In Florida, it's a crime to use solar power during an outage!!!

[ShootSpeeders]

Have to prevent "dangerous back feed" they say. HAHA

Florida Power and Light lobbyists made it illegal to use solar during outages

sep 18 2017 Florida Power and Light's grid did not fare well under Hurricane Irma, despite the company's assurances that it had spent billions hardening its systems after 90% of its customers lost power to 2005's Hurricane Wilma.

But one thing has changed since 2005: solar. Many of the FPL customers who are living through dangerous heat without power now have solar panels on their roofs that could keep them going while FPL repairs its infrastructure. Except doing so is illegal, thanks to FPL's lobbyists, who literally ghost-wrote much of Florida's dreadful solar rules.

Under these rules, Floridians with solar panels required to shut them down when the power goes out "in order to prevent dangerous back feed on FPL's grid. This is required to protect FPL employees who may be working on the grid." But the same rules mandate that these homes "include a switch that cleanly disconnects their panels from FPL's system while keeping the rest of a home's power lines connected," but Floridians are prohibited from flipping this switch and turning their power on (FPL is allowed to disconnect and padlock the switch at its discretion).

 

[Harry Dresden]

 

[EverCurious]

While I'm not entirely sure the set up in Florida, I'd say it's more likely the city planner bureaucrats cut deals with the electric companies promising X return which they'll not get if they're paying out contracts for "excess solar power" from equipped homes. Or at least that's how it works up here; utility companies get to dump the cost of expansion of their services to cities on home owners in exchange for bureaucrats getting more votes basically. My area's in a major fight with AUWU (water and waste water) because they want us each to pay $80-90K for a redundant water main... (The 150 or so of us in the affected neighborhood have wells and septic and we like it that way.)

 

[RodISHI]

While I'm not entirely sure the set up in Florida, I'd say it's more likely the city planner bureaucrats cut deals with the electric companies promising X return which they'll not get if they're paying out contracts for "excess solar power" from equipped homes. Or at least that's how it works up here; utility companies get to dump the cost of expansion of their services to cities on home owners in exchange for bureaucrats getting more votes basically. My area's in a major fight with AUWU (water and waste water) because they want us each to pay $80-90K for a redundant water main... (The 150 or so of us in the affected neighborhood have wells and septic and we like it that way.)

They tried to get us to fill our well here when we first bought this place back in the 90's. We paid to have rural water but it was way too expensive so I paid their five year fees and told them to stuff it and we have the well still.

 

[WinterBorn]

Have to prevent "dangerous back feed" they say. HAHA

Florida Power and Light lobbyists made it illegal to use solar during outages

sep 18 2017 Florida Power and Light's grid did not fare well under Hurricane Irma, despite the company's assurances that it had spent billions hardening its systems after 90% of its customers lost power to 2005's Hurricane Wilma.

But one thing has changed since 2005: solar. Many of the FPL customers who are living through dangerous heat without power now have solar panels on their roofs that could keep them going while FPL repairs its infrastructure. Except doing so is illegal, thanks to FPL's lobbyists, who literally ghost-wrote much of Florida's dreadful solar rules.

Under these rules, Floridians with solar panels required to shut them down when the power goes out "in order to prevent dangerous back feed on FPL's grid. This is required to protect FPL employees who may be working on the grid." But the same rules mandate that these homes "include a switch that cleanly disconnects their panels from FPL's system while keeping the rest of a home's power lines connected," but Floridians are prohibited from flipping this switch and turning their power on (FPL is allowed to disconnect and padlock the switch at its discretion).

Yes, that is exactly right. I do not like the law as it is written. But the safety factor is a critical concern. In 2011 I was part of an accident investigation where a power lineman was killed by backfeed from a generator. There was a manual switch that could have prevented this. The homeowner forgot to throw the switch. This year will be the 6th Christmas that lineman's children have had without their Dad.

Perhaps you want to risk you life or your employee's lives on the diligence of homeowners prepping for a storm. I would not. The danger is very real. And, unlike underground utilities, there is no central listing of solar panels or home generators that are also hooked into the power grid. There are only two ways you know. One is by seeing the generator or panels. The other is to see a lineman die in a flash of sparks and flame.

 

[EverCurious]

If the power companies upgraded their meters they'd have an automatic shut off on back feed. So maybe they should be the ones looking out for the safety of their employees?

