FMPA Weekly | June 25, 2012 | Member Edition

Dog Bite Prevention Training

INDUSTRY NEWS

NRC Approves Uprate of FPL’s Turkey Point Units 3 and 4

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last Monday approved Florida Power & Light’s request to increase the capacity of its Turkey Point Nuclear Units 3 and 4 by 15%. FPL expects to implement the uprate during the spring 2012 refueling outage for Unit 3 and during the fall 2012 refueling outage for Unit 4. FPL’s uprates at the Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants will total 490 MW in added capacity at a cost of approximately $3 billion.

Gulf Power Fuel Request for Reconsideration on Hold

The Florida Public Service Commission decided last Tuesday to delay action on Gulf Power Co.’s request for reconsideration of a rate increase to include costs for a possible new nuclear plant site in Escambia County. Gulf Power requested a $93.5-million annual rate increase in July 2011. The Commission approved in March an increase of $64.1 million. The Commission refused to include $2.9 million in the annual rate increase associated with a possible 4,000-acre nuclear plant site in northe Escambia County. The utility now is asking the Commission to reconsider its decision on $22.6 million in site costs, including $17.5 million paid for acquiring the land since 2007. The annual cost to ratepayers would be about $2 million, or 20 cents per month for the average customer, according to Gulf Power.

Mount Dora RFP

The Mount Dora City Council voted last Tuesday to approve the ranking of Progress Energy as the number one bidder for the city’s wholesale power supply. The approval authorizes staff to enter into contract negotiations with Progress Energy for a four-year power supply contract beginning Jan. 1, 2013. The city chose Progress Energy based on a cost and risk analysis of the six bidders. Additional contributing factors to the decision included: 1) Mount Dora’s long-standing relationship with Progress Energy, resulting in the least up-front contractual effort, 2) unchanging transmission arrangements, eliminating the need to negotiate additional transmission agreements or to modify metering equipment, and 3) the pending merger of Progress Energy with Duke Energy. A joint bid by FMPA and OUC was ranked second in the analysis.

APPA Announces Individual and Utility Awards

Several Florida municipal utilities and their employees were recognized with national awards last week by the American Public Power Association (APPA) at the association’s national conference. JEA’s Bud Para received the Alan Richardson Statesmanship Award, Key West Utility Board Chairman Lou Heandez received the Spence Vanderlinden Public Official Award, Kissimmee Utility Authority’s Jim Welsh received the James D. Donovan Individual Achievement Award and Newberry’s Blaine Suggs received the Larry Hobart Seven Hats Award. Tallahassee Utilities received the Energy Innovator Award for its Neighborhood REACH program and the E.F. Scattergood System Achievement Award. Leesburg received the Energy Innovator Award for its smart grid project.

Lynne Tejeda Re-Elected to APPA Board of Directors

Lynne Tejeda, general manager and CEO of Keys Energy Services, was re-elected to the American Public Power Association (APPA) Board of Directors last Wednesday at the association’s national conference. She will serve on the APPA Board for another three-year term.