Florida Power & Light expects to request a "modest" base rate increase early next year, FPL President Armando Olivera told the Sun Sentinel editorial board Tuesday.
The utility's rate freeze agreement with consumer groups and others expires at the end of 2012.
Olivera didn't say whether the increase would be more or less than the $1.27 billion proposed annual base rate hike regulators rejected early last year.
As part of the base rate request, FPL will want to start charging customers in 2013 and 2014 for conversions of two plants, the Cape Canaveral plant in Brevard County and another plant in Riviera Beach, from oil to natural gas, said FPL Spokesman Mark Bubriski. The upgrades will cost nearly $2.4 billion but will be passed to customers over 30 years and fuel savings from the plants are projected to more than offset the costs, he said.
Olivera said utility can avoid long, drawn-out rate hearings if it's able to hash out another agreement with consumer advocates and others.
Olivera kicked off the meeting Tuesday with a presentation showing how FPL's rates for typical customers are cheaper than other Florida utilities and in some cases, cheaper than utilities outside of the state. He said FPL has installed 2 million smart meters, which allow customers to see how much energy they use each day, hour and minute, so far and said the grid is more prepared for hurricanes because customers have spent nearly $800 million in since 2006 to improve reliability and make upgrades.
"An awful lot of effort and money has gone into preparing for the next hurricane," he said.
He said the economic recovery has been slow. Although there were 30,000 new customers last year compared with the year before, FPL still has about 300,000 inactive meters, mostly because of unoccupied homes.
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