GOLDEN GATE ESTATES, Fla. — Many Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) customers in Golden Gate Estates are fed up with flickering lights.
Golden Gate residents have voiced their concerns online, and called Fox 4 about the situation. For some, it means fried appliances and businesses that are unable to serve their patrons.
Fox 4 spoke with LCEC and the company said it's aware of the issue, and that the flickering is a preventative measure to help give the power grid a break.
Still...
"It's really annoying sometimes," Golden Gate Estates resident Jasmine Jimenez said.
She works close by at a doctor's office and said each day at work and at home, her power flicks on... and off.
Sometimes, she said, it's at critical moments of patient care.
"It's just really annoying for the patients and us, also, because we have to scan documents and we can't with no power," Jimenez says.
Karen Ryan with LCEC said the outages are for a good reason.
"They are momentary outages, of just a few seconds, and sometimes there are more than one in a series. That is a sign that protective devices on the grid are working," Ryan said.
Southwest Florida's growing population is already stressing the power grid — record temperatures are the cherry on top that no one needs.
"When the temperatures are high and the circuits are overloaded, or if a tree branch is touching a power line, those protective devices operate," Ryan said.
Though the power may seem unstable to some, Ryan said the alternative is days without power.
Whether it’s at work or home, the interruption is causing troubles for Jimenez, who is still working towards getting her college degree.
"At home it's worse because I can be in the middle of doing homework... It would just go out in the middle of me taking a test and I'd have to start over," Jimenez said.
LCEC said a fix is on the way.
"Right now we have infrastructure that's being built," Ryan said. "Two electricity sub stations are being built. They take years to construct but that will be a permanent solution for places that are experiencing high growth."
No timeline on that project has been given just yet.
