Duke Energy plans meeting to tout its future power plant

Duke Energy plans meeting to tout its future power plant

By Kevin Spear, Orlando Sentinel

9:30 PM EDT, July 8, 2014

The future of Central Florida's biggest electric utility depends greatly on a proposed advertisement power plant that Duke Energy will unveil Thursday during an open house 90 miles from Orlando.

While construction is to start in less than two years, much about the Crystal River plant is still uncertain. It doesn't have state approval, an established supply of natural gas or a manufacturer tapped to build the generator components.

But the North Carolina-based company has a lot is riding on the project, including Duke's increasing struggle to produce enough power for 700,000 customers in Central Florida and 1 million customers elsewhere in the state.

"We can build a natural gas plant safely, quickly and less expensively than other generating sources," Duke spokeswoman Heather Danenhower said.

The $1.5 billion plant is to have six generators, with four running on natural gas and providing heat to make steam that drives two more generators.

At full power, the complex would generate 1,640 megawatts, or nearly twice as much as what used to be provided by Duke's crippled nuclear plant, which is destined for a decades-long decommissioning and demolition.

Critics say Duke wants to build the plant because as a state-sanctioned investment it would justify an increase in rates and protect company profits.

Duke already has calculated the new plant would boost electricity rates $7.61 a month for a home using a typical amount of power, or 1,000 kilowatt-hours.

The utility bills more than other large providers in Central Florida. For a home using 1,000 kilowatt-hours in a month, Duke charges $125, while the bill is $102 from Florida Power & Light Co. and $109 from Orlando Utilities Commission.

"For an investor-owned company like Duke, the model is they make more money with more capital expenditures," said Susan Glickman, Florida director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "They get a guaranteed rate of return on what they spend so the incentive is to spend."

Duke Energy will make the case to Florida regulators that a large, natural gas plant is the most effective way to meet customer demand.

Danenhower said Duke Energy's doesn't need to make as much effort as it previously has to get customers to use electricity more efficiently.

"Research shows that 69 percent of our customers are already adopting energy-efficiency measures on their own," Danenhower said. "Building codes have also become stricter in requiring energy-efficiency measures at the start of construction, thereby reducing the need for some of our current energy-efficiency programs."

But Glickman said her organization contends that Duke, instead of building the new plant, could and should meet a big share of customer demand in coming years through programs that help them reduce their need for power.

"They don't really want to help people use less energy any more than McDonald's wants to sell less hamburgers," Glickman said.

Duke's open house will be open to the public Thursday afternoon from 3 to 7 at the Plantation at Crystal River in Crystal River. Go to http://bit.ly/1m9CVqS for more detail.