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.

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 (LUSC), 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 next LUSC meeting with the following direction:

a.) Have the Administration explore retaining an engineering consultant to navigate the FPL process, including potential benefits.  In August 2023, Public Works issued a notice to proceed to Stantec to perform consulting services necessary for the FPL SSUP Program.

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 gathered the requested information and presented it at the September 27, 2023 LUSC

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At the September 27, 2023 LUSC meeting, FPL representatives provided a PowerPoint presentation and additional information with regards to the underground program.  A motion was made to continue the discussion to the October 11, 2023 LUSC and provide data on how many outages take place on average per year, the time it takes for electricity to be restored, costs associated with undergrounding and the 63% of customer locations that already have undergrounding.

At the October 11, 2023 LUSC meeting, members made a motion to defer the item to a future date per FPL's request. Committee members continued the FPL underground discussion however, and requested that, since most sponsors at the time would have completed their official term (and in order for the discussion to continue beyond November), that Commissioners Dominguez and Fernandez be added as new sponsors.

FPL has provided Public Works new data, which is being reviewed by the City's consultant, Stantec.  Additional data has been requested of FPL, however, the consultant will be ready to discuss the data received to date.