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FMPA
Members Celebrate 30 Years Together
ORLANDO, Fla.,
Feb. 25, 2008 – Thirty years ago, the Florida Municipal
Power Agency (FMPA) held its first official meeting. At that
time, there were no employees and no office, nothing but the
idea that Florida’s municipal electric utilities should
work together to coordinate the wholesale electricity needs
of cities in order to create economies of scale in power generation
and related services.
Three decades later,
FMPA has grown to supply nearly 50 percent of its members’
total wholesale power needs. Today, FMPA has a full-time staff
of more than 70, a 25,000-square-foot headquarters in Orlando,
five power generation projects, a pooled financing fund, approximately
two dozen member service initiatives, annual revenues of $705
million and assets of $1.5 billion.
An indomitable
one-for-all-and-all-for-one spirit, evidenced during the defining
moments in FMPA’s history, best describes the organization
that 30 community-owned electric utilities have created.
• Birth of
Joint Action: Three decades ago, in the face of mounting competitive
pressure, municipal electric utilities began forming regional
“joint action agencies” that allowed individual
utilities to participant collectively in power pools, to buy
wholesale power in a group and to jointly finance generating
plants. In the summer of 1977, an organizational committee
was formed to establish the structure of a joint action agency
in Florida. Less than a year later, FMPA held its initial
meeting on Feb. 24, 1978. Twenty-three cities attended.
• First Joint
Action Project: Before FMPA was formed, a group of 20 Florida
cities came together and asked for ownership interests in
an investor-owned utility’s nuclear units. The ownership
request was denied, so in 1974, the cities intervened in the
plant’s license application. After eight years of legal
action, the cities reached a comprehensive settlement to participate
in the unit, and the first power supply project came to fruition.
• Establishing
All-Requirements: With little competition among wholesale
power suppliers, municipal utilities began to look for wholesale
power supply alternatives. They turned to FMPA to become an
all-requirements power supplier for member cities that purchased
all their wholesale power needs from private power companies.
Bushnell, one of the smallest municipal electric utilities
in Florida, was the first to sign with FMPA, followed by Green
Cove Springs, Jacksonville Beach, Leesburg and Ocala. The
project began serving all the power needs for those five members
May 1, 1986. All-Requirements has grown into FMPA’s
largest power supply project serving 15 members today.
• Gaining
Equal Transmission Access: In 1989, FMPA’s members wanted
to purchase the same type of electric transmission service
that investor-owned utilities used themselves. FMPA was able
to contract for this service from one private power company,
but another utility refused, even though they were required
to do so by agreement with the Justice Department and Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. FMPA negotiated with the company for
two years but to no avail. In 1991, with no other satisfactory
option available, FMPA filed a lawsuit for breach of contract
and antitrust violations. As a result, FMPA obtained equal
access to transmission service and significantly expanded
All-Requirements to include other cities.
• Project
Taker to Project Maker: Within a few short years, FMPA’s
All-Requirements Project grew into one of the largest municipal
utilities in Florida and the United States. All-Requirements
cities needed to modernize their fleet of generation plants,
while meeting their customers’ growing power needs in
an economical and environmentally friendly manner. To meet
this challenge, the Agency developed in 2004 a comprehensive,
long-term power supply plan. This plan showed significant
growth in electricity demand over the next 20 years. Now that
All-Requirements has grown, it had capacity needs that were
large enough to justify building its own units and urgent
enough that FMPA could not wait to be invited to participate
in another utility’s plant. FMPA’s long-term plan
recommended two new generation projects: a simple cycle combustion
turbine to begin operating in 2006 and a combined cycle unit
to begin operating in 2008. The simple cycle combustion turbine
was successfully completed in June 2006, and the combined
cycle unit is scheduled to begin commercial operation in late
spring 2008.
Above all, FMPA’s
greatest accomplishment has been its role as a catalyst to
bring municipal electric utilities together to work on areas
of common concern. Working together has given FMPA’s
members a stronger, unified voice. It has enabled them to
pool their collective physical, financial and intellectual
resources to enhance competitiveness. And it has fostered
a one-for-all-and-all-for-one spirit, as the utilities unite
in their commitment to serve their communities.
Today, as much
as ever, the benefits of a community-owned power company are
important for electric consumers.
In
the same spirit, Florida’s municipal electric utilities
created FMPA to provide reliable, low-cost wholesale power
and related services. For 30 years, Florida’s utilities
have worked together for the mutual benefit of their communities.
This blending of community power and statewide strength enables
municipal electric utilities to provide the personal service
of a local utility backed by the resources of a statewide
organization. Ultimately, this combination serves the highest
goal of making the communities better places to live and work.
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, 1.24MB)
# # #
Florida Municipal
Power Agency (FMPA) is a wholesale power company owned by
30 municipal electric utilities. FMPA provides economies of
scale in power generation and related services to support
community-owned electric utilities. The members of FMPA serve
approximately 2 million Floridians. FMPA’s members include
Alachua, Bartow, Blountstown, Bushnell, Chattahoochee, Clewiston,
Fort Meade, Fort Pierce, Gainesville, Green Cove Springs,
Havana, Homestead, Jacksonville Beach, Key West, Kissimmee,
Lake Worth, Lakeland, Leesburg, Moore Haven, Mount Dora, New
Smyrna Beach, Newberry, Ocala, Orlando, Quincy, St. Cloud,
Starke, Vero Beach, Wauchula and Williston. Additional information
is available on the Internet at www.fmpa.com.
Media Contact:
Mark McCain
Assistant General Manager,
Public Relations and Human Resources
(407) 355-7767
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