History

Background Information on Florida’s Municipals and FMPA

Introduction
Almost immediately after Thomas Edison demonstrated in 1882 the feasibility of central station electric service in New York City, municipally owned utilities were established.

Florida’s First
Among the first cities in Florida to recognize power production and distribution as a natural extension of existing public services were Jacksonville, Ocala and Starke. Each of these cities formed publicly owned electric utilities before the turn of the century. A century later, these utilities are still going strong, still in public hands and still providing reliable electricity at a reasonable cost for their consumers.

Today
Today, there are 33 municipal electric systems in Florida, ranging in size from the largest in Jacksonville to the smallest in Moore Haven.

Several municipal utilities still generate their own electricity, while some buy power at wholesale from investor-owned utilities, governmental agencies or other municipals.

Joint Action
Each system is locally owned and operated, but Florida’s municipal utilities discovered some time ago that they share many common concerns which can best be solved by working together.

Building new power plants is one example of a major decision that can be solved more efficiently through joint action. In most cases, it is cost effective for municipals to build one joint power plant rather than smaller individual units. A larger plant is generally more efficient, and other economies of scale help lower the cost of power.

Legal Authority
Local governments are authorized by state statutes to enter together into mutually advantageous agreements which create a separate legal entity (Florida Statutes Chapter 163.01, as amended, The Florida Interlocal Cooperation Act of 1969).

FMPA was formed February 24, 1978, as one such governmental legal entity.

FMPA is specifically authorized under the Joint Power Act (Florida Statutes Chapter 361, Part II, as amended) to undertake joint projects for its members and to issue tax-exempt bonds and other obligations to finance the costs of such projects. FMPA is also authorized to implement a pooled financing program for utility-related projects of FMPA and its members.

Project Oriented
Due to the diverse needs of municipal electric systems, FMPA was created as a project-oriented agency. Under this structure, each Agency member has the option whether or not to participate in a project.

The FMPA staff—using appropriate consultants for legal, engineering and financial services—explores joint projects, and the results of these investigations are presented to the members.

With this information, each utility decides whether to take part in a project and, if appropriate, the amount of power they need.

Agency members may participate in more than one project; however, each project is independent from the others, so no revenues or funds available from one project can be used to pay the costs of any other project.

Membership
FMPA’s membership presently includes 30 municipal electric utilities serving approximately 2 million Floridians.

Each member appoints one representative to FMPA’s Board of Directors which governs the Agency’s activities.

The Agency has five power supply projects and a pooled financing project. Fifteen members purchase all their power requirements from the Agency. Five municipals participate in FMPA’s other power supply projects. Some members do not currently participate in a project.

To view "Sum of Our Efforts," a booklet that tells FMPA's history through the stories of the Agency's defining moments, click here. (in PDF format, 3.59MB)