At its May 17, 2023 meeting, the City Commission approved a dual referral to the Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee (PSNQLC) and Land Use and Sustainability Committee (LUSC) to discuss Florida Power and Light's (FPL) Storm Secure Underground Program (the “Program”) and opportunities for identifying City of Miami Beach neighborhoods which may be eligible for undergrounding of power lines through the program, at no cost or expense to City residents, businesses, or property owners.

In 2018, FPL launched the Storm Secure Underground Program (SSUP) as approved, on a 3-year pilot basis, by the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC). The pilot program was developed as part of a hardening initiative and allows for placement of certain overhead neighborhood power lines (laterals) underground to improve reliability during storm events and everyday weather. Per FPL, in 2021, the pilot transitioned to an ongoing program. Note that feeder power lines, telecommunication, and other utility cables are not eligible for SSUP.

The Program analyzes data from power line performance during previous named storms, outages on power lines due to vegetation issues, and performance of power lines during day-to-day operations to identify neighborhood power lines (laterals) that are most affected according to these metrics.

Sponsoring Commissioners, Arriola and Meiner, requested referral of the item to further discuss the SSUP, potential resident eligibility and appropriate steps the Administration and/or City Commission would need to take to participate.

FPL has evaluated every neighborhood power line (laterals) in its service territory, including an assessment of Miami Beach lateral power lines. Based on FPL’s SSUP criteria and metrics, it is the understanding of the Administration that FPL has determined that there are no Miami Beach projects slated for the near-term.  

The Public Works Department has engaged in discussions with FPL and Stantec about the program. Stantec was hired by the City of Coral Gables to assist in developing their city-initiated overhead to underground conversion program, which was originally intended to be citywide and include both feeder and lateral power lines. This type of conversion program requires financial participation by the municipality. Coral Gables has since abandoned the citywide conversion initiative and separately, was selected to participate in the SSUP based on program criteria.

At the June 20, 2023 meeting of the Land Use and Sustainability Committee, FPL representatives provided additional information with regards to the undergrounding program, including a PowerPoint Presentation.  A motion was made to continue the item to the July 19, 2023 LUSC meeting with the following direction:

a. Have the Administration explore retaining an engineering consultant to navigate the FPL process, including potential benefits.  Public Works is currently working with Procurement to engage the specialized services of Stantec to provide advisory services under one of Stantec’s current A&E pool contracts.

b. Have Public Works coordinate with FPL to obtain all relevant and available information specific to Miami Beach as it pertains to eligibility for undergrounding and related improvements.  FPL stated at the meeting that it may need additional time to gather the requested information and may not be able to provide it for the July meeting but would have it available for the September 2023 meeting.