THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND GROWTH MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE DIVISION RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTION.
This item supports the County Commission’s Value: Encouraging investments in renewable energy, sustainable practices and environmental protection; and the Goal to: Seek funding for, implement policies and pursue projects promoting, the use of alternative energies and sustainable practices.
Under the Florida Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (FEECA), the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) sets energy conservation goals for the state’s electric utilities every five years. A FEECA proceeding has begun for 2019.
The Resolution urges the Florida Public Service Commission to:
- Establish meaningful energy conservation goals for the state’s utilities.
- Set the numeric conservation goal at 0.33 percent of the previous year’s electricity sales in kilowatt hours (0.33% is the average energy savings rate for utilities in the southeastern United States, excluding Florida).
- Require specific investment in programs to assist low- and moderate-income households.
- Require utilities to share electricity consumption data at the census block level with local governments to allow them to plan and implement local energy conservation programs.
In 2013, prior to the last FEECA proceeding, the Broward County Climate Change Task Force recommended that the Commission to encourage the PSC to set meaningful energy efficiency goals. With authorization from the Commission, Mayor Sharief sent a letter to the PSC stating this position. In late 2014, however, by a vote of three to two, the PSC reduced the existing energy efficiency goals by 90%.
Increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy use are the most effective ways of maintaining and lowering energy costs. However, in many states, including Florida, utility regulations and cost structures effectively incentivize the construction of new power plants in lieu of investments in energy conservation to offset growing demands. From a more global perspective, energy conservation is fundamental to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions needed to address climate change. Broward County has committed to increasing its energy efficiency by 20% and proactively reducing GHG emissions by 82% through diverse initiatives consistent with the Broward County Climate Change Action Plan and the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Action Plan.
With respect to the proposed goal of 0.33%, in 2017, Florida’s energy savings rate was 0.09% of the previous year’s electricity sales in kilowatt-hours, the second-lowest rate among southeastern states. The southeastern regional average without Florida was 0.33%, and the national average energy savings rate was 0.72%. Thirteen states achieved an energy savings rate of 1% or more, led by Vermont, with a rate of 3.33%.1 Hence, a goal for Florida utilities of 0.33% is deemed a reasonable and achievable target.
The Resolution also emphasizes the need for additional transparency in reporting and access to energy data. Local governments face difficulty obtaining detailed consumption data from utilities for energy planning and programming purposes. Privacy concerns have been cited as one of the main barriers to data sharing, however successful models from within the state include reporting of residential electric usage by property address through the Gainesville-Green.com website provided by Gainesville Regional Utilities. The Resolution calls for the PSC to require utilities to provide data at the census-block level (e.g., most likely containing several dozen buildings), anonymized to alleviate any privacy concerns. With this information, local governments could better design their own policies and programs to help homeowners and businesses conserve energy.
On May 16, 2019, the Climate Change Task Force voted to approve a substantially similar draft of this Resolution, recommending adoption of the Resolution by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners.
Reference:
1 Weston Berg, Seth Nowak, Grace Relf, Shruti Vaidyanathan, Eric Junga, Marianne DiMascio, and Emma Cooper, 2018 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, Report U1808, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, October 2018.
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