I work in the solar industry in Florida. Since the last time I have written furiously at the keyboard, NextEra Energy (FPL) has done what everyone expected they would do..They wielded the power of their 28 lobbyists in Tallahassee, and steamrolled an industry that it either sees as an intolerable threat to its monopoly over the power industry in the sunshine state, or they have darker motives that are painted bright.

While FPL’s parent company partakes in friendly competition

and goes to other states to develop renewable energy projects, they are not

keen on allowing participation or friendly competition in their own backyard. A

term used in the legislative definition of a “public utility” was narrowly

focused on in a case before the Florida Public Service Commission. In that case, there was a third party–

we’ll call it “A Company”, that

wanted to sell electricity to “B Company”

Normally this is a private business to business transaction that, like

all good transactions, benefit both parties in some way.

This arrangement of “A Company” selling electricity to “B Company”

is a common structure used to finance renewable energy projects, and like any

financing arrangement there are risks, rewards, duties and obligations, and

interest that goes into consideration of the terms. So while “A Company” arranges the capital, construction, and

other operations and management, “B Company” promises to buy the power at a

fixed rate for a variable term – usually 15-30 years through a Power Purchase

Agreement (PPA). Keep in mind that

this is an agreement between two companies.

This works in plenty of places, but not the Sunshine State! The

Florida PSC. holds the position that “A Company” to “B Company” transactions

are to be actively regulated thus, prohibited because “to or for the public”

means that while “A Company” is most certainly not a Public Utility in the

spirit of the legislative definition, “B Company” COULD be one of the many members of “the public”, essentially

barring them from participating in a transaction of this nature in the state of

Florida.



It gets better, or worse – depending upon your level of

cynicism. Not only does FPL insist

that their sole participation in the industry will ultimately drive costs DOWN,

they’ve created their own fund – on the backs of rate-payers to insure that

your costs go down. BUT YOUR COSTS WON’T GO DOWN, THEY WILL GO UP! This is analogous to what customers of

MA Bell had to put up with before the baby Bells were created. End to end, the infrastructure was

owned by the company. Customers

were prohibited from connecting their own telephone to the MA Bell network, and

MA Bell was kind enough to charge you a rental fee for the telephone they provided.

With Floridians eager to get back to work and save money, on

their cost of living expenses – one being utility bills I implore them to consider urging the

PSC to provide guidance on this issue of creating one’s own energy through

distributed generation or third party ownership (PW ventures vs. Nichols) so

that like the rest of the country, they can participate in fiscally sound

initiatives, stave off the most definite rate hikes, gain energy independence,

and lower their energy bills by creating their own energy supply. Or they can pay FPL $2.42 a month extra

for the next 5 years to double, or even triple bill the consumer – while pre-billing for the construction of assets that they will then re-bill you for using. Oh yeah, and they get all the tax breaks – just like GE has been in the news about recently.

Now lets examine that for a second. FPL, generates the electricity,

distributes the electricity, bills customers for consumption of

electricity, and adds a bunch of

taxes and fees to customer’s bills pertaining to electricity – like the $2.42 a

month, for each customer who uses more than 1200 kilowatt hours.