The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) has voted to terminate Florida Power & Light Co.'s (FPL) Sunshine Energy program and place any future customer contributions to the program into an escrow account.
PSC commissioners further directed staff to continue to pursue an audit of how the funds were utilized by Green Mountain Energy Co., a third-party renewable contractor. The results of this audit will be considered in a future commission proceeding.
FPL submitted a plan to modify the program, but the commission directed the company to terminate the program. A prior commission staff audit of the program indicated that only 20% of the $11.4 million collected from customers was applied to developing renewable energy facilities. The majority of the collected funds were alleged to have been used for marketing and administrative costs.
‘We are disappointed the commission voted today to end FPL's very successful Sunshine Energy renewable energy program,’ says Paul Markovich, senior vice president of Green Mountain Energy.
In its statement, Green Mountain Energy did not address the allegations about where and how the program's funds were applied.
SOURCES: Florida PSC; Green Mountain Energy
