FMPA Weekly
A weekly e-newsletter for FMPA members
Oct. 17, 2016
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LAST WEEK
Hurricane Matthew
FMPA’s generation fleet weathered Hurricane Matthew without sustaining damage, according to staff who visited the sites last week. As the storm drew near the Fort Pierce area, Treasure Coast Energy Center Unit 1 was shut down and precautions were taken to protect plant equipment. Key West was outside the hurricane’s impact area, so Stock Island Generating Facility was ready to operate, if necessary, but was not pressed into service. In the coming weeks, FMPA will conduct a tabletop exercise to review the hurricane procedures that were implemented and to look for areas that might be improved. Contact: Frank Gaffney
Grant Opportunities
Sharon Smeenk emailed a list of potential grant opportunities last Monday to interested FMPA members. The Member Services Department has purchased a subscription to Grantfinder.com to assist members in identifying potential funding sources. The service was purchased after several members requested assistance with grants and the service options were discussed with the Member Services Advisory Committee. Member Services is sending out periodic emails with grant opportunities. If you would like to receive these emails, contact Sharon Smeenk.
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THIS WEEK
ARP Conservation Program
All-Requirements Project (ARP) members are reminded to submit fourth quarter Conservation Reports for July 2016 through September 2016 to Sharon Smeenk by Monday. Those with no activity to report are still asked to email Sharon to let her know.
FM Global Conference
Rich Popp will be in Scottsdale, Ariz., this week attending the FM Global power generation conference. FM Global is FMPA’s insurance provider. The conference brings together representatives of power generation owners from all over the world to discuss best practices and lea from each other’s experiences.
Policy Makers Liaisons Committee
FMPA’s Policy Makers Liaisons Committee meets Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Ocala City Hall. The Committee will discuss two information items: 1) state legislative update related to electric utilities, and 2) Ocala Electric Utility’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system. Lunch will be served at noon. The full agenda package is available on the Portal. Contact: Mark McCain
Board of Directors
FMPA’s Board of Directors meets Thursday at 9 a.m. in the Board room of FMPA’s Orlando office. The Board will discuss two action items: 1) approval of additional funding from the Agency’s Development Fund for the joint-action solar PV project, and 2) approval of the Market Research Task Force’s selection of a firm to conduct customer surveys for a community solar PV project. The full agenda package is available on the Portal. Contact: Jacob Williams
ARP Executive Committee
The ARP Executive Committee meets Thursday in the Board room of FMPA’s Orlando office at 9:30 a.m., or immediately following the Board of Directors meeting. The committee will discuss two action items: 1) approval of Wells Fargo Credit Agreement for a Line of Credit, and 2) the appointment of Jacob Williams as FMPA’s representative to the Public Gas Partners’ Board of Directors. The full agenda package is available on the Portal. Contact: Jacob Williams
APPA Legal and Regulatory Conference
Three members of FMPA’s legal staff have roles at the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Legal and Regulatory Conference this week in Long Beach, Calif. Jody Finklea serves as Vice Chair of the Legal Section this year. Dan O’Hagan and Amanda Swindle will give a presentation on Monday about regulations that require utilities to protect critical infrastructure information but how that conflicts with some federal and state public records laws.
Crisis Management Presentation
Mark McCain will be a guest speaker Tuesday night at a Leadership Development class for the MBA program at the University of Central Florida. He will discuss crisis management.
All-Requirements Project Weekly Load Statistics
The weekly update of the All-Requirements Project historical load graph has been posted on the Portal. The graph is updated through Oct. 16. Contact: Jim Arntz
Special Dates
Congratulations to Mark McCain, who celebrates 30 years with FMPA on Thursday, Oct. 20.
Congratulations to Liyuan Woerner, who celebrates eight years with FMPA on Thursday, Oct. 20.
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COMING UP
FMEA Energy Connections Conference
Friday is the pre-registration deadline for the Florida Municipal Electric Association’s (FMEA) Energy Connections Conference on Oct. 27-28 at the Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside. The conference will include idea exchange forums designed to help attendees share, lea and network with their colleagues from other utilities. The conference program also includes interesting general session speakers, specialized breakout sessions and a vendor trade show. The cost to register before Friday is $250 for FMEA members.
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Power Fully Restored to Most Electric Customers Following Hurricane Matthew
All but two of the 20 municipal electric utilities affected by Hurricane Matthew had power restored within three days or less. At the peak of the outages, there were nearly 300,000 municipal electric utility customers with no power. Florida Power & Light said it finished restoring electricity on Thursday. As of Friday afteoon, JEA in Jacksonville was the final utility reporting storm-related outages and had fewer than 5,000 customers without power.
Gulf Power Requests Base-Rate Increase
Gulf Power filed a request last Wednesday with the Florida Public Service Commission seeking a base-rate increase of $107 million effective July 1, 2017. If approved, the monthly electric bill of a typical Gulf Power residential customer using 1,000 kWh per month would increase $10.22, or 7%, from $148.64 to $158.86. Company officials say the increase is needed to invest in the long-term reliability of Northwest Florida’s energy infrastructure. They also say the increase would help fund improvements to customer services, like an upgrade to the company’s website and additional retail payment locations. Gulf Power, which serves approximately 450,000 customers in the panhandle area west of Tallahassee, is a subsidiary of Southe Company.
PSC Approves Renewable Energy Deal for Gulf Power
The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) approved Gulf Power’s proposal last Tuesday to recover costs for a power purchase agreement with Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Inc. that will encourage wind generation development. The 20-year agreement is expected to save customers $21 million. Under the agreement, Morgan Stanley will deliver the equivalent monthly energy output of a 94 MW portion of the Kingfisher Wind Farm in Oklahoma, although the actual electricity Gulf receives would not necessarily be renewable energy. The utility will receive renewable energy credits (REC) associated with the corresponding output of the wind farm, and Gulf will retu any proceeds from REC sales to customers through its fuel charge. “Customers will realize savings within the first year of Gulf’s power purchase agreement, and it also encourages renewable energy development, PSC Chairwoman Julie Brown said in a prepared statement after the approval. The approval is similar to Gulf’s Kingfisher Wind Farm cost recovery agreement approved by the PSC in 2015.
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FMPA Weekly is published by FMPA for employees and goveing boards of FMPA member utilities. Questions or comments about this newsletter may be directed to Jeff Grainger or Nikki Bloomfield in FMPA’s Public Relations Department.
Want more background on the names and terms used in this newsletter? Check out FMPA’s Glossary, which features some of the most frequently mentioned committees, companies, places and terms, or contact the person named in each FMPA story to lea more.
Have a question, comment or story idea for the newsletter? FMPA welcomes your feedback at any time. Contact: Jeff Grainger or Nikki Bloomfield.
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Florida Municipal Power Agency
8553 Commodity Circle
Orlando, FL 32819-9002
Tel 407 355-7767
Fax 407 355-5794
http://www.fmpa.com
Community Power. Statewide Strength. ®