Florida Power & Light Co. is petitioning the Florida Public Service Commission to request approval to acquire a power plant in North Jacksonville for $520.5 million — and then drastically reduce the plant’s output before eventually shutting it down entirely.
According to a news release, FP&L has been under contract since 1988 to purchase power from the coal-fired Cedar Bay Generating Plant along Eastport Road.
The purchase of the plant would void the agreement and allow the utility to save its customers about $70 million annually. Electricity can be generated with natural gas at a lower cost now than when FP&L entered into the Cedar Bay purchase agreement.
Under the existing purchased-power agreement, fixed payments for capacity and maintenance and operating costs total more than $120 million annually, with scheduled increases each year until the contract’s expiration in 2024, according to the news release.
Ceasing operations at Cedar Bay also would eliminate nearly 1 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to FP&L.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculates the annual carbon reduction is equal to saving 100 million gallons of gasoline or switching more than 23 million incandescent light bulbs to energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights.
Upon taking ownership, the utility plans to decrease operations at the plant by 90 percent, projecting the plant would operate only about 5 percent of the time until it is completely shut down within three years.
The news release also said taking the Cedar Bay facility offline will help the utility and the state meet the EPA’s proposed more stringent carbon emission reduction goals.
Since JEA does not purchase power from Cedar Bay, FP&L’s acquisition of the plant and reduction in output would have no effect on JEA’s nearly 450,000 electric customers, said spokeswoman Gerri Boyce.
With more than 4.7 million residential and commercial customers, FP&L is the third-largest electric utility in the United States.
According to the company, its average residential customer bill is about 25 percent lower than the national average and in 2014 was the lowest in Florida among reporting utilities.
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