Guest BloggerWilliam D. Coakley
Former Chair of the Lake Worth Electric Utility Task Force
The proposed "upgrade" to 26.4kv is an upgrade for eager staff bent on squandering other people's money. But in that selfish pursuit little consideration is focused on the "downgrade" forced on the public.
1. Regardless of how staff argues, the upgrade to a non standard voltage means the public is deprived of any equity being added to THEIR electric system. In fact, it further degrades the equity.
2. The people's money (bond specifications) stipulated a STANDARD upgrade to a voltage compatible with FPL who would be the most likely buyer if the residents of LW ever decided to sell their electric system and the company most likely to help out in the event of a disaster. This was a plan for the future that PROTECTED public interest and taxpayer investment.
3. It is a further downgrade since the data as of 2006 on file at the utility showed that the 26.4 kv parts of the system functioned a tenth as well as the beat up system that serves residents are served with now.
It is always some new engineer, utility director, or powerplant staff that tries to spend the people's money on this hair brained voltage that only two other small utilities use anywhere else in the country... and it is clearly designed to perpetuate a money pit that benefits pensioners and others while leaving the public with the bill. This direction of supposed "upgrading," will forever significantly diminish the equity in the system since the cost of converting it back to a standard voltage that everyone else uses... would mean offering peanuts for our system.
There is a very powerful mantra in the utility business .. ALWAYS BUILD STANDARD. But then again, some folks like to experiment with other people's money.
12 comments:
His data is antiquated if its based upon 2006 as he stipulates. Better to bone up on current best practices in utilities before taking a position. Perhaps meeting with staff or the current UAB board would help shed some light...no pun intended.
LOL @ 3:24. Mr. Coakley met with Mr. Borsch this year as well as with at least one of the engineers.
Perhaps he should meet with members of the Utility Advisory Board--are you serious? That is a politically appointed board of people spouting the city hall agenda.
So be it. They will soon realize the difference between 22.9kV and 26.4kV.
Again, a simple question to the Utility Director: Can he go to FPL and obtain ANY transformer, whether it be substation or distribution, that can be successfully be installed on the new Lake Worth system. If he says yes, then he is either totally ignorant of electrical distribution or he is a liar.
2006 data is not antiquated its factual data that revealed the outright corrupt behavior of staff at that time... as they were trying to sell the 26kv and failed to include the data that showed it was 10 times less reliable than the old system it was to replace! And look at the 5 - 6 million spent on the 26... they ran so far over budget that they had to come back to the commission and ask for 9 million making the totally bogus claim that contractors would sue for the city violating the contract. Fortunately, a resident at the meeting had the contract which showed staff and some commissioners were outright lying to the public in order to get more money to pass onto more friends.
And you say 'Best utility practices??' That would certainly be: ALWAYS BUILD STANDARD. And it would minimally ethical to insure that the public investment with taxpayer money was actually going to improve something other than the pockets of greedy contractors who would love nothing more than a juicy long term meal at the taxpayers table. LWU is famous for doing something different... something new and not the old tried and proven. The problem is, they do it with millions of taxpayer money... not their own money. In the eighties they bought a new type of wire for distribution. They were the only Utility to buy it when it first was introduced and they bought it in quantity. Ah yes, the new panacea. The pitch was "it is going to save big $$." Within a decade, most of it had to be replaced and LWU turned out one of only a few suckers... but again, its taxpayers that have to foot the bill for corruption and ignorance and yet no one is ever held accountable.
Build to FPL overhead spec and give the people something for their hard earned money not to mention TRUST. Politicians don't know squat about the utility and are very easily manipulated especially by fresh out of school engineers who want to do something different and change the world.
Did they pass it?
Waiting for the video of the meeting...still not up on their web site. I left the meeting before this was discussed.
They passed the 26.4kv. LOL
anyone that knows the business knows this does not work. Mixing your Transmission feeds to the substations and then making the distribution the same voltage is proof they have no clue. Most utilities use 12.5 KV, 13.2 KV or 13.8 KV for distribution along with the 4 KV we have on the majority of our substations. Why is it that the FPL's of the world build standard and LWU does not. What happens when something goes bad and we do not have replacements or we can't reach out to FPL to assist us when needed. Does anyone know what the cost of a substation transformer is and to have a spare just sitting around in case of an outage due to the fact you can't reach out to FPL for replacements? Glad we have so much money we can keep making changes. Come on people lets wake up. I Mean our asst Director was a dispatcher with 0 engineering or utility work experience. The Director is a power plant engineer. we lost our experienced and qualified Substation man now as well. We just keep going in circles
Well, we have a Trio of commissioners who have no clue. We have an Electric Utility board that is clueless too.
It's a damn shame but we the people are put down if we even have a question about it. Thanks, Trio, for rubber stamping everything you are clueless about.
I agree Lynn and they ran off the 2 Utility people that actually new this business and had 75 years of experience in the Electric Utility business. Now they are off doing what's right with other utilities. Glad we have so much $ we can just do as we please. I wonder what we will do during storms when we need supplies when no other utility uses this voltage can help us with. I guess we can rely on Walt and the Director to take care of it. Maybe the board should ask the employees their opinions of their leaders or hold the door open for those who can't take it anymore and are leaving. What a shame Lynn
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