"What
I like best about my job is knowing that I'm making a difference for
FPL customers every day and helping to deliver affordable and
reliable power," said Florida Power & Light's Delivery
Assurance Lead, Eli Cueto.
Juno
Beach, FL (June 23, 2012) -- Florida
Power & Light's Delivery Assurance Lead, Eli
Cueto, can see things most of us would never even notice. He sees
problems before they develop. Think of him as a detective who patrols
the electric grid.
“Doing
this, I get to fulfill a lot of things that I like, which is field
work, and investigating and uncovering potential problems,” he
says.
This
detective’s tool of choice? An advanced infrared camera, which he
carries in a black suitcase as he patrols the power lines across
Florida in his FPL van.
“If
you're looking at a section of an overhead line, everything could
appear fine,” he says. “You could look at it with binoculars and
still everything looks good.”
Cueto
says if he stopped there, and relied only on his eyesight, he would
miss the most important evidence of all - the clue that’s the key
to delivering reliable service. Opening his suitcase and flipping on
his infrared camera, Cueto reveals what’s really going on inside
the fuse switch, fixed 60 feet high atop an FPL pole.
“The
way it works is that the camera picks up the infrared energy being
displayed, so the brighter the color, the hotter the temperature,”
Cueto says, pointing to a purplish image on the camera screen.
In
the center of the image, he points to a bright white circle. “What
we are seeing right here is a hot fuse switch. We can see it right
here on the camera that it is overheating. The temperature, it’s
over 150 degrees, so we know that it’s a candidate for
replacement.”
Cueto
returns to his office and uploads the infrared image to his computer.
He calls up a database that provides more information about the
specific pole and switch. The information he discovers helps him
create a work order for his team, which can then perform preventive
maintenance on the equipment and avoid a potential outage for
customers. Like a good detective, Cueto followed the clues,
determined the cause and cracked the case.
“I
think FPL sets a standard, because we actually take the initiative to
go out there and evaluate all the facilities that we have,” says
Cueto. He is part of a team of 26 FPL employees and contractors who
use infrared technology to help provide reliable service.
“What
I like best about my job is knowing that I'm making a difference for
FPL customers every day and helping to deliver affordable and
reliable power.”
To
view photos and video of FPL’s infrared technology, visit
http://www.fpl.com/newsroom.
Eli
Cueto joined FPL in 2005 and began his career as a meter reader. He
later worked in the Distribution service planning area first, as an
associate project designer, assisting with trouble tickets and
working on projects to help improve service reliability, and later,
as a customer project manager, helping plan for power delivery to new
and existing construction. In December 2010, Cueto transitioned into
his current delivery assurance lead position, where his focus day in
and day out is preventing problems to help ensure service
reliability.
Media
Contact:
FPL
Media Line
Florida
Power & Light Company
700
Universe Blvd.
Juno
Beach, FL 33408
305-552-3888
