MARK SCHUMANN

Yesterday, letters from Florida Municipal Power Agency General Manager Nicholas Guarriello and Florida Power & Light President Eric Silagy crossed in cyberspace, as the state’s largest investor-owned utility and the joint action agency of more than 30 municipal utilities and cooperates clarified their positions on the status of negotiation in the proposed sale of Vero Beach’s electric utility to FPL.

Silagy’s letter was supposedly written after FPL officials received and had time to consider Guarriello’s four-and-a-half page letter sent earlier in the day.  Reading the two letters consecutively, though, gives one the sense that Vero Beach officials are like castaways huddled in a tiny lifeboat bobbing in the converging wake of two giant ships passing in the night.

In his letter to Silagy, Guarriello explained that the FMPA’s offer to assume Vero Beach power entitlements for three years does not come with an implied guarantee the agency’s members will approve Vero Beach’s request for a waiver to leave withdraw from the All Requirements Project before Oct. 1, 2016.  Yet, Silagy’s letter, sent later in the day, made clear FPL’s expectation that the waiver will be forthcoming.

On the issue of contingent liabilities and stranded costs, Silagy asserted that Vero Beach has made “very reasonable” proposals to resolve FMPA’s concerns over how Vero Beach will secure contingent liabilities and compensate fellow FMPA members for stranded costs they must absorb if and when FPL takes over the city’s electric utility.  Guarriello’s letter  to Silagy indicated that from the FMPA’s perspective these issues are far from resolved.

The possible timing of a closing remains yet another point of difference. Guarriello, echoing cautions FMPA officials have raised for more than a year, wrote, “…I and FMPA general counsel have said to you that it will be very difficult to achieve a closing by the end of this year.”  Silagy’s response?  “Our goal is to close the sale by January 1, 2015.”  Later in his letter, Silagy wrote, “We continue to believe that parties truly committed to the transaction and working together in goo faith can achieve a timely closing.”

Below are the letters exchanged yesterday between FMPA and FPL top executives. To enlarge for ease of reading, simply click on each page below.