How Jupiter Farms is growing: FPL placing 45 power lines underground by year's end

JUPITER FARMS — Florida Power & Light is at work on a project to bury 45 power lines in Jupiter Farms by the end of the year.

The underground lines would cut the number of power outages in the area and reduce the cost of restoring the lines after hurricanes and other storms, said Jacob Benator, FPL’s lead project manager for lateral hardening in Palm Beach County.

He said Jupiter Farms is at the “top of the list” out of all of the areas in Palm Beach County that could benefit from power lines moved underground.

Since 2019, FPL has moved eight power lines in the neighborhood underground, and the utility began its effort to move more underground at the end of 2023.

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FPL: Underground lines make it faster to restore power after storms

The lines that crews plan to move underground stretch more than 45 miles and serve about 900 customers, according to a spokesperson.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are more than 4,300 households in the community, according to their latest data. Its last population count for Jupiter Farms tallied more that 12,500 people across about 15 square miles.

Benator said power lines running through residential areas in Jupiter Farms often are inaccessible to crews.

“Those lines are highly susceptible to vegetation or downed trees, causing outages,” Benator said of the unincorporated community known for its multitude of towering oaks and swaths of untouched land. “It’s hard for us to access and maintain these lines. Not only are we converting those lines underground, we're relocating those lines to accessible locations.”

Crews are moving the lines underground near public roads so that they have easier access to make repairs the next time problems happen. Many of these lines now sit on property belonging to homeowners.

Underground lines perform 50% better than overhead lines in day-to-day conditions and significantly better during named storms, Benator said.

“Even before crews begin to restore power there, oftentimes they have to wait on a vegetation crew to trim up trees around the lines to clear the way,” he said. “Underground lines are much more insulated from environmental hazards like downed vegetation, debris or trees.”

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Other parts of Palm Beach County in line for underground power lines

Along with Jupiter Farms, FPL is also working on improving power lines in other communities around the county this year, including Greenacres, Palm Springs, The Acreage and Delray Beach.

The effort is a part of FPL's Storm Secure Underground Program, which started in 2018 and has the goal of strengthening all neighborhood power lines in Palm Beach County over the next several years. Crews will bury some lines and convert other wooden power poles to either steel or concrete.

The utility covers the cost of the undergrounding and power pole improvements through a monthly charge customers pay as part of their bills. It amounts to a little less than $4 per month.

Their crews have either buried or improved the poles for 80% of all power lines in the county so far, according to a spokesperson. FPL is not always permitted to tear down existing poles after it moves lines underground because some belong to telecommunications companies, such as AT&T.

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Some residents have questions about benefits of underground lines

FPL crew members have begun the process of reaching out to homeowners to ask for their OK to move power lines on their properties underground.

Matthew Gitkin, the secretary of the Jupiter Farms Residents civic association and a theater professor at Palm Beach State College, said he wished FPL had notified all Jupiter Farms residents about its plans to improve power lines.

“It seems like a lot of residents get notified of this in the mail and they don’t know what it is all about,” said Gitkin, 56, who has lived in Jupiter Farms for 14 years. “There hasn’t been any information disseminated, other than what is directly mailed to residents in a certain area.”

Gitkin said he isn’t sure if the underground lines would be beneficial to the community in the long term. Some of his neighbors think the lines could take longer to fix if there are outages.

He questioned if the process of moving the lines could damage homes. However, the homeowner would not be responsible for costs to repair any damages if they do occur.

FPL pledges to restore all properties to their previous condition once a project is complete. Crews use horizontal drilling when they install power lines, which helps to minimize the impact to homes during construction, according to a spokesperson.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Gitkin said. “I would love to know how successful this is going to be. There are a lot of people thinking it will be great, but I don't know. If it’s not going to decrease the amount of poles or better infrastructure, I guess ‘great’ is in the eyes of the person saying it.”

Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FPL moves power lines underground to reduce outages in Jupiter Farms