NEWS ANALYSIS

MARK SCHUMANN

Florida Municipal Power Agency Assistant Director Mark McCain said today the agency is committing considerable time and resources to fully exploring Florida Power & Light’s latest plan for restructuring the proposed sale of Vero Electric.

The latest offer by FPL, the third iteration of the deal, calls for the FMPA to take on for three years Vero Beach’s entitlements and obligations to three power supply projects – the Stanton I and Stanton II coal plants in Orlando and the St. Lucie Two nuclear plant in Fort Pierce. In exchange for assuming Vero Beach’s obligations to these power supply projects, the FMPA would receive financial compensation, interstate transmission capacity and an option to participate in FPL’s proposed Turkey Point 6 & 7 nuclear project.

Reports that the FMPA has missed two “deadlines” to give FPL a final answer do not square with McCain’s statements that the agency is in communication with FPL and is progressing through what McCain said will be a complicated process of carefully and thoroughly evaluating the potential impact of FPL’s proposal.  McCain said as many as 19 member cities will be impacted by the proposed deal. Each and ever one of those members must be consulted, McCain said. Further, according the McCain, the FMPA is still awaiting information from FPL.

In an Aug. 20 letter to FMPA General Manager Nick Guarriello, FPL President Eric Silagy indicated his company’s offer was at least partially contingent on the FMPA’s willingness to accelerate Vero Beach’s withdrawal from the FMPA All Requirements Project without the need for unanimous approval of the remaining project participants.  In his Aug. 20 letter, Silagy also asked Guarriello to reply by Sept. 20 regarding the FMPA’s interest in “proceeding with the transaction.”

“Deadlines are for impatient people,” said Vero Beach City Councilman Jay Kramer.

Impatient or not, whatever line Silagy may have drawn in sand in terms of a deadline seems no more real now than the red line President Obama drew in the Syrian desert.

Clearly, it will be weeks, if not months, before the FMPA has been able to confer with all its members, as it considers the likely impact of the transaction on the viability of its power projects and the validity and efficacy of its contracts.