Florida to harden electric grid statewide in wake of Hurricane Ian

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Less than every week after Hurricane Ian knocked out energy to giant swaths of Florida, state regulators Tuesday accredited utilities’ long-term plans to strive to bolster the electric system.

The state Public Service Commission accredited, with some adjustments, plans submitted by Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric Co. and Florida Public Utilities Co. The plans element a variety of tasks, together with rising the quantity of underground energy traces.

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But with the work anticipated to value billions of {dollars} over the subsequent decade, commissioners expressed considerations about results on utility prospects’ pocketbooks. Monthly electric payments have climbed through the previous 12 months as a result of of points similar to excessive costs of pure gasoline used to gas energy crops.

Also, prospects in the approaching months may get hit with further prices associated to restoring energy after Ian.

As the fee Tuesday took up what are often called “storm protection plans,” Commissioner Gary Clark described the scenario as a “balance.”

“We are never going to build a system that is storm-proof. It’s not possible,” Clark mentioned.

Commissioner Gabriella Passidomo additionally raised considerations about prices and advantages, saying that “maybe we need to just temper our pace a little bit in these investments and reassess over time about how effective they are in certain areas. Because, as we have seen, every storm is very different.”

Utilities filed the proposals in the spring, however Tuesday’s fee votes got here as crews continued to work on restoring energy after Hurricane Ian slammed the Southwest Florida coast Wednesday and continued throughout the state.

FPL, which gives electrical energy in many of the hardest-hit areas, mentioned that as of 10 a.m. Tuesday, it had restored energy to 1.9 million of 2.1 million prospects affected by Ian.

“FPL has essentially completed restoration in all regions of the state except Southwest Florida, where Ian made landfall as a high-end Category 4 hurricane and downed trees and flooding continue to pose a challenge to crews working to restore service,” the utility mentioned in a news launch.

Meanwhile, Tampa Electric mentioned Tuesday it had largely completed restoring energy, although some prospects will not be ready to obtain electrical energy as a result of of points similar to flooding or injury to houses’ electrical tools. Also, Duke mentioned Monday it was ending restoration.

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The plans accredited Tuesday have been tied to a 2019 state regulation that handed after Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Michael and different storms induced widespread energy outages. The Legislature virtually unanimously handed the measure, which, in half, modified the way in which storm-protection tasks have been financed.

Previously, utilities integrated such prices in their base electric charges, that are set for a number of years. But the regulation arrange a separate Public Service Commission course of that allowed utilities every year to search to acquire cash from prospects for the tasks.

Utilities file 10-year storm-protection plans with the fee after which are ready to search cash from prospects yearly to perform the plans.

After the fee made some adjustments Tuesday, utilities could have till Oct. 25 to file revised plans. The fee is scheduled to maintain a listening to Oct. 25 to Oct. 28 to decide the prices that will likely be handed alongside to shoppers subsequent 12 months for the tasks.

As an instance of the cash concerned, FPL’s proposal included greater than $4.67 billion in prices over the subsequent three years, in accordance to a fee employees advice. That was earlier than Tuesday’s adjustments, which might not less than barely scale back the quantity.

In its proposal, FPL mentioned the tasks would largely proceed efforts began underneath a plan accredited in 2020 by the fee.

“The existing hardening and storm preparedness programs have already demonstrated that they have and will continue to increase T&D (transmission and distribution) infrastructure resiliency, reduce restoration times, and reduce restoration costs when FPL’s system is impacted by extreme weather events,” the proposal, filed in April, mentioned.