FMPA Weekly
A weekly e-newsletter for FMPA members
Oct. 22, 2018
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LAST WEEK
Hurricane Michael Restoration
Approximately 600 municipal electric crews from 18 states responded to aid Florida in power restoration following Hurricane Michael. As of Monday morning, 330 municipal power customers were without power, which is less than .1% of the customer base. That is down from a peak of 121,873 on Oct. 11. Havana and Tallahassee are fully restored, while Chattahoochee had 9% of customers without power, Blountstown had 14% without power and less than 1% of Quincy customers were without power.
FMPA Assists with Hurricane Michael Recovery
Isaac Barbosa and Steve Ruppel joined Cairo Vanegas in Quincy last week to help assist with recovery effort from Hurricane Michael. Ian Beason was stationed in Chattahoochee last week. Carl Turner coordinated with Duke Energy on transmission issues. Jeff Grainger managed Facebook pages for Chattahoochee and Quincy until last Friday evening when those duties were transferred to Ryan Dumas. Sharon Samuels helped cities with procurement. Thanks to the teamwork of numerous FMPA staff, 400 snack bags were packed for delivery last week to mutual aid workers in the Panhandle. Mike McCleary returned from the Panhandle last Tuesday but continued to remotely support recovery efforts in that area. Thank you to many other FMPA staff members who supported these efforts.
Tallahassee Joins FMPA
The City of Tallahassee joined FMPA last week, bringing the Agency’s membership to 32 municipal electric utilities. FMPA’s Board of Directors approved the Interlocal Agreement with Tallahassee last Thursday, and the agreement was filed last Friday with the clerk of court in Leon County. Tallahassee is the fourth largest municipal electric utility in Florida and the 22nd largest in the United States. Contact: Jacob Williams
Management Goals Fiscal 2019
FMPA’s Board of Directors approved management goals last Thursday for fiscal 2019. The goals include: 1) no lost time accidents at FMPA or the power plants, 2) no compliance violations that are not self-reported, no cyber security breaches and minimize the threat of phishing attempts through training, 3) below budget on controllable power costs, 4) achieve an equivalent availability factor of greater than or equal to 88% on large combined cycle units, 5) reduce costs associated with 35 MW of excess capacity, 6) complete 35 days of generation team fleet resource sharing, 7) complete 75 member city visits by the leadership team, 8) increase member service offerings and regional trainings, 9) develop a second, low-cost solar project opportunity for members, 10) complete a gas pre-pay transaction, if economical, and restructure the St. Lucie Project debt, 11) support employee satisfaction and retention, and 12) improve processes for invoice payment and internal audit scope. Contact: Jacob Williams
Board of Directors
FMPA’s Board of Directors met last Thursday and approved six items: 1) fiscal 2019 goals, 2) St. Lucie debt strategy, 3) issuing a request for proposal for potentially restarting the Pooled Loan Program, 4) Florida Municipal Solar Project Charter, 5) easement agreement for an urban cell phone tower, and 6) Tallahassee becoming a member of FMPA. The full agenda package is available on the Portal. Contact: Jacob Williams
Executive Committee
The ARP Executive Committee met last Thursday and approved two items: 1) Resolution 2018-EC5 – spending authority modification for COO vacancy, and 2) Rate Schedule B-1 for fiscal 2019. The full agenda package is available on the Portal. Contact: Jacob Williams
NAGF Advisory Committee
Brandon McCormick was elected last week to the North American Generator Forum (NAGF) Advisory Committee. The forum provides organizations with an opportunity to collaborate on regulatory compliance matters, such as registration, compliance and standards development.
3 Phase Times
FMPA’s Power Resources Division published the September 2018 edition of 3 Phase Times last Friday. This monthly operating report provides information about the All-Requirements Project’s (ARP) system peak, hourly loads, resource fuel mix, natural gas usage, natural gas pricing and more performance information. The report shows that peak demand in September was 9.5% higher than budget, and sales were 13% above forecast. Natural gas represented 87% of ARP’s total energy sources in September. FMPA sold 9% of its generation to the Florida Municipal Power Pool (FMPP), which helped offset ARP costs by 55 cents per MWh. The FMPP Average Monthly Gas Dispatch Price in September was $3.07 per MMBtu, or 18 cents above budget. The equivalent availability factor of FMPA’s base-load units in September was 98%. For more information, download 3 Phase Times from the Portal. Contact: David Schumann
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THIS WEEK
FCG Annual Environmental Meeting
Justin Harris, Navid Nowakhtar and Susan Schumann will be in Jupiter, Florida, through Tuesday attending the Florida Electric Power Coordinating Group’s (FCG) Environmental Committee Annual Meeting.
TCEC Visit
Jacob Williams, David Schumann, Tim Jackson and Ryan Dumas travel to Treasure Coast Energy Center on Tuesday to celebrate plant performance for fiscal 2018 that achieved goals in the areas of low-cost power, reliability, safety and regulatory compliance.
