VERO BEACH — The city of Vero Beach sent a letter Tuesday to Florida Power and Light with information the state utility requested as it considers making a bid on buying Vero Electric.FPL was provided the contracts the city has to purchase power from all of its providers — the St. Lucie 2 nuclear power plant, the Stanton 1 and Stanton 2 coal plants and the Orlando Utilities Commission. The OUC contract, dated April 21, 2008, has come under scrutiny as possibly invalid after changes were made between the time the City Council reviewed it and subsequently voted on it. City Manager Jim Gabbard contacted FPL and other major power suppliers in the state, at the request of the City Council, to see if they would be interested buying all or part of Vero Electric.
In the letter to FPL, Gabbard says the city is “very interested in the details of your findings. If further study is desired by FPL, the City Council will entertain a request for a more formal due diligence process.” He also adds that the exchange of information is not binding on either party to buy or sell Vero Electric.
The city has targeted a March 9 Vero Beach Utilities Commission meeting for interested power providers to make a presentation to the city. At least one other utility, Tampa Electric, has reportedly expressed an interest in making a presentation about buying all or part of the utility at that meeting. The OUC is also expected to attend the meeting.”I think that is a good thing that more than just FPL and the OUC are interested,” said Councilman Brian Heady, “I think that is a good sign for Vero Beach.”The city has come under considerable pressure to sell the power plant after its rates spiked over the summer to one of the highest in the state. Vero Electric was in the process of changing power providers and expected a Jan. 1 switch to the OUC to alleviate the rate increase.While customers are paying less than in the summertime, the rates remain higher than that of FPL customers.