 

[Silent Warrior]

By all means, let us electrocute a bunch of line workers that have come in from out of state to help out. Isn't that what freedom is all about?

 

[WinterBorn]

If the power companies upgraded their meters they'd have an automatic shut off on back feed. So maybe they should be the ones looking out for the safety of their employees?

That was rendered obsolete when laws were passed that forced power companies to buy the excess electricity produced by home generation.

Also, there are almost 5 million accounts with Florida Power & Light.

And, if I am not mistaken, the rule does not apply if you are not on the grid. So disconnect the power company and enjoy the solar panels and the lack of power outages.

 

[ShootSpeeders]

[
Yes, that is exactly right. I do not like the law as it is written. But the safety factor is a critical concern. In 2011 I was part of an accident investigation where a power lineman was killed by backfeed from a generator.

Oh shut up. No one believes a word you say. Just change your name to shill-for-utilities.

 

[EverCurious]

Meh, I say everyone go nuts with utility power instead of trying to go green, but then again, I'm an oil girl. The more you lower 48ers use, the more happy my economy is

 

[ShootSpeeders]

By all means, let us electrocute a bunch of line workers that have come in from out of state to help out. Isn't that what freedom is all about?

No one is gonna be electrocuted you company shill. FPL is obviously making all this up because they don't want competition. THINK,

 

[WinterBorn]

[
Yes, that is exactly right. I do not like the law as it is written. But the safety factor is a critical concern. In 2011 I was part of an accident investigation where a power lineman was killed by backfeed from a generator.

Oh shut up. No one believes a word you say. Just change your name to shill-for-utilities.

LMAO!! Thank you for such a well thought out and reasonable reply.

Whether you believe me or not is of no consequence to me. But the fact is that backfeed can easily kill a lineman. I am reasonably sure you are not disputing that. Homeowners prepping for a major storm can easily forget to throw the switch to isolate their system. I doubt you are disputing that. So whether you believe that I was involved in the investigation of a fatality or not does not change the facts.

I am a shill for the safety of the linemen. I am certainly not ashamed of that.

 

[WinterBorn]

By all means, let us electrocute a bunch of line workers that have come in from out of state to help out. Isn't that what freedom is all about?

No one is gonna be electrocuted you company shill. FPL is obviously making all this up because they don't want competition. THINK,

That is absolute bullshit. The electricity will backfeed into the system. That is a fact. You raving against it does not change it.

 

[WinterBorn]

By all means, let us electrocute a bunch of line workers that have come in from out of state to help out. Isn't that what freedom is all about?

No one is gonna be electrocuted you company shill. FPL is obviously making all this up because they don't want competition. THINK,

How are solar panels used for emergency power considered competition? The homeowner did not disconnect from FPL, so they obviously thought the panels could not provide enough power, or they would not have been connected to the grid. THINK

 

[BulletProof]

I don't see this as having anything to do with the the Utilities not wanting competition. You can compete with them all you want, when the grid is up. I believe it really is nothing but a safety issue. If you're off-grid, the law doesn't apply.

 

[jon_berzerk]

the solution is simple

if it isnt already in place

having it be code demanding automatic transfer switches

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Oh shut up. No one believes a word you say

I won't get into the irony of you telling that to somebody else

 

[IsaacNewton]

Can you brew tea in the sun during an outage? Or are the sellers of tea in Florida not fans of the Boston Tea Party either.

What a complicated mess arises when a boat has 50 captains and one guy on the tiller.

 

[EverCurious]

While I do agree that linemen could be hurt as Winter suggests, I argue that the electric company should be upgrading to modern meters - it saves them money on meter reads, pin pointing outage sources, and would be safer for linemen.

On the other hand, I disagree with Winter's argument that folks can just go off grid - because the government prevents it quite often with "standards of living" that include having power, city water, and sewer. So even if someone wanted to go off the grid they'd not be allowed to. Recall not to long ago a family was required to have city water instead of a rain reclamation system by municipal or state law.

 

[BulletProof]

This thread does bring up an interesting thing. If our politicians are voting on things they didn't read, they sure didn't write the bills, either.

Congressmen vote for bills based on one or two principles, without regard for the details within the bill. Who actually writes the bills? Staff members with tremendous input from Special Interests.