VERO BEACH — When a three-person panel meets on Monday to hear proposals from firms vying to be hired for the City of Vero Beach’s comprehensive rate study, the top-ranked firm, Black and Veatch, won’t be there.
The well-respected Kansas-based engineering and consulting firm has designed, constructed or worked on not only Vero’s Big Blue power plant, but a good deal of Vero’s electric system, so the staff out of its Orlando office would have seemed a natural choice for the job.
Hiring Black and Veatch might have also saved ratepayers substantial money due to the firm’s long history and familiarity with the Vero electric system.
Unfortunately for Vero, Black and Veatch’s expertise has also been sought by many of the entities with which Vero could currently — or potentially — find itself at odds.
“Black and Veatch did withdraw and the reason given (was) possible conflicts of interest with other clients,” said Vero Beach City Manager Jim O’Connor.
It’s unclear if Black & Veatch has done any substantial work for the Indian River Board of County Commissioners, but the Town of Indian River Shores used Black & Veatch early on, in the 2009-2010 time frame before Vero began negotiations to sell its electric utility, to offer some advice on the Town’s options with regard utility issues.
Florida Public Service Commission hearing transcripts show that Black and Veatch has also done some major consulting and engineering work for the Florida Municipal Power Agency’s All Requirements Project.
Vero Beach is a member of the FMPA and the city’s inability to extricate itself from its long-term contracts with the FMPA have become a contentious factor in the lack of progress on the sale to FPL.
High power costs from the FMPA passed down to Vero’s ratepayers by Vero electric have also been partially blamed for the predicament Vero now finds itself in — on the verge of going to trial with the Town of Indian River Shores, and in proceedings with the PSC over territorial issues.
Public records also indicate that Black and Veatch has also been a contractor working on Orlando Utilities Commission’s Stanton coal-fired generation plants. Vero must strike a deal with OUC for replacement peaking power in order to decommission its power plant.
Vero also has a stalled purchase agreement with Florida Power and Light still hanging out there until 2016, and Black and Veatch lists an FPL power generation plant in Loxahatchee as a major project on its website. Since 1997, Black and Veatch has, according to the site, played a major engineering and construction role in the combined-cycle West County Energy Center.
The three remaining firms that will be interviewed are Burns and McDonnell, Power Services and GDS Associates.
Presentations and interviews will be behind closed doors, beginning at 9:45 a.m. Monday, but there will be public discussion to follow, in council chambers at Vero Beach City Hall. If the group does not break for lunch after the 11:15 a.m. presentation, the public portion should begin around noon. If there is a lunch break, the public portion would be later.
In the rankings performed last Thursday, Black and Veatch was the top choice of former Utilities Commission chair Scott Stradley and Vero’s transmission and distribution Director Ted Fletcher. Electric Utility Director Tom Richards marked Power Services as his top pick and Black and Veatch as the number two firm.
Though no detailed budget or scope of services has been released on the rate study project, the work is expected to cost Vero’s ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.