Fla. PSC OKs deals to improve renewable energy
Interconnection agreements and rate changes designed to increase electricity generated from solar, wind, biomass and other renewable sources were approved Thursday by the Florida Public Service Commission.
The actions apply to homeowners and businesses offering to sell surplus renewable power to the state’s five investor-owned utilities: Florida Power & Light Co., Progress Energy Florida Inc., Gulf Power Co., Tampa Electric Co. and Florida Public Utilities Co.
”Today’s approval will encourage eligible customers to reduce the electricity purchased from their utility saving money for the customer and increasing grid capacity for the utility,” said PSC Chairman Matthew M. Carter III.
The commission acted in compliance with a net metering rule it adopted in March.
The rule encourages development of renewable energy by expanding the size of eligible systems from 10 kilowatts, the amount of electricity typically produced by a single residential or small business wind turbine, to 2 megawatts, enough power for about 500 homes.
It allows all types of renewable technologies rather than just solar power, which was covered by a previous program.
The rule also expedites the interconnection of customer-owned generators with utility systems and allows customers to offset their electricity costs with net metering credits given for the extra renewable energy they send back to the power companies for distribution.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors. )
4 September 2008
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