck but were more concerned it took 13 minutes for FPL to dispatch a crew, said fire district spokesman Capt. Tom Whitley.

Swank said the delay was caused by a botched call transfer from the operator who took the call to a specialist assigned to emergencies.

"A person either hung up or the call got dropped," Swank said. "Needless to say, there was a delay. That's one of the issues we're looking at."

Once the crew got rolling, it had to travel 22 miles to reach the scene, about a mile east of the Okeechobee County border, Swank said. Unlike ambulances, FPL crews must follow traffic laws to get to emergencies, stopping at red lights and stop signs, he said.

FPL officials acknowledged last week that they could cut power by a remote source in three to seven minutes, without sending a crew.

But Swank said Friday that cutting power is not as simple as flipping a switch.

Rescue workers could not provide a precise address for the crash, Swank said, although a West Palm Beach dispatcher did have information on which line had been hit.

Even when the company cuts power remotely, without going to the scene it cannot guarantee that the wires are not live.

Swank said that improperly installed generators in an area can also send electric currents through wires.

Rescue workers had also questioned whether one of FPL's employees they spoke with Tuesday was fluent in English.

The 911 tapes show few miscommunications -- most of the time was lost when a 911 supervisor was asked to hold.

Swank said all of the company's call-takers are highly trained.

"These are not novices by any stretch of the imagination," he said.

Fire district spokesman Whitley said Friday that rescue workers and 911 operators will do anything they can to help FPL improve.

"We're glad that Florida Power & Light takes these incidents very seriously, since they can be life or death," Whitley said.

kathleen_chapman@pbpost.com

The Palm Beach Post
Sunday, March 3, 2002

Barely a week after Florida Power & Light Co. left a West Palm Beach tree trimmer in agony for more than a half-hour as a live wire sent waves of electricity through his body, the company failed to respond as a similar scenario unfolded in Fort Pierce.

An 18-year-old woman with critical head injuries from an accident lay trapped in a car covered with power lines Tuesday while FPL took 48 minutes to send a crew to the scene. The company put a 911 supervisor on hold and made no attempt to turn off the power from a remote source. An FPL spokesman said after the tree trimmer's accident that the remote shutdown can be accomplished in three to seven minutes after someone reports a downed line.

Fortunately, paramedics were able to step around the wires, which turned out not to be live, and rescue the woman. The Treasure Coast incident came just one day after the company ran a full-page ad apologizing for taking so long to turn off the electricity that tortured Pedro Grave while helpless West Palm Beach fire-rescue workers waited for FPL to show up.

In the St. Lucie County case, fire district spokesman Tom Whitley said officials were most disturbed that the power company took 13 minutes from the first call to confirm that it was sending a crew to the scene. One emergency operator gave up waiting, and a supervisor called FPL again. One call to an emergency dispatch center, Mr. Whitley said, should be enough. Everyone seems to understand that except FPL.

FPL has averted tragedy twice only because of luck. Mr. Grave survived his ordeal, and the accident victim's condition is improving. The company will meet with law-enforcement agencies to improve communication. There was an inconclusive news conference Friday. It all sounds familiar. The company had said it would learn from what happened in West Palm Beach. That learning curve must be pretty steep.

Letter to editor: The Palm Beach Post
Monday, March 4, 2002

Florida Power & Light Co. is asleep at the switch. Paul Evanson, the power company's president, conceded in a full-page ad in The Post on Monday that mistakes were made by FPL in Palm Beach County when FPL failed to respond properly to calls by officials of the fire department and other agencies when a tree trimmer was entangled in live electrical wires on Feb. 16.

Mr. Evanson claimed in the ad that FPL's in-house investigation showed while all proper systems were in place, it was, as he termed it, "human error" that was responsible for the failure to take care of the situation that was unfolding.

Only two days after this ad appeared, however, and supposedly after a full investigation by FPL of its procedures, a similar breakdown occurred in St. Lucie County ("911 boss had to call FPL back," Thursday).This article reported that it took 48 minutes for a FPL crew to arrive at a traffic-accident scene after frantic calls by 911 that there were hot wires in and about the accident scene (which later proved to be a false alarm).

Obviously, the same safety problems exist in counties other than Palm Beach. FPL should be required to lay bare all the facts before the public.

SOL GELMAN
Boynton Beach

By Deborah Circelli, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 5, 2002

Reliant Energy of Houston has filed a complaint with the Florida Public Service Commission against Florida Power & Light Co., claiming the company violated state competitive bidding rules.

The subsidiary of Juno Beach-based FPL Group asked companies in August to submit bids to supply the company with 1,900 megawatts of power beginning in 2005.

But FPL in January said it would be cheaper to expand its existing plants. Reliant submitted three of the more than 80 bids.

Reliant said in the complaint filed Thursday that FPL violated several aspects of the rule, including intentionally understating and misleading bidders about how much it would cost FPL to add 1,900 megawatts.

FPL spokesman Mike Haggerty said the company went out of its way to be fair, and stands by its decision that expansion at existing FPL sites is the most cost-effective for customers. FPL plans to spend $1.1 billion expanding the Martin County and Manatee County plants.

The PSC must approve FPL's request to expand the plants.

Reliant is asking the PSC to require FPL to solicit for the Manatee County project, and have a third party review the bids. It also wants the agency to review bids already submitted for the Martin County project.

The Florida Partnership for Affordable Competitive Energy (PACE), a trade organization representing out-of-state power companies, including Reliant, said Monday that FPL and other Florida investor-owned utilities have never accepted a bid from a competitive company since 1994, when the bid rule went into effect.
 

deborah_circelli@pbpost.com

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