Mike Edmonds, S&C's president, U.S. Business, said the company's Trip Saver II -- invented by "a team of geniuses" -- reduces momentary electrical interruptions, those lasting less than 60 seconds. It's producing the 22-pound lateral switches at the rate of three per hour at the new plant, its first in Florida, and its first new plant in 13 years.
S&C has already shipped approximately 5,500 Trip Saver IIs to FPL from its Chicago plant, and it expects to make 10,000 of the plastic-and-metal devices in West Palm Beach each year. Eventually it hopes to add more utility customers in Florida and the Southeast.
Edmonds said about 80 percent of outages are of a temporary nature, such as when a palm frond falls on a power line, and if those can be reduced, it saves utility customers money.
FPL senior line specialist Richard Britt demonstrated how the Trip Saver, installed on the power line pole, automatically opens and recloses itself. Without the technology, a lineman has to manually close the switch to restore service.
"S&C Trip Savers have significantly improved the self-healing capability of the electrical grid," Britt said. "It has the ability to determine when the issue is cleared and restore service."
FPL CEO and president Eric Silagy said FPL expects to install 20,000 TripSavers by the end of this year, and 50,000 over the next few years.
"This kind of smart grid technology is an ongoing effort. We have invested close to $2 billion in smart grid and hardening technology across our system. It makes a big difference during hurricane season," Silagy said.
In 2014, FPL's 4.7 million customers experienced more than 41.4 million flickers, or an average of 8.7 per customer.
Kelly Smallridge, CEO and president of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, said the county is home to about 100 manufacturers, and the sector is not one of its larger ones.
"It helps to be located next to their major customer, FPL," Smallridge said.
Edmonds declined to say how many TripSaver II's the company has made since it was invented in 2012. The 2,500-employee company which provides equipment and services for electric power systems also has factories in Wisconsin, Toronto, Brazil, Mexico and China.
©2015 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.), Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
