by Larry Smith
Florida Power & Light - one of the largest utilities in the United States - recently unveiled its 10-year energy plan. It combines more generating capacity with aggressive conservation programmes that the utility says will avoid the need to build four medium-sized power plants.
FPL currently serves 4.5 million customers in 35 counties in south and northeastern Florida. The company says it will need an extra 5,600 megawatts of power, or an increase of about 25 per cent, to meet rising demand through 2017.
FPL plans to upgrade its existing nuclear plants at Turkey Point and St. Lucie, expand production of renewable energy from a variety of sources (including solar thermal, photovoltaic, biomass and waste-to-energy), build a clean natural gas unit in Palm Beach County, and add clean natural gas-fired generation facilities.
“The plan we have outlined will reduce the rate of carbon dioxide emissions though energy conservation and cleaner generation, promote stability in customer bills by increasing nuclear capacity, and create the option for repowering aging plants if a third gas plant at West County is approved,” an FPL spokesman said.
Currently, FPL obtains 52 per cent of its energy from natural gas, 19 per cent from nuclear, 15 per cent from purchased power (including 2 per cent renewable), 8 per cent from oil and 6 per cent from coal. By 2017, the role of natural gas is expected to grow, while the shares of nuclear, coal, oil and purchased power will decline.
FPL's sister company - FPL Energy - generates 310 megawatts from a solar trough concentrating plant in California covering 2000 acres. FPL Energy operates 55 wind farms in the US producing more than 5000 net megawatts. Together, these two sources generate about a third of the company's energy output.
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