Annual differential for residential customers appears to be closer to $600,000 for Indian River Shores
MARK SCHUMANN
Utility activist and pro-sale fundamentalist Dr. Stephen Faherty continues to claim a rate differential between Vero Electric and Florida Power & Light amounting to $2 million per month. Given his track record, Faherty’s exaggerations should come as no surprise. But when the Indian River Shores Town Council claims its residents are paying $2 million more a year with Vero Electric than they would with FPL, it is time to point out just how overstated are the claimed savings to be had with FPL.
Here are the numbers. They are what the are.
Vero Electric has approximately 29,000 residential customers who are using an average of 1000 KWH a month at $123 per month. FPL’s current residential rate is $101 per KWH. At $123 per KWH, Vero Electric’s 29,000 residential customers will pay $42,804,000 over the next year. At FPL’s rate of $101, those same customers would be paying $35,148,000, for a difference of 17.9 percent.*
Quite simply, the monthly rate differential for residential customers is an average of $638,000, or $22 per customer. For this, the Shores Town Council is prepared to wage a multi-million dollar lawsuit that will only serve to further increase rates.
At least according to the 2010 Census, there are approximately 2900 households within the Town of Indian River Shores. Eighty percent of those households, or 2300, are served by Vero Electric. At an average rate differential of $22 per month, Vero Electric’s Indian River Shores customers are, collectively, paying approximately $610,000 more per year with the city than they would with FPL. Six-hundred thousand dollars is not a number to be dismissed, but it is far short of $2 million.
*If an when the residents of Vero Beach become customers of FPL, they will pay a 6 percent franchise fee, which will reduce the rate differential to 13 percent.
Indian River Guardian 
HELLO Mark!!!! Where have you been these last several years. These number guys (Wilson, Heran and Faherty) will go to any lengths to embellish the numbers. First $156,500,000, and $80,000,000 was going to be profited on the sale. Then every City of Vero Beach resident will get $625.00 plus no tax increase even a tax decrease. Then the $43,000,000 that FPL was asked to pay, was actually going to be paid back to paid them by the City of Vero Beach residents. Anyone who believes any figures given by these guys probably believes in Santa.