Data Center Developers Eye FPL Rate Case

Article reposted with permission from The News Service of Florida.

Pointing to electricity needed to power artificial intelligence, a group representing developers of data centers has requested approval to intervene in a regulatory case about Florida Power & Light’s proposal to increase base electric rates. The Florida Energy for Innovation Association filed a motion last week at the state Public Service Commission seeking to take part in the case. The group said its members are companies developing data centers in Florida and their affiliates that are FPL customers. “These data centers are designed to support the substantial computational demands of the artificial intelligence and related technology industries that the state of Florida seeks to attract,” the motion said. “They require a constant, reliable, and cost-effective electric power source to operate their computer servers, cooling systems, storage, and other essential infrastructure, and to conduct their AI businesses consistent with the needs of their customers.” The motion said group members “developing Data Centers are actively seeking to obtain electric service from FPL and have entered into confidential agreements with FPL, pursuant to which they have paid FPL significant sums of money in exchange for FPL studying the configuration and cost of the facilities needed to supply electric power to their data centers.” In a document filed Monday at the Public Service Commission, FPL said it “preliminarily” opposes the group’s request to intervene. In part, the utility cited questions about who the group represents. “It appears that FEIA (the group) was only recently formed and its members are unknown, and it cannot be determined whether a majority of its members are in fact existing retail customers of FPL,” the utility’s lawyers wrote. “Thus, there is a material factual and legal question whether a substantial number of FEIA’s members are existing retail customers of FPL that would be substantially impacted by FPL’s proposed base rate case.” FPL in February filed a proposal that would lead to rate increases of $1.545 billion in 2026 and $927 million in 2027. Also, FPL would pass along costs to customers in 2028 and 2029 for solar-energy and battery-storage projects. The Public Service Commission is in the midst of a months-long process of analyzing the proposal.