Florida’s largest utility is seeking a rate hike it says will be offset by the savings generated from making its power plant fleet cleaner and more efficient.
Florida Power and Light Co. (FPL) touted its efficiency efforts Thursday as hearings take place throughout the state this month over the proposed rate hike. The company said its efforts have saved customers nearly $3 billion in fuel costs since 2002, while a combination of retrofits and fuel switching projects will save its customers $1 billion every year beginning in 2014. FPL predicts its power generation fleet will be 20 percent more efficient within five years, compared to a 2002 baseline.
The company is among the least carbon intensive utilities in the U.S., according to an
analysis of the utility sector published earlier this year by the
Carbon Disclosure Project. Its efforts to make its power plants more efficient include:
• Converting oil-fired power plants in Fort Myers and Sanford to use natural gas combined-cycle technology, which is about 30 percent more efficient than conventional natural gas generation.
• Adding new natural gas combined-cycle capacity to its Martin, Manatee and Turkey Point sites.
• Three power plants, dubbed West County units 1, 2 and 3, are scheduled to go online between 2009 and 2011 and will use combined-cycle technology.
• The future retrofit of two plants in Riviera Beach and Cape Canaveral will make them 33 percent more efficient.
Customer base rates would increase 12 percent if a proposed rate hike filed earlier this year is approved. That totals about $1 billion beginning next year and another $247 million the following year, according to the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The rate the company charges customers using more than 1,000 kilowatt hours is the cheapest among the state’s five major utilities.
FPL argues the savings from lower fuel costs and more efficient operations would offset the rate increases, leading to overall lower electricity bills for the utility’s 4.5 million customers.
Consumer advocates railed against the price hikes. "We just think that's terribly excessive right now," Public Counsel J.R. Kelly told the Sun-Sentinel. "We're just floored they want that much [in earnings] when people are fighting to keep their heads above water."
Background power line image CC licensed by Flickr user eflon. FPL logo courtesy of Florida Power and Light Co.