Member Visits
Cairo Vanegas travels to Homestead on Monday for a member city visit and then to Key West on Tuesday. Luis Cruz travels to Ocala on Tuesday to meet with Chief Information Officer Winsome Jacobs. They will discuss cyber mutual aid and corporate information technology.
Public Power Communicators Roundtable
Mark McCain, Dan O’Hagan and Susan Schumann will attend the Power Communicators Roundtable hosted by the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) on Tuesday in Kissimmee. Dan will make a presentation on social media and text message records retention, and Mark will discuss the results of a survey about social media and text message archiving practices at Florida’s municipal utilities.
FMEA Energy Connections Conference
Several FMPA staff members will attend the Florida Municipal Electric Association’s (FMEA) Energy Connections Conference in Kissimmee on Wednesday and Thursday.
SharePoint Demo for KUA
FMPA’s Information Technology Department hosts a SharePoint demonstration on Thursday in the Orlando office for Kissimmee Utility Authority’s development team. Contact: Luis Cruz
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. 21. Contact: Jim Arntz
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COMING UP
GE Plant Tour
FMPA is coordinating a tour of a new General Electric (GE) manufacturing plant in Clearwater. The tour is scheduled for Nov. 1. The plant manufactures capacitors for distribution and substation applications as well as instrument transformers for metering applications up to 69 kV. The tour is free, and lunch will be provided. Space is limited to 20 participants. Contact Cairo Vanegas to reserve a spot.
FAASSTeR Project Workshop and Stakeholder Seminar
The Florida Alliance for Accelerating Solar and Storage Technology Readiness (FAASSTeR) initiative meets Nov. 27-28 at Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside for a project team meeting and workshop. There will also be a stakeholder seminar Nov. 29-30 in Orlando. The workshop will provide opportunities to share results, gather input, have team discussions and plan future activities. The stakeholder seminar will include an update on activities and results associated with the FAASSTeR initiative, updates from Florida utilities on projects related to solar and energy storage, and opportunities for discussion. There is no cost to register for FAASSTeR project team members or Florida Municipal Electric Association members.
APPA Joint Action Conference
FMPA’s governing board members are encouraged to attend the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Joint Action Conference on Jan. 6-8, 2019, in Key West. This is a good opportunity to attend a national conference in Florida and hear topics facing FMPA and other joint action agencies around the country. To encourage attendance, FMPA will reimburse all travel expenses for Executive Committee members, and for Board members, FMPA will reimburse the conference registration fee. For more information and to register, visit APPA’s conference webpage.
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Duke Asks to Temporarily Suspend Select Customer Billing
Duke Energy Florida asked the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) last week to allow the utility to suspend billing for customers in the areas of the state hardest hit by Hurricane Michael. Duke has customers in Bay, Gulf, Franklin and Wakulla counties. In the filing with the PSC, Duke says many of their customers in those areas do not have accessible mailboxes, making billing problematic. Under the proposal, the utility would not send monthly bills to customers in each county until all their customers in each county have their power restored. Duke also proposed to waive any late fees or interest. Duke needs PSC approval because a state rule requires utilities to bill customers monthly.
PSC Holds Hearing on Sale of Vero Beach’s Electric Utility
The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) held two days of hearings last week relating to the proposed sale of Vero Beach’s electric utility to Florida Power & Light (FPL). The deal was approved by the PSC in June but that approval was nullified when challenged by the Civic Association of Indian River County and others. The Civic Association is a community group represented by Lynne Larkin, a Vero Beach attorney and former city commissioner. In testimony before the PSC, Larkin said the group thinks there wasn’t enough negotiation between Vero Beach and FPL and that a better deal should have been struck. If the PSC approves FPL’s request, the utility would pay $185 million to acquire the Vero Beach electric utility and recover the purchase costs through retail rates to all of FPL’s customers. A decision from the PSC is expected in November.
Nine Interview for JEA’s CEO Job
The search committee for JEA’s next chief executive officer interviewed nine candidates last week. Among the candidates is Gordon Gillette, the former CEO of TECO Energy, and Cris Eugster, COO of CPS Energy in San Antonio, Texas. JEA’s Interim CEO Aaron Zahn also interviewed for the permanent job. The search committee is expected to discuss the candidates at its next meeting, which has not been scheduled.
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FMPA Weekly is published by FMPA for employees and governing boards of FMPA member utilities. Questions or comments about this newsletter may be directed to Jeff Grainger or Lisa Rienhardt 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 learn more.
Have a question, comment or story idea for the newsletter? FMPA welcomes your feedback at any time. Contact: Jeff Grainger or Lisa Rienhardt
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Florida Municipal Power Agency
8553 Commodity Circle
Orlando, FL 32819-9002
Tel 407 355-7767
Fax 407 355-5794
www.fmpa.com
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