Reports related to this article:
Project(s): View 4 related projects in PECWeb
Plant(s): View 1 related plant in PECWeb
Released June 15, 2016 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) (Juno Beach, Florida), a unit of NextEra Energy Incorporated (NYSE:NEE) (Juno Beach, Florida), has pushed back the start of construction of two new nuclear units at its Turkey Point Nuclear Power Station in South Florida. The planned additions, Turkey Point units 6 and 7, have been on hold since 2013. But in a letter to the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) (Tallahassee, Florida) in late April, the utility said it planned to delay the start of construction for at least four more years.
Each of the planned units has a total investment value (TIV) of about $9 billion. Each unit would have 1,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity. The utility plans to install Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors (PWRs), the same kind of generator being installed at the Vogtle and Summer expansions in Georgia and South Carolina, respectively. The Vogtle and Summer projects have experienced significant construction delays and cost overruns, and are the first new nuclear generators built in over three decades in the U.S. For more on the construction delays at the Vogtle and Summer plants, see July 14, 2015, article--Nuclear Power Update: Finish Line in Sight for Watts Bar Unit 2, but Delays and Cost Overruns Still Plague Vogtle and Summer Unit Additions.
In its April 27 letter to Florida regulators, FPL said it expects to receive its combined construction and operating license (COL) for Turkey Point 6 and 7 from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) (Rockville, Maryland) next year. But rather than begin the pre-construction process at that time, it will wait until at least 2020 to start those activities. FPL said it plans to leave Turkey Point 6 and 7 sites in their current state until at least 2020.
Initially proposed in 2008, construction of Unit 6 was scheduled to begin in 2014. Construction of unit 7 was originally slated to start in 2016. The units were planned to come online in 2022 and 2023. Natural gas prices for power generation cost about $12.50 per million British Thermal Units (MMBtu) back in 2008, but those prices have fallen sharply to about $2.50 per MMBtu, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (Washington, D.C.), the statistical and analytic branch of the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) (Washington, D.C.).
Click the icon at right to see a graph of average natural gas prices for electric generation from 2008 through 2016.
The dramatic decline of natural gas prices in recent years likely eroded the economic viability of new nuclear generation versus gas-fired generation. Also, FPL has been building large natural gas combined- cycle (NGCC) plants in recent years to meet new electric demand and to replace the capacity of older fossil fueled power plants that are being shuttered due to tougher environmental regulation. For more on that issue, see August 18, 2015, article--Florida Power & Light Continues Generation Turnover with Plans for Another Billion-Dollar, Gas-Fired Power Plant and January 20, 2012, article--FPL Capital Program Bets Big On Low Natural-Gas Prices.
In its April 27 letter to Florida utility regulators, FPL, one of the nation's largest electric utilities, didn't specify the reasons for its decision to push back the start of construction of Turkey Point Units 6 and 7. According to a news report in The Miami Herald, FPL said its "decision to 'pause'...is in keeping with the incremental project approach" sought by the state's legislators when they amended Florida's nuclear cost-recovery law in 2013. The original law, passed in 2006, allowed utilities to charge customers for nuclear licensing and regulatory work prior to the start of construction of a new nuclear unit. But the 2013 amendment required utilities companies to prove a new nuclear project was feasible before the FPSC allowed it to begin pre-construction activities.
FPL has filed the required feasibility studies each year that enabled it to charge customers for licensing and regulatory work. But this year, according to the Herald, FPL asked for a waiver of the law's requirement that it must prove a nuclear plant's feasibility in order to continue collecting nuclear-related fees from customers. Filing such a feasibility report now, the utility said, "would impose a substantial hardship upon FPL and violate principles of fairness."
To date, FPL has collected over $280 million in planning and licensing fees from its customers for Turkey Point Units 6 and 7. The fees have become increasingly controversial, particularly as natural gas prices have declined. FPL's decision to push back pre-construction activities until 2020 at the earliest, plus its request to the FPSC that it not have to certify the feasibility of Turkey Point Units 6 and 7, likely will keep the issue in the public spotlight.
An FPL official cited by the Herald said the utility wanted to incorporate lessons learned from the Vogtle and Summer unit additions into the Turkey Point 6 and 7 additions. But construction delays at those plants have thrown a wrench into FPL's plans.
That's not the only challenge FPL has regarding Turkey Point Units 6 and 7. On April 20, a Florida appeals court reversed a decision by the state's power-plant siting board to allow FPL to build two new transmission lines to carry electricity from the planned unit additions at Turkey Point. One of those lines is scheduled to be a 230-kilovolt (kV) line, while the other is slated to be a 500-kV line. The court's decision sends the issue back to the state's siting board, which is chaired by Governor Rick Scott.
Another Turkey Point-related challenge facing FPL is high levels of salinity in the water in Biscayne Bay. Turkey Point draws water from Biscayne Bay into a 168-mile closed system of unlined canals used to cool the plant's existing nuclear generators (units 3 and 4). Following an uprate of Units 3 and 4, salinity levels reportedly soared to the point where they were three times higher than the salt content of ocean water. The closed system of canals means the water is not returned to the bay, as it would be on a "once-through" cooling system. However, recent studies have shown hyper-salinated water is seeping out of the canals, which could threaten fresh-water resources. The canals reportedly lose up to about 600,000 pounds of salt per year, and that salt is seeping into the groundwater. FPL officials have strongly denied that fresh-water resources are at risk, and they are undertaking several courses of action to remediate the salinity problem.
FPL's "data-driven methodical plan demonstrates our ability to move the hypersaline plume back in an environmentally responsible manner and reverse a situation compounded by numerous environmental factors," Randy LaBauve, FPL's vice president of environmental services, said in a statement.
"We have been consistent in our position that we need to follow the science, not the politics," he continued. "A data-driven, science-based approach ensures that we're taking the right actions at the right time to improve the situation. While it will take time to reverse the hypersaline plume in an environmentally responsible manner, this new data will help us achieve faster results and allow us to leverage the progress we are already making."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.
Each of the planned units has a total investment value (TIV) of about $9 billion. Each unit would have 1,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity. The utility plans to install Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors (PWRs), the same kind of generator being installed at the Vogtle and Summer expansions in Georgia and South Carolina, respectively. The Vogtle and Summer projects have experienced significant construction delays and cost overruns, and are the first new nuclear generators built in over three decades in the U.S. For more on the construction delays at the Vogtle and Summer plants, see July 14, 2015, article--Nuclear Power Update: Finish Line in Sight for Watts Bar Unit 2, but Delays and Cost Overruns Still Plague Vogtle and Summer Unit Additions.
In its April 27 letter to Florida regulators, FPL said it expects to receive its combined construction and operating license (COL) for Turkey Point 6 and 7 from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) (Rockville, Maryland) next year. But rather than begin the pre-construction process at that time, it will wait until at least 2020 to start those activities. FPL said it plans to leave Turkey Point 6 and 7 sites in their current state until at least 2020.
Initially proposed in 2008, construction of Unit 6 was scheduled to begin in 2014. Construction of unit 7 was originally slated to start in 2016. The units were planned to come online in 2022 and 2023. Natural gas prices for power generation cost about $12.50 per million British Thermal Units (MMBtu) back in 2008, but those prices have fallen sharply to about $2.50 per MMBtu, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (Washington, D.C.), the statistical and analytic branch of the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) (Washington, D.C.).
Click the icon at right to see a graph of average natural gas prices for electric generation from 2008 through 2016.The dramatic decline of natural gas prices in recent years likely eroded the economic viability of new nuclear generation versus gas-fired generation. Also, FPL has been building large natural gas combined- cycle (NGCC) plants in recent years to meet new electric demand and to replace the capacity of older fossil fueled power plants that are being shuttered due to tougher environmental regulation. For more on that issue, see August 18, 2015, article--Florida Power & Light Continues Generation Turnover with Plans for Another Billion-Dollar, Gas-Fired Power Plant and January 20, 2012, article--FPL Capital Program Bets Big On Low Natural-Gas Prices.
In its April 27 letter to Florida utility regulators, FPL, one of the nation's largest electric utilities, didn't specify the reasons for its decision to push back the start of construction of Turkey Point Units 6 and 7. According to a news report in The Miami Herald, FPL said its "decision to 'pause'...is in keeping with the incremental project approach" sought by the state's legislators when they amended Florida's nuclear cost-recovery law in 2013. The original law, passed in 2006, allowed utilities to charge customers for nuclear licensing and regulatory work prior to the start of construction of a new nuclear unit. But the 2013 amendment required utilities companies to prove a new nuclear project was feasible before the FPSC allowed it to begin pre-construction activities.
FPL has filed the required feasibility studies each year that enabled it to charge customers for licensing and regulatory work. But this year, according to the Herald, FPL asked for a waiver of the law's requirement that it must prove a nuclear plant's feasibility in order to continue collecting nuclear-related fees from customers. Filing such a feasibility report now, the utility said, "would impose a substantial hardship upon FPL and violate principles of fairness."
To date, FPL has collected over $280 million in planning and licensing fees from its customers for Turkey Point Units 6 and 7. The fees have become increasingly controversial, particularly as natural gas prices have declined. FPL's decision to push back pre-construction activities until 2020 at the earliest, plus its request to the FPSC that it not have to certify the feasibility of Turkey Point Units 6 and 7, likely will keep the issue in the public spotlight.
An FPL official cited by the Herald said the utility wanted to incorporate lessons learned from the Vogtle and Summer unit additions into the Turkey Point 6 and 7 additions. But construction delays at those plants have thrown a wrench into FPL's plans.
That's not the only challenge FPL has regarding Turkey Point Units 6 and 7. On April 20, a Florida appeals court reversed a decision by the state's power-plant siting board to allow FPL to build two new transmission lines to carry electricity from the planned unit additions at Turkey Point. One of those lines is scheduled to be a 230-kilovolt (kV) line, while the other is slated to be a 500-kV line. The court's decision sends the issue back to the state's siting board, which is chaired by Governor Rick Scott.
Another Turkey Point-related challenge facing FPL is high levels of salinity in the water in Biscayne Bay. Turkey Point draws water from Biscayne Bay into a 168-mile closed system of unlined canals used to cool the plant's existing nuclear generators (units 3 and 4). Following an uprate of Units 3 and 4, salinity levels reportedly soared to the point where they were three times higher than the salt content of ocean water. The closed system of canals means the water is not returned to the bay, as it would be on a "once-through" cooling system. However, recent studies have shown hyper-salinated water is seeping out of the canals, which could threaten fresh-water resources. The canals reportedly lose up to about 600,000 pounds of salt per year, and that salt is seeping into the groundwater. FPL officials have strongly denied that fresh-water resources are at risk, and they are undertaking several courses of action to remediate the salinity problem.
FPL's "data-driven methodical plan demonstrates our ability to move the hypersaline plume back in an environmentally responsible manner and reverse a situation compounded by numerous environmental factors," Randy LaBauve, FPL's vice president of environmental services, said in a statement.
"We have been consistent in our position that we need to follow the science, not the politics," he continued. "A data-driven, science-based approach ensures that we're taking the right actions at the right time to improve the situation. While it will take time to reverse the hypersaline plume in an environmentally responsible manner, this new data will help us achieve faster results and allow us to leverage the progress we are already making."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.
