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News
Releases
Four Florida Utilities Seek Competitive Power Supply
Proposals
Dec.
1, 2005 – To meet projected electricity needs
in Florida after 2010, four community-owned electric utilities
issued a request for proposals today seeking sources of electrical
power as a potential alternative to building the North Florida
Power Project, a proposed coal power plant.
The
utilities are soliciting power purchase proposals as a
potential alternative to building a proposed coal project
in Taylor County, Fla. Requesting proposals to purchase
power, as an alternative to building a new power plant,
is part of the normal process prescribed by Florida’s
Power Plant Siting Act to determine the most economical
option for providing the needed electricity. Receiving
competitive bids from other power generators will enable
the utilities to assess whether building the plant is the
best option for consumers, or if another power source could
provide the needed electricity more economically than the
proposed plant.
The utilities involved in the joint request for proposals
include Florida Municipal Power Agency, a wholesale power
supplier to 15 city-owned electric utilities throughout Florida;
JEA, a retail electricity supplier in Jacksonville that provides
service in all of Duval County and portions of Clay and St.
Johns counties; the city of Tallahassee; and Reedy Creek
Improvement District, which serves parts of Orange and Osceola
counties near Orlando.
“We believe the North Florida Power Project is our
best option to provide reliable power at an affordable price
in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Mike
Lawson, project manager for the proposed plant, “but
if we receive a power proposal that more effectively meets
our needs, we will accept that proposal.”
The utilities are seeking proposals that would help meet
their need for up to 750 megawatts of power beginning June
1, 2012, and continuing for at least 10 years. Bids will
be compared on the basis of overall power cost, as well as
non-cost factors that impact consumers, including risk, reliability
and environmental impact.
Protecting
customers from the impact of high, volatile natural gas
prices is a major objective of the proposed plant, so the
utilities have expressed a preference for proposals that
diversify the utilities’ fuel sources or contractually
mitigate fuel price risk. Potential bidders should refer
to the request for proposals for a specific listing of evaluation
criteria. The request for proposals is posted online at http://externalapps.jea.com/eprocurement/bid_info.asp.
Once the proposals have been evaluated, the utilities may
contract jointly or separately with the selected bidder.
If the proposals do not prove to be more favorable, the utilities
will move forward with developing the proposed plant.
The request for proposals process is expected to take about
five months. A mandatory pre-bid conference will be held
in Jacksonville, Fla., on Dec. 20, 2005. The deadline to
submit proposals is Feb. 28, 2006, and the utilities are
tentatively scheduled to announce their selection on May
2, 2006, although the schedule is subject to change.
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Contact:
Mark McCain
North Florida Power Project spokesperson
407 355-7767
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