TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) today approved storm-hardening plans for Florida Power & Light Company (FPL); Duke Energy Florida, LLC (DEF); Tampa Electric Company (TECO); and Florida Public Utilities Company (FPUC), making some program modifications to mitigate customer rate impacts. 

In its decision, the Commission removed some proposed programs because they appeared to be routine utility functions rather than storm hardening functions. As a result, the investor-owned utilities (IOUs) will file amended plans within 15 days, or by October 25. Today’s decision resolves all issues in the companies’ storm protection plan (SPP) dockets.  

“Outages are an unavoidable result of storms,” said PSC Commissioner Art Graham. “However, Florida’s IOUs are continually improving their storm protection plans to reduce outage times and mitigate restoration costs for customers.”

Following legislation passed in 2019, new PSC rules require Florida’s IOUs to file 10-year SPPs outlining initiatives to strengthen infrastructure to withstand extreme weather for PSC approval.  As required in the storm protection law, PSC rules established a separate cost recovery mechanism for storm protection activities.  IOUs may seek PSC approval to recover incremental costs annually—in a separate recovery clause—similar to their request for fuel cost recovery. A PSC hearing for FPL, DEF, TECO, and FPUC in the storm protection cost recovery clause docket is scheduled for October 25-28, 2022.

FPL serves nearly 5.7 million customer accounts in Florida; DEF serves approximately 1.8 million customers; TECO serves more than 750,000 customers; and FPUC serves more than 122,200 electric and natural gas customers.

For additional information, visit www.floridapsc.com.

Follow the PSC on Twitter, @floridapsc.

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