FPL surge protection is rip-off, engineer says

By Tom Lyons

Published: Monday, June 4, 2012 at 6:34 p.m.

Unlike most electricity customers, Isaac Barpal knows a lot about what he is buying. So when his latest Florida Power & Light bill included a come-on ad for surge protection services, which he sees as a scam, sparks flew out of his head. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Barpal could afford the $9.95 per month fee that FPL Energy Services wants residential customers to pony up for what it calls "SurgeShield Protection." And he knows electricity.

Long before hybrids appeared in car showrooms, Barpal and some fellow graduate students designed and built one in California and drove it to Washington, D.C., to show federal officials it would work. Now, as a retired electrical engineer living in Osprey, he talks of decades holding lofty positions with major corporations including Westinghouse — companies where he managed the construction of huge electrical projects in numerous nations or directed a massive research and development staff. He says the surge protection is a rip-off, a trick to take advantage of people's ignorance.

The service offered by the FPL sister company provides protection for air conditioners, pool pumps, fans, refrigerators and various other appliances. And it works, Barpal says. But it certainly shouldn't require an extra monthly fee to get it, he insists. It's like a doctor charging extra for using clean needles, he said. Or a car company saying the basic model doesn't include brakes and adding an extra monthly fee for them. Or a cruise ship captain charging for life preserver access.

FPL spokesman Neil Nissan says that's not so. It's more like buying insurance when you ship a package, or an extended warranty for a car, he says. "Some people want the extra peace of mind," Nissan told me. But yet, the company's own customer information package say it isn't insurance that is offered. It is actual protection. The device makes loss of a major appliance far less likely. Most people have no idea how safe their appliances are or aren't, either with or without that service. All we know is that FPL seems to think it a good idea to buy it and pay for it, for eternity. But Barpal says FPL's system could easily, and should, be equipped to do the same with no such fee. As Barpal explains, lightning is almost always the source of the dangerous surges, and it is not as if lightning is something new and unexpected. It's as common here as rain, and has to be planned for. And the surges that the protection system stops aren't from lightning bolts that strike your property; they hit FPL's system elsewhere, and FPL's wires send it your way.

FPL's sister company stops that surge with a simple device installed near the meter. Barpal estimates the device must cost the company about $10 to $20, plus the installation, which the company says takes about 20 minutes.

Nissan wouldn't say if that cost figure was about right — trade secret, he says. What's not a secret is that customers get to pay $120 a year for it. Potentially forever. "That's just not fair," Barpal insists. As an electrical engineer, it just seems outrageous to him that FPL doesn't surge-proof the system itself as part of the basic service, at very little charge. FPL knows lightning surges will continue to happen, just as they know the sun will shine.

"If they know that something is going to happen," he said, "it is their responsibility to correct it." Instead, you get the mailed version of a tough-guy coming by in a protection racket and saying, "Nice appliances you have there. Real nice. It would be a shame if something happened to them. A real shame."

Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.