Green refunds sought from FPL
A petition filed with state regulators says some Florida Power & Light customers should be entitled to refunds for participating in a discontinued green energy program.
Florida Power & Light’s customers who contributed millions of dollars to a much-criticized green energy program should be entitled to refunds, says a Jupiter energy consultant in a document filed with state regulators.
Thomas Saporito, who has a long history of battling the state’s largest utility, filed a formal petition with the Public Service Commission on Monday concerning FPL’s Sunshine Energy Program, in which 38,000 customers voluntarily gave more than $11 million for the purchase of renewable energy.
Commissioners killed the program last month after learning of a staff audit that reported about 80 percent of the contributions went for marketing and other administrative expenses.
”In my view, based on all the negative publicity that this program has gotten, rate payers deserve a full refund of any money they contributed to this plan,” Saporito told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “It appears the rate payers were duped by FPL.”
COMPLYING
FPL responded in an e-mailed statement: ”We are cooperating fully with the PSC” to wind down the program “efficiently and expeditiously. We are also complying with the PSC’s request for additional information regarding how the program’s funds were spent.
”FPL is committed to promoting renewable energy in Florida. Sunshine Energy was a successful part of that strategy. It fulfilled every promise made to program participants and led to the creation of the state’s largest solar array to date at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota County,” the utility stated. FPL is now proposing a much larger solar program that will generate 110 megawatts at three power plants.
Charlie Beck of the Office of the Public Counsel, which represents consumers before the PSC, said of Saporito’s petition: ”We’re looking at it.” But his office hasn’t yet made a decision on whether to support his refund demand.
At the PSC hearing in July, Commissioner Nathan Skop said the program’s performance was “just appalling. . . . It was clearly mismanaged from the inception.”
Because Skop thought refunds to thousands of customers would get too complicated, he proposed FPL put the equivalent of refunds into its proposed three solar power plants, which are expected to cost customers about $680 million. None of the other commissioners, however, supported that move.
Saporito said he’s an FPL customer but did not contribute to the program because he was suspicious from the start about where the money was going.
FPL said in a statement: ”We do not believe this individual has any legitimate interest” before the PSC concerning Sunshine Energy.
Both Saporito and FPL acknowledged that he has a long, complicated history with the company. He was fired by FPL in 1988. The utility said it was for just cause. Saporito said it’s because he was a whistle-blower revealing problems at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant, where he worked.
20-YEAR LAWSUIT
For almost 20 years, he has battled FPL and the U.S. Department of Labor in a lawsuit in which he has lost many rounds.
He said Tuesday he has just filed a new appeal with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
He has continued to complain to regulators about FPL’s nuclear performance, but that didn’t stop him from sending a letter to Olivera earlier this month suggesting FPL partner with Saporito Energy Consultants to advise homeowners on how they can lower their electric bills.
When a reporter asked him Tuesday why the utility would work with him after his long record of fighting the company, Saporito said it would be ”a win-win situation” for the utility because his plan would make customers happy and allow FPL to save money by not building so many power plants
By John Dorschner
13 August 2008
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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