Dive Brief:
- Two environmental groups have petitioned regulators for a place in proceedings which will determine whether the state needs a new gas-fired power plant proposed by the largest utility in Florida, the Palm Beach Post reports.
- Florida Power & Light's proposed Okeechobee Clean Energy Center would cost $1.2 billion to construct, and would produce 1.6 GW of energy beginning in 2019.
- The green groups want the utility and regulators to evaluate renewable energy and efficiency options before committing to a new gas plant, the latest in a tug-of-war between clean energy advocates and utilities as the state steadily increases its reliance on natural gas.
Dive Insight:
Two Florida environmental groups — the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy — have both petitioned the state's Public Service Commission to question FPL's proposed Okeechobee Clean Energy Center project.
Southern Alliance filed its petition to intervene last month, and ECOSWF followed recently after. The group from the southwest portion of the state told the PSC that it "believes that before taking any action, FPL should be required to meaningfully evaluate alternatives such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, demand-side management and conservation — strategies that are grossly underutilized in Florida’s energy portfolio."
FPL announced plans for the facility in July, saying the project would be one of the cleanest, most fuel-efficient natural gas power plants in the world. According to the Palm Beach Post, the plant would be built in a similar fashion as other FPL-owned combined cycle plants, providing power 300,000 homes.
"We're building on our successful strategy of phasing out older, inefficient facilities and replacing them with advanced, high-efficiency clean-energy technology in a way that ensures we can meet the growing energy needs of Floridians while keeping their electric rates low," said FPL CEO Eric Silagy in a statement. "The strategy is working: our system is among the cleanest and most fuel-efficient in the U.S., and our typical customer bills are about 30% lower than the national average."
The company also said it chose the Okeechobee County site based on the potential to add solar generation in the future. The gas-fired plant would be constructed on a 2,800-acre site, with 1,800 acres set aside for solar use, the Palm Beach Post reported in July.
"The plant site has sufficient space to accommodate large-scale solar power generation, which we hope to add in the future as the cost of solar technology continues to decline," Silagy said.
Environmental advocates say the utility and state are becoming too reliant on gas. From 2007 to 2013, the share of natural gas in FPL's fuel mix increased from 52% to 67%, and the utility's 10-year plan anticipates 1 GW of additional firm capacity by mid-2019. Last year, it became the first utility in the nation to get regulators to approve direct investments in natural gas production, a decision that has reportedly lost the utility $6 million this year.
Critics argue the Sunshine State's utilities have long overlooked both residential and utility-scale solar, and some activists are pushing a third party ownership ballot petition to get around what they see as utility opposition to self-generation.
Opposition to the Florida plant has followed recent trends of environmental groups pushing more actively for renewables nationwide, though coal has been the more popular target in their crosshairs.