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Cable wars, power grids and issues of identity

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published September 26, 2005

The coming cable TV war, Florida's vulnerable post-Rita power grid and the new search for what really makes "Tampa Bay" different from other metro areas are three issues moving to the front burner.

Ever wonder why it costs almost $15 more a month in Hillsborough County than in Pinellas to subscribe to Bright House Networks' standard cable TV service?

The cable offerings are essentially the same. So it's not the mix of content that makes for such a startling price difference - almost $180 a year - between neighboring counties. There's another reason.

Bright House charges $46.49 in Hillsborough because no one else (outside of satellite service) offers cable TV there. Bright House charges $31.95 in portions of Pinellas where cable provider Knology offers the consumer a choice.

Behold the power of competition in keeping prices reasonable.

Now comes a new player, Verizon Communications, that is investing mega-bucks in Hillsborough by laying fiber-optic cable in preparation for its own cable TV service called Verizon FiOS TV. It does not take a Nobel Prize economist to anticipate sharp cuts ahead in cable TV prices in Hillsborough once there is a choice other than Bright House.

Just don't hold your breath waiting for the new service. Verizon has signed only two cable franchise deals, Temple Terrace and unincorporated Manatee County, despite spending more than a year trying to persuade Hillsborough area municipalities to commit to franchise agreements.

The painfully slow process confounds Verizon's southeast regional president. Over a breakfast omelet Friday, Alan Ciamporcero lamented the snail's pace of franchise signings. Sure, it's in Verizon's interest to sign up franchises and TV customers as soon as possible. But it's also a consumer pocketbook issue.

Once Verizon is up and running, and offering direct competition, rest assured: Cable TV prices in Hillsborough will drop like a rock.

Ciamporcero, legally trained and well-versed in the ways of persuasion, prefers Verizon walk soft locally and carry a big stick in Tallahassee. Verizon is looking to persuade state legislators to approve a plan that would make it easier and quicker for companies to conclude cable TV franchises in Florida. Stay tuned, so to speak.

Ken Wiley is the man in Tampa who watches monster hurricanes like Katrina, and now Rita, so the lights won't flicker in Florida. As the head of the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council, Wiley tries to make sure Florida's supply of bulk electricity is reliable and adequate, now and in the years ahead.

Lately, that job has grown more challenging. In late August, when Katrina struck the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, Wiley monitored the damage to the gulf gas platforms, the refineries and the gas pipelines that are increasingly Florida's main energy artery.

Last week, the major power companies in Florida - including Progress Energy and Florida Power & Light - urged their customers to conserve energy in anticipation of the effect of Rita on gas supplies.

The situation is not much different than the gas crunch at the pump. Only you can't top off electricity.

Florida power plants, eager to adopt cleaner natural gas as the preferred fuel used to generate electricity, rely heavily on the supply of gas delivered by pipeline from hurricane-hit areas of the Gulf Coast. About 30 percent of the state's power plants are run on natural gas.

"If you go back seven years, gas made up around 15 or 16 percent, so it is a dramatic change," Wiley said. Had some big hurricanes struck back then, he said, the effect on the power grid would have been "kind of ho hum."

Look for Florida power plant dependence on natural gas to rise even higher in the coming years, perhaps as high as 50 percent, Wiley said.

Wiley's council uses three levels of warnings - an advisory, an alert and an emergency - to communicate the stress on Florida's power grid. The top warning, emergency, has not been used since the late 1980s when a winter cold snap overwhelmed the system and prompted rolling blackouts.

That's an event Wiley hopes will remain, by Florida standards, ancient history.

What makes the Tampa Bay area distinctive from other regions? What separates here from there?

This is not Philosophy 101 but a fresh attempt by area economic development leaders to understand what makes Tampa Bay unique. After all, it's tough to sell this area to young and talented adults or relocating corporations if you can't pinpoint what makes this place different.

Impresa Consulting in Portland, Ore., was recently commissioned by about a dozen area economic development groups and businesses to analyze the Tampa Bay area's unique traits. Yes, that superficially means the nice weather and beaches, but it's really about identifying what people here say stands out about where they live.

"Every place has distinctive things," said Joe Cortright, Impresa's regional economist who is conducting the study. "We think that is increasingly one of the important aspects that causes an area's economy to grow.

"What sets your community apart from every other? Where is it best, first or only?"

Good questions. Finding the answer, Cortright suggests, gives a community an advantage that is tough for the competition to take away.

Hence the study's working title: "Things Look Different Here." It should be done by March or so.

Cortright is no stranger to the Tampa Bay market. He helped deliver last year's "The Young and the Restless" study of six metro areas, including this one, that gauged how attractive the cities are to educated adults between 25 and 34 - better known as the key to the future work force.

Tampa Bay's share of that population was thin when compared with most large metro areas, ranking 47th out of the top 50 metro areas. Ouch.

Cortright contends that a metro area that really knows what makes itself tick is better equipped to know which of its businesses are most likely to prosper.

Apparently what you don't know can hurt you.

Robert Trigaux can be reached at 727 893-8405 or trigaux@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 23, 2005, 22:01:02]