Hurricane hardening efforts in Florida

The 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons wrecked havoc on power systems in Florida, destroying tens of thousands of structures and resulting in very costly and lengthy restoration efforts. Since some weather experts are forecasting a cycle of increased hurricane activity, Florida utilities are starting to ldquohardenrdquo their infrastructure so that future hurricanes will cause less damage. Presently most transmission and substations are built to extreme wind criteria. This is not the case for distribution system, and most hardening efforts are focusing on damage to distribution facilities. This presentation will (1) give an overview of extreme wind hardening in terms of criteria and tactics; (2) discuss the progress of one utilitypsilas hardening initiative, and (3) discuss ongoing collaborative research efforts on cost/benefit models for hurricane hardening.