Stakeholders press Florida to fix failed efficiency policies

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SACE and other stakeholders filed comments supporting modernization of Florida's outdated energy efficiency rules in a PSC rulemaking. The current rules, unchanged since the early 1990s, have left Florida near last place in state efficiency rankings and rely on faulty economic screening practices no other state uses. SACE's Energy Efficiency Director Forest Bradley-Wright called for the PSC to reform these decades-old practices to unlock economic and environmental benefits for Florida ratepayers.

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Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), and numerous other stakeholders filed comments yesterday in support of modernizing the state's badly outdated energy efficiency rules in a recent Florida Public Service Commission rulemaking docket, SACE said yesterday. The current rules, in place since the early 1990s, led to Florida being near last place in state rankings for efficiency performance, while undercutting opportunities for customers to cut energy waste and save money on their power bills, it added.

A central issue for rule reform is a set of reportedly faulty economic screening practices used in Florida that are so old, no other state uses them when setting efficiency savings goals. These screening practices were used by utilities 2019 to propose eliminating their energy-saving goals completely, the group said. The commission rejected those proposals and called for reform to its energy efficiency rules and practices.

Thousands of customers already filed comments in the docket, calling on the state to modernize its rules in order to realize the many economic and environmental benefits of using energy smarter. Additionally, SACE and stakeholders called on the commission to hold a second workshop to explore rule changes to modernize the decades-old practices used in Florida.

But the initial draft rule, filed by the commission's staff in December, conspicuously left the economic screening practices unaddressed.

The Florida PSC, "has a unique opportunity to finally reform the outdated energy efficiency rules that have routinely undermined proven low-cost energy saving investments," said SACE Energy Efficiency Director Forest Bradley-Wright in prepared remarks. "There are solid economic reasons why no other state uses these outdated practices, which have consistently landed Florida in the bottom tier of national efficiency performance rankings.

"Reducing energy waste is the quickest, cheapest, and cleanest way to meet our future energy needs. Implementing modern energy efficiency practices will bring enormous economic benefits to the state and its hard-working families who have been paying unnecessarily high energy bills for too long," he added.