A question about risk

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Electric Utilities and Y2K : One Thread

I have a question that I hope someone can shed some light on. I live in South Florida, with FPL as my electric company. I see from FPL's site, that they purchase 12% of their power (or at least it lists purchased power as 12% of their capacity).

My question is, does being physically located at the end of a penisula lessen FPL's chances of being able to get help from the rest of the grid if they have trouble generating sufficent power to meet demand? If I were in Omaha, help could come from the north, west, east or south, but here it HAS to come from the north. The FPL site doesn't say who they purchase power from, and I have been unable to find information elsewhere. Does anyone have any suggestions for places to search for this info? Is there a website that shows a "map" of major transmission lines connected to the state?

Living here in hurricane country, the risk of losing electric service for an extended time is a fact of life, and I am prepared for it with my solar panels, deep cycle batteries and 12v goodies. But that doesn't mean that I want to fly blind into the storm.....

-- Anonymous, March 06, 1999

Answers

I can't answer your question, but I would think that the reaction from most of the nation would be , "tough!" People in Central and South Florida are not going to freeze to death and you can garden almost year around. You can use solar ovens year around. Our biggest problem will be summer heat if the power is off. If you can't take care of yourself in Florida, where can you? I am using "You" loosely, as its obvious that you are prepared.

got your solar oven? I just baked a lovely pan of corn bread in mine yesterday.

-- Anonymous, March 06, 1999


Taz, you're absolutely right, as far as the weather not killing you, Florida is an ideal place. Even the summer heat won't be a huge problem - I went for a week without A/C during Andrew, and while it was "a bit" sticky, it wasn't TEOTWAWKI. My concerns are more related to peoples reaction to any power outage. Here in Miami/Ft Lauderdale civility isn't exactly a top priority during normal times, let alone times of crisis. But while the general population IS a bit cranky, they ARE heavily armed.....sigh.

-- Anonymous, March 06, 1999

I'm sorry I can't remember the source (I'm online a bit too much, myself), but I live in Michigan and was recently reading something which talked about this from the point of view of OUR peninsula. Yes, it is a bit more difficult physically. Our power must come from the south or from Canada through Detroit.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 1999

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