A group that challenged a Florida Power & Light plan to raise base electric rates is taking the fight to the state Supreme Court.
The group Floridians Against Increased Rates filed a notice this week that it is appealing a decision by the state Public Service Commission to approve a settlement that will lead to FPL rate increases starting in January.
As is common, the notice did not detail arguments the group will make at the Supreme Court. But the group battled FPL for months during the rate case, including over an attempt by the utility to block it from intervening in the case.
“The nature of the order on appeal is a final order of the Florida Public Service Commission authorizing Florida Power & Light Company to increase its rates and thereby to charge its customers several billion dollars in additional base rate charges over the next four years and also to implement certain accounting measures and spending programs that will substantially affect the utility’s customers,” the notice, filed Monday at the commission, said.
The Public Service Commission in October unanimously approved the rate settlement, which FPL reached with the state Office of Public Counsel and several organizations that took part in the case. The Office of Public Counsel represents consumers in utility issues.
Under the four-year settlement, FPL will be able to raise rates in 2022 to generate an additional $692 million in annual revenue, followed by increases in 2023 that will generate $560 million in annual revenue. Additional increases are planned in 2024 and 2025 to pay for solar projects.
The plan also involves integrating the rates of FPL and Northwest Florida’s Gulf Power, which have merged. That involves what is described as a “transition rider” to take into account the substantially different rates that FPL and Gulf have charged. The result will leave Northwest Florida customers paying more than FPL customers in other areas.
In a Dec. 2 written order that carried out its October vote, the Public Service Commission said none “of the parties to this case have questioned or presented evidence that would indicate that FPL’s overall quality of service, performance and response to outages is not exceptional.”
“Having reviewed all the briefs filed and the evidence presented, we find that when taken as a whole, the 2021 settlement provides a reasonable resolution of all issues raised, establishes rates that are fair, just, and reasonable and is in the public interest,” the order said. “The 2021 settlement is therefore approved.”
But in a brief filed before the October vote, Floridians Against Increased Rates — or FAIR, as it is known — argued that the utility was trying to get billions of dollars of “its customers’ money that it doesn’t need.”
“Perhaps the worst aspect of the settlement agreement is that most, if not all, of these increases are not necessary for FPL to fulfill its obligation to provide safe and reliable service at the lowest possible cost,” the group’s brief said. “FPL can and should provide service in 2022 with rates no greater than its current rates.”
But in another October brief, FPL said the settlement was in the public interest.
“First, the settlement agreement provides all FPL customers (i.e., those within both the former FPL and Gulf service areas) with stability and predictability with respect to their electricity rates, while allowing FPL to maintain the financial strength to make investments that are necessary to safely provide customers with the superior reliability and service that they have come to expect and which have been facilitated by previous multi-year rate agreements approved by this commission,” the utility’s brief said. “Second, the agreement increases the amount of emissions-free and fuel-free solar energy that will be available to serve all of FPL’s customers on a cost-effective basis.”
While groups representing customers regularly intervene in utility issues, Florida Power & Light unsuccessfully sought to keep FAIR out of the rate case. FPL argued, in part, that the non-profit group was a “shell” organization and questioned its membership and finances.
But in the Dec. 2 order, the Public Service Commission concluded that FAIR, which was incorporated in March, “demonstrated associational standing” to take part in the case.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
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A.j says
Thank you FAIR, we will c what happens next. Thank GOD somebody is standing up for the little man. I hope you are successful again this rich power house.
HayRide says
amazing how they run TV ads/infomercials shouting their low rates and how good they are, at the same time file for rate hikes
which are we to believe
makes me believe somebody is too big for their britches
Dennis C Rathsam says
Invest in solar, & kiss FPL good Bye! I m happy, but do your reaserch…. Get an electrical engineer, NOT A LOCAL SOLAR CO!!!! Dont get ripped off.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
Floridians are so fortunate to be among the states with the lowest electric rates.
But, as natural gas prices trend higher so will our electric rates.
Ray W. says
Interesting comment, Timothy Patrick Welch, but it leaves out one facet of the issue. Why have natural gas prices been trending higher in the recent past?
According to figures released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2013, no liquefaction facility in the United States exported any liquified natural gas (LNG).
In 2014, the highest monthly total of exported LNG was 2,886 million cubic feet (mcf).
In 2015, the highest monthly total of exported LNG was 2,775 mcf.
In 2016, the highest monthly total of exported LNG was 41,784 mcf.
In 2017, the highest monthly total of exported LNG was 82,499 mcf.
In 2018, the highest monthly total of exported LNG was 122,763 mcf.
In 2019, the highest monthly total of exported LNG was 220,405 mcf.
In 2020, the highest monthly total of exported LNG was 304,209 mcf.
In 2021, the highest monthly total of exported LNG was 321,004 mcf (through September).
Clearly, the rest of the world is now competing to purchase our natural gas. Clearly, our national capacity to sell LNG is skyrocketing. What was once only a national energy source (with compressed natural gas exports by pipeline only to Mexico and Canada) is now an integral part of an international natural gas marketplace.
In roughly 2007, Cheniere Energy took the plunge and began in earnest its effort at what turned out to be a $30 billion investment in building liquefaction trains at both the Sabine Pass facility and the Corpus Christi facility. Everyone who follows the energy industry knows that permitting for such large projects takes substantial time, as does the engineering and architectural planning. In 2016, Cheniere Energy’s first large-scale liquefaction train became operational and LNG tankers began filling up at the Sabine Pass facility for transport to ports around the world. Other companies lagged behind Cheniere Energy from the outset, but some of them now have operational liquefaction trains. The sixth and final liquefaction train at Sabine Pass is almost finished. Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi facility is also nearly complete, with three of four large-scale liquefaction trains in operation. Cheniere Energy is past the permitting phase for a companion Corpus Christi facility that will have as many as seven mid-scale liquefaction trains when completed. The EIA numbers listed above reflect the rapidly growing export capacity of current American LNG facilities and other liquefaction train projects are being built.
Unless United States energy companies expand their drilling efforts to find more natural gas, or unless they capture more of the natural gas that is now flared off at the wellhead, or both, Floridians served by FP&L will continue to see rising electricity bills due to rising natural gas prices because we have an expanding capacity to export LNG for the foreseeable future. The gullible will blame the Biden administration when the rise in prices is simply a product of supply and demand. Ten years ago, national natural gas supplies could not be exported by LNG tanker because we lacked the ability to liquify natural gas. No more.
Clearly, the Obama administration oversaw the approval of permits and energy companies were able to persuade lenders to fund these very expensive projects. As I have commented several times before, the Obama administration was the first since the Nixon years to see an actual rise in energy production over the term of the administration, with crude oil production reaching a peak rise of 88% compared to the last month of the Bush II administration. Natural gas production also rose as much as 29% compared to the last month of the Buss II administration. Every president after Nixon and before Obama saw an overall fall in crude oil production during their terms in office. Trump, too, saw a significant rise in crude oil and natural gas production, though not as large percentagewise as the Obama administration. The jury is still out on the Biden administration, though American crude oil production is up so far, but the numbers are skewed because of the pandemic and its overall effects on the international energy market and because the 23 OPEC+ nations voted for a large cut in crude oil production in February and their production numbers since then have not nearly returned to normal.
The international energy market is vast and complex; it cannot be reduced to simplistic politically ideological phrases. When OPEC+ nations can pad their treasuries by cutting crude oil production, the entire world reacts. But the gullible will remain gullible and point their fingers at the wrong target.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
FPL. Thieves without guns with friends in high places. Thank you FAIR for fighting for us, ‘we the people’ and for your determination to stop those in power from raping us financially. May our Supreme Court majority concur with FAIR.
Thank you FAIR with our hearts and wallets
jake says
All of you hating on FPL are the first to cry, beg, and grovel if your power goes off.
Tired of Rate Hikes says
@ Flagler Live – is there any updated information on this?
We spent nearly $10K in August 2021 to replace all our windows with energy efficient double pane windows. They are wonderful! We have not even turned on our heat once this winter and the lowest the temp got inside was 65 (even when it was 38 outside yesterday morning). We just put on another layer.
One would think our bill would have plummeted since the new windows help both with the heating and AC.
WRONG! I don’t know what’s going on, but our bill continues to go up. There are only two of us, minimal cooking since husband works evenings 4 days a week, minimal laundry for a retiree and part-time working spouse, we do have a spa but that has been in place and used on a regular basis since 2014! It is well maintained and like new, so that can’t be the problem. We don’t even use our dishwasher and what few dishes we generate we do by hand. Every light fixture in the house has energy efficient bulbs and at night we don’t even have lamps or ceiling lights on – we have plant shelves with dim energy efficient lighting that we put on while we watch minimal TV for about 2 hours a night. We do not use our sprinkler system on the lawn (to save both electric and water). Yet the bills keep rising. Can someone point out what we are doing “wrong?” We are very frugal other than doing necessary laundry and having two computers in use often.
As for @Jake’s comment above, there will always be complainers, but I disagree that “all of you hating on FPL” are the first to complain about an outage. Particularly after a bad storm I think they have done a good job of restoring power under difficult circumstances. I have no complaints. But I do have a right to “hate on FPL” about my bill going up monthly no matter what we do to conserve. We may not feel old but we ARE considered eligible for senior discounts. I am retired on SS and my husband is semi-retired with a modest military retirement and works part-time to supplement. I do understand inflation, but …….