GUEST COMMENTARY

LYNNE LARKIN

A great many people have been doing some recreational math regarding how much Vero Beach utility customers are “losing” without a sale to FPL. Observing these numbers grow and how they are calculated, one would think they were doing recreational meth instead.

This fake money clock ticking away was made by those wanting to sell at any cost. Now they admit that they fully knew the deal would not happen overnight, that these tremendous barriers in the form of legal commitments were part of their equations. And yet they add up millions of dollars “lost” by not switching immediately five years ago to FPL, something which they claim the knew couldn’t occur.

A recent column by a respected writer for Scripps suggests that the accurate “loss” for customers amounts to $23 million per year. These numbers come from the slightly biased alleged experts on utility financing named Glenn Heran and Stephen Faherety. This is the same Faheranty group who keeps saying the difference in rates is over 50% compared to FPL. Not quite honest, those numbers. Not even 30% is accurate.

However, the entire mess starts at assuming [ahem] that FMPA will put their own business at risk just to help poor Vero Beach lower their rates, that FPL is the only buyer, and that rates never change.

Well, why don’t we use a new comparison, since we can pick one out of the blue just as they chose FPL. No-bid contract, remember? So what if we choose another company, one similar to FPL or even one that might actually be able to make the deal happen.

Florida Public Utilities is a possible player. Their residential rates have traditionally been higher than FPL’s, but they may be a better company for whatever reason. Currently their power costs average about $172 per 1200 Kwh, while Vero’s is $158.89 [that includes base power charge and fuel cost adjustment].

It would make as much sense to say that we are SAVING $13.11 average per month, per customer, by not going to FPU. Look at all the money that is staying in Vero Beach! That averages to about $5,191,560.00 savings per year.

Or let’s compare with another member of the FMPA, with whom many of these legal issues may not be so complicated. Key West and Bartow are currently around $167.38 per 1200 Kwh. Over $3 million could be saved every year by NOT going with them.

The fairy tale, you see, is making comparisons that mean nothing if they aren’t really options. As so many in the utility business warned, selling to FPL was a hornet’s nest of problems, if not impossible for reasons of regulatory restraints concerning bonds and lingering liabilities.

The math is not just fuzzy when presented as if Vero Beach could have switched overnight to FPL, it’s also fuzzy because all of the other costs of doing so were at first unknown, and then quite clearly ignored in all of the Feheranty calculations. Is this what CPAs do? Or is this what lobbyists do who travel around Florida telling other municipalities that everyone should sell to FPL.

Over the last 20 years, the difference in rates between Vero Beach and FPL has been between $5 and $10 per 1200 Kwh.

So by not doing anything for the past five years, Vero Beach could have saved between $3 million to $5 million. Minus $2 million on lawyers and lobbyists.

Phantom savings or phantom losses – you decide. The truth is our council now is looking for ways to bring fees down, to work inside reality, and to do it in a way that doesn’t jeopardize residents and non-residents alike. No myths, no meth, no fuzzy math.