Brace for Irma charge on electric bill
Florida Power & Light customers are still paying a special charge to cover $318.5 million in costs to clean up after Hurricane Matthew. But the company has yet to file a report with the state Public Service Commission documenting the damage, which was incurred in late 2016, the PSC confirmed Monday.
And when the time comes to pay the bills for Hurricane Irma, a separate charge is likely to appear on customer bills even before FPL has fully explained the costs for that storm.
Despite the approval for the additional Hurricane Matthew charge, FPL still hasn’t filed a cost-recovery report documenting the causes and charges, according to Florida Public Counsel J.R. Kelly and confirmed by the PSC.
“I can’t believe they haven’t filed it yet,” said Kelly, who represents ratepayers. The public counsel and his staff won’t be able to look at any of the Hurricane Matthew costs being charged to customers until FPL files the report. The same applies for Hurricane Irma.
“That won’t be for another year,” he said.
“Costs for 2017 storms will be reviewed when the utilities file a petition for cost recovery,” said Cynthia
Muir, director of the office of consumer assistance at the commission, which regulates FPL and other utilities in the state.
In February, the PSC approved a $318.5 million request by FPL to cover the costs of restoring power after Hurricane Matthew brushed South Florida in October 2016 and incurred greater damage elsewhere the state. Part of the money was earmarked to replenish the utility’s storm reserve fund, which stood at $93.1 million before Matthew.
The resulting “storm charge” for residential customers amounted to $3.36 a month for households using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each month. That charge, which brings a typical residential bill to $102.37 a month, will be in place until March 2018.
The Matthew charge now on customer bills was part of a settlement agreement in FPL’s rate case, Muir said. Current FPL base rates also include costs for storm “hardening” that were approved as part of a settlement agreement, which included input from the Office of Public Counsel, she said.
Muir said the PSC expects the Hurricane Matthew report to be filed in October. But FPL spokesman Bud Fraga, who responded to a Sun Sentinel inquiry about the report via email, said, “we don’t have a firm timetable at this time.”
Muir said utilities are required to file “distribution reliability reports” by March 1 of each year that contain storm hardening information for the past year.
“We also expect the utilities to file a petition for a storm surcharge to cover storm recovery expenses,” she said. “If they file, the amount of recovery will be an initial estimate, and the PSC will hold a hearing to determine actual costs so that any recovery is strictly limited to storm restoration.”
Muir said the process is designed so that utilities aren’t allowed “double-counting” of costs.
The electric utility has spent nearly $3 billion since 2006 to upgrade its distribution system. After Hurricane Irma, a total of 4.4 million homes and businesses — or about 9 million people — lost power after Hurricane Irma.
For South Florida, the storm was less devastating than forecast because winds were tropical-storm force, except for some hurricane-force gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. Still, FPL said it hadn’t completed restoration to South Florida as of Monday evening, estimating it would complete Broward by Monday evening and Miami-Dade county by today.
Fraga said hurricaneforce winds, flying debris, broken trees, and some flooding caused the power outages.