Nuclear costs OK'd for FPL

Nuclear costs OK'd for FPL
By JIM SAUNDERS News Service of Florida
Published: Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at 1:00 a.m.

Florida Power & Light customers will pay nearly $43.5 million next year for
nuclear-power projects, including $16.2 million for a plan to eventually build two
new reactors in Miami-Dade County, state regulators decided Tuesday.

The project costs will have relatively little impact on customers' monthly bills. A
residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month will pay
about 46 cents. But the costs are part of a broader debate about a 2006 law that has
allowed FPL and Duke Energy Florida to collect money for nuclear projects that will
not produce electricity for years -- if ever.

The controversy has particularly focused on Duke, which in August announced that
it would scrap plans to build two reactors in Levy County after the utility and its
predecessor, Progress Energy Florida, collected hundreds of millions of dollars from
customers.

FPL is the primary power provider in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties. The
$16.2 million approved Tuesday by the state Public Service Commission will go
toward licensing, permitting and engineering for FPL's proposal to build reactors at
its Turkey Point complex in Miami-Dade. The reactors would begin producing
electricity in 2022 and 2023 and are ultimately projected to cost $12.7 billion to
$18.5 billion.

Public Service Commission members said they think the project remains
cost-effective, at least in part because nuclear reactors save money long-term on fuel
expenses. Also, Commissioner Eduardo Balbis said Florida needs to diversify its
energy supply, as the state has become increasingly reliant on natural gas to fuel
power plants and as environmental constraints likely will prevent building coal-fired
plants.

"I'm glad to see Florida Power & Light is proceeding with this project," Balbis said
before the commission voted unanimously to approved the costs.

State Public Counsel J.R. Kelly, whose office represents consumers in utility issues,
said he did not object to the $16.2 million for the proposed reactors.

"They've taken a step approach, and we didn't have any issues with that," Kelly said.

But the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which has long fought against the
nuclear costs, issued a statement saying the Public Service Commission played "lap
dog" to FPL. The group contends, in part, that customers are paying for proposed
reactors that likely will never generate electricity.

"The system is clearly broken in Florida in terms of energy planning -- we have a
PSC beholden to big power companies that time-after-time turns a blind eye to the
realities that every day Floridians are facing," Stephen A. Smith, executive director of
the Southern Alliance, said in a prepared statement.

The remainder of the $43.5 million that customers will pay next year stems from

projects to upgrade existing FPL reactors. Those projects are finished, but FPL said
the costs are related to reconciling projections against actual expenses.

The Office of Public Counsel raised objections about the upgrade projects because of
costs that were higher than projected.

While a 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential customer will pay 46 cents a month in the
nuclear costs next year, that is down from $1.65 in nuclear costs that the customer
pays this year.