Press Mention Palm Beach Post July 12, 2022
SACE Quoted
Florida Power & Light backs down, freezes extreme winter weather plan
In this mention
Florida Power & Light withdrew its proposed extreme winter weather preparedness plan after receiving criticism from regulators and advocacy groups, including SACE. George Cavros of SACE praised the withdrawal, noting the plan lacked focus on energy efficiency as a low-cost alternative. FPL will instead proceed with its standard business-as-usual 10-year outlook.
This is good news for FPL customers. Absent from its plan was a greater focus on low-cost resources like energy efficiency that help customers reduce energy use and save money on power bills.
George Cavros
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Florida Power & Light backs down, freezes extreme winter weather plan
Hannah Morse
Palm Beach Post
July 13, 2022, 5:02 a.m. ET
The state's largest utility has backed down from a plan to prepare for extreme winter weather after it received a frosty reception last month from critics concerned that the proposal would lead to "unnecessary" costs for customers.
"The winterization approach we filed … was created to protect our customers from these potential scenarios, but the feedback offered by the Florida Public Service Commission staff, the Office of Public Counsel and other organizations indicates that they don't share our concerns," Florida Power & Light said in a statement emailed on Monday after notifying the PSC of its intentions.
Through a spokesperson, the utility previously said it would not be "confident we could continuously meet customer demand in an extreme winter event." Despite withdrawing the plan, the utility maintained this position.
Deadly Texas winter storm prompted FPL review
FPL said the deadly winter storm that hit Texas in February 2021 was its motivation to review its preparedness for extreme cold weather. The utility used two priorFloridafreeze events in 1989 and 2010 to support its proposal to expand planned battery storage, increase capacity at some fossil-fuel power plants and keep older power plants that had been scheduled for retirement in rotation for winter use only.
The utility expected this plan would lead to a "modest estimated bill impact" for customers, or $1 or less per 1,000 kilowatt hour monthly bill by 2031.
But during a PSC workshop held last month, critics concerned by FPL's proposed formula for calculating peak electricity usage in the winter called out the plan for lacking evidence that such extreme weather would occur and said that such a plan could lead to an overbuilt electric grid.
"This is good news for FPL customers," said George Cavros, Florida director and energy policy attorney for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "Absent from its plan was a greater focus on low-cost resources like energy efficiency that help customers reduce energy use and save money on power bills."
Bradley Marshall, senior attorney with environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice that represented Florida Rising and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, said Mondaythe organizations are "relieved" by the withdrawal and that the plan was "due to be rejected."
"It lacked justification and would have led to even more unnecessary generation and thus even higher bills for FPL customers," Marshall said.
Instead, FPL will move forward with its "business-as-usual" plan that the companyalso submitted as part of its 10-year outlook, which utilities are required to provide to the PSC each year. This plan does not prepare for an extreme winter weather event and keeps the standard formula all utilities use to calculate peak demands.
These documents are nonbinding, but offer regulators insight into a utility's planned power plants and other preparations, and the PSC must find this plan "suitable" or "unsuitable."
Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse.