Utility Automation & Engineering T&D - FPL announces preliminary findings of outage investigation

Juno Beach, FL, Mar. 4, 2008 -- Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) announced preliminary findings of its ongoing investigation into the cause of an outage affecting approximately 584,000 customers on Tuesday, Feb. 26.

While still preliminary, the results of the investigation so far indicate that human error was the primary factor immediately responsible for the event, which began at 1:08 p.m. (EST).

A field engineer was diagnosing a switch that had malfunctioned at FPL's Flagami substation in west Miami. Without authorization, the engineer disabled two levels of relay protection. The company said this was done contrary to FPL's standard procedures and established practices.

During the diagnostic process, a fault occurred and, because both levels of relay protection had been removed, caused an outage ultimately affecting 26 transmission lines and 38 substations. One of the substations affected serves three of the generation units at Turkey Point, including a natural gas unit as well as both nuclear units, which, as designed, automatically and safely shut down due to an under-voltage condition. Also affected were two other generation plants in FPL's system. Total impact to the system was a loss of 3,400 megawatts of generating capacity.

"These preliminary findings address the most pressing questions that have been posed. We are committed to completing a full and thorough investigation, to cooperating fully with the appropriate regulatory agencies and to sharing our findings publicly when the investigation is completed. We will address any issues that are identified in order to prevent a recurrence," FPL president Armando Olivera said. "While the investigation is ongoing, to this point we have no indication that there are any deficiencies with the design of our facilities or with our maintenance procedures. However, out of an abundance of caution, we have implemented interim changes governing relay protections to prevent a recurrence," Olivera added.

The final account of customers affected by the incident on Tuesday totaled 584,000 customers, or 13 percent of FPL's total number of customers.

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