VERO BEACH — Officials with the City of Vero Beach are proffering a plan that could give Vero Beach Electric customers some relief on their electric bills – if several conditions are met.
Customers could see a break in their bills of a total of $7 million per year in discounts for three years, then smaller discounts of $4.1 million to $5.3 million per year going forward.
The first condition is that, after Vero mothballs its Big Blue power plant, it would purchase even more power, 54 megawatts of “peaking capacity” from the Orlando Utilities Commission. In addition to that, Vero would still need to purchase a “minimum take” of 85 megawatts in wholesale power for the duration of the contract, which expires in 2030.
Florida Power and Light would need to say that this new deal with OUC does not violate FPL’s sale and purchase agreement to buy the electric utility. And the Vero Beach City Council and OUC’s Board of Directors would need to approve the deal in final form.
The City’s utility attorney Robert Scheffel “Schef” Wright says that Vero could get its rate down $10 per month, from the current rate of $123.93 per 1,000 kilowatt hour to $113.93 per kilowatt hour. Even then, bills would be roughly 17 percent higher than FPL’s rate for the same power.