Florida’s Public Service Commission (PSC) today fast-tracked a provision allowing Florida Power and Light to charge customers in advance for nuclear power that may never produce any energy. Florida’s Advanced Nuclear Cost Recovery law allows the utilities to charge customers, in advance, for nuclear power plants that may never be built.
But this time the process was slightly better because regulators required FPL to complete certain repair projects before payment was made. In addition, customers will still be paying less than they were last year. According to Naked Politics:
“In record time on Tuesday, the Florida Public Service Commission approved charging Florida Power & Light customers $43.5 million in 2014 for nuclear-power projects.
The fee will amount to 43 cents per 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, a drop of $1.19 from the current charge. It will be the seventh year the company has been able to use a law intended to help the company invest in the costly endeavor of building future nuclear power plants by collecting the money from customers to pay for upgrades to its existing plants.
Before legislators approved the so-called “advanced nuclear cost recovery” provision, utility companies were required to make the improvements and then seek permission from regulators to charge customers for it after the fact. By collecting the money in advance, regulators said Tuesday they believe FPL is operating efficiently.” Read the rest of the story, along with the press release, at Miami Herald’s Naked Politics blog.
The rate drop and the provision requiring some repairs to be completed is a step in the right direction. But according to Florida Today, FPL customers will still be paying for phantom nuclear – nuclear power that does not exist now and may never exist in the future:
“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.
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.
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.” [Emphasis added]. Read the rest of the story at Florida Today.
In yesterday’s column, I wrote about how Duke energy is using the Advanced Nuclear Cost Recovery scheme to fleece its customers for phantom nuclear power. Duke walked away with $1.5 billion – money their rate payers will not get back – for nuclear power construction projects that never happened and will not ever exist in the future.
I will continue to cover this issue because the Florida Advanced Nuclear Cost Recovery provision impacts all Floridians. As pointed out in a previous column, Florida’s regional utilities do not exist in a vacuum – they buy and sell energy to each other. Even though you may not be a Duke or FPL customer, your local utility may be purchasing their power.
The Advanced Nuclear Cost Recovery law sets a bad precedent. Any Florida utility, with approval from the PSC, could force its rate payers into higher rates for nuclear power plants that will never be constructed and for nuclear power that will never exist. Florida’s Public Service Commission exists for the purpose of protecting the consumers of Florida. But instead of protecting consumers, the PSC routinely allows Florida utilities to fleece consumers with rate hikes for phantom nuclear power.
By Jim Weeks
Florida Politic Archive 