1 1 BEFORE THE FLORIDA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION 2 DOCKET NO. UNDOCKETED 3 In the Matter of 4 RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD (RPS). 5 ___________________________________/ 6 7 ELECTRONIC VERSIONS OF THIS TRANSCRIPT ARE 8 A CONVENIENCE COPY ONLY AND ARE NOT THE OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF THE HEARING. 9 THE .PDF VERSION INCLUDES PREFILED TESTIMