Phil Ammann
Florida’s largest electric utility is asking the state for permission to cut energy bills for most of its 4.7 million customers.
Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) today filed updated fuel cost projections for 2015 with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), requesting to reduce customer rates beginning May 1, thanks primarily to projected savings on natural gas costs.
If approved by the PSC, FPL’s typical 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential customer bill would decrease by $3.00 a month. With this reduction, FPL’s typical bill will be approximately 30 percent lower than the latest national average.
“We’re thrilled to be able to reduce rates while we continue to deliver clean power and outstanding service for our customers,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL. “The investments we’ve made in converting our old, oil-fired power plants to modern energy-efficient centers that run on clean natural gas continue to deliver benefits. U.S.-produced natural gas is critical to reducing emissions and keeping our customers free from the past’s reliance on foreign oil, and the projected decrease in cost is an excellent added benefit for our customers.”
On track to continue to be the lowest in Florida for a sixth year in a row, FPL’s typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill with the rate reduction will be more than 10 percent lower than it was in 2006, nearly a decade ago.
FPL residential customers can calculate their estimated savings by entering their monthly electricity usage into the online calculator at FPL.com/lowerbills.
Investments in high-efficiency natural gas generation since 2001 have enabled FPL to cut its use of foreign oil by more than 99 percent – from more than 40 million barrels of oil in 2001 to less than 1 million barrels annually today. The company has been strategically phasing out older, less-efficient fossil fuel plants and replacing them with new, high-efficiency natural gas energy centers that use approximately one-third less fuel per megawatt-hour.
Since 2001, the effectiveness of these investments has saved customers more than $7.5 billion on fuel and prevented more than 85 million tons of carbon emissions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculates that this amount of carbon reduction is equivalent to removing more than 16 million cars from the road annually or switching more than 2 billion incandescent lights to compact fluorescents.
“The combination of clean, high-efficiency natural gas energy centers, along with cost-effective energy efficiency programs and zero-emissions nuclear and solar power, ensure we can continue to reliably deliver affordable clean electricity for customers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, now and in the future,” Silagy said.
