Stay Tuned for More Blogs on Florida’s Utility Program Plans
Last Fall, the Florida Public Service Commission rejected proposals by four utilities (FPL, Gulf, JEA, and OUC) to effectively eliminate their legislatively required efficiency savings goals. Instead, the Commission extended the goals approved in 2014. In compliance with that order, each utility must now seek Commission authorization for energy efficiency program plans showing how they will reach their respective 2020-2024 savings targets.
Over the coming weeks, we will provide additional analysis and context leading up to the Commission’s consideration of these plan. In the meantime, here are a few highlights that caught our eye.
As discussed in SACE’s recently filed comments, the most bizarre program plan was submitted by Jacksonville Electric Authority. This comes as no real surprise, given the rash of scandals and wrong-headed clean energy policies coming from that utility’s board in recent years. The most peculiar features of their proposal include:
- Claiming savings from existing customer-owned solar panels (despite having recently killed their solar net metering program)
- Operating a solar hot water program intended to serve just 2 customers each year, and
- Failing to even mention an array of legitimate efficiency programs that they have offered for years but inexplicably chose not to count towards their Commission ordered savings
For Orlando Utilities Commission, there was a huge disconnect between the plan filed by the municipally owned utility and the environmental and social responsibilities articulated by city leadership and the utility itself. While the utility talked up the importance of providing energy efficiency assistance for low income customers to address high energy bills (which we strongly agree with), it proposed the least ambitious program offerings to actually serve those customers – less even than FPL, which is saying a lot. At the big picture level, Orlando’s city leadership has taken a clear stance on addressing climate change and is committed to converting to 100% renewable energy. But OUC doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. Transitioning to clean energy is the right thing to do, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to do so without first making meaningful investments in energy efficiency. OUC’s plan doesn’t even come close.
Last Fall, Florida Power & Light proposed to slash its efficiency savings down to the energy use equivalent of just 7 houses, but this ridiculous maneuver was rejected by the Public Service Commission. Now the utility has made it clear it intends to do the absolute least it can to meet the Commission ordered requirements. The energy efficiency plan FPL submitted this year scraped past their energy savings goal by less than 1/10th of one percent. No other utility submitted a plan so clearly designed to minimize energy savings for its customers. While disappointing, this comes as no real surprise from a monopoly utility so determined to avoid any reduction to its revenues, even from eliminating easily addressed energy waste. Also no real surprise, FPL plans to operate one of the least impactful efficiency programs for its low income customers.
For the past month, millions of Floridians have been stuck indoors leading to higher energy usage at home. This combined with economic turmoil is making it harder than ever for Florida families to afford the state’s notoriously high energy bills. Energy efficiency addresses the problem at its source, which will be more important than ever as we head into the hot summer months. Stick with us in the coming weeks as we dig further into these energy efficiency program plans and what follow at the Commission over the coming months and beyond.
