JUNO BEACH, Fla., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Power & Light Company
announced the commercial startup of a 300-megawatt expansion of its Martin
plant site near Indiantown, Florida and Lake Okeechobee in Martin County.
The power from FPL's new Martin plant -- plus 900 megawatts of new
generation from FPL's Fort Myers plant -- gives FPL a reserve margin of
20 percent this summer and the capability to serve an additional 255,000 homes
and businesses.
"There is no energy crisis in Florida," said FPL President Paul Evanson.
"FPL customers enjoy an adequate supply of electricity at reasonable rates,
and the company is well-positioned to serve customers far into the future."
"This past week, in fact, we set a new record and comfortably met the
highest-ever customer demand of 18,340 megawatts on Wednesday, June 13,"
Mr. Evanson said.
FPL's new capacity additions are part of the company's on-going expansion,
which will ultimately see 6,300 megawatts of new capacity -- a 33 percent
increase -- put into service to meet customer needs between now and 2010.
FPL's capacity expansion plans also include new energy conservation goals
equivalent to avoiding the need to build two 400 megawatt power plants during
the same timeframe. This will be accomplished using Florida Public Service
Commission-approved customer programs whereby demand on the system is reduced
at peak periods in return for a credit or discount, as well as through other
customer energy conservation programs. These are similar to programs being
recommended as part of President Bush's energy plan.
In addition to meeting increasing electricity demand, the expansion at
Martin and Fort Myers also provide economic benefits to the community from the
investment in plant and additional property tax payments for the life of the
power plant.
FPL said construction is underway on an additional 1,450 megawatts of new
generation in Southwest and Central Florida that will be available to serve
customers by 2003.
Florida Power & Light Company is the principal subsidiary of FPL Group,
Inc. (NYSE: FPL), one of the nation's largest providers of electricity-related
services with annual revenues of more than $7 billion. The company serves
approximately 3.9 million customer accounts in Florida. FPL Energy, LLC, an
FPL Group energy-generating subsidiary, is a leader in producing electricity
from clean and renewable fuels. Additional information is available on the
Internet at http://www.fpl.com.
SOURCE Florida Power & Light Company
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Related links:
http://www.fpl.com
http://www.fplgroup.com
CONTACT:
Florida Power & Light Company Corporate
Communications Media Line, 305-552-3888
EDITOR'S ADVISORY: If you would like pictures of FPL President
Paul Evanson at the press briefing held today at the Martin
plant, please call FPL corporate communications at 305-552-3888
and provide us with your email address. Also available are a bar
graph of FPL capacity expansion, a graphic of how combined-cycle
power plants work and photos of FPL plants sites with new
generating units including Martin, Fort Myers and Sanford power
plants. TV media have been sent b-roll and a 60-second "news
release" via Vyvx (ISCI code FPL V0101), which should be
available around 3 p.m. today.
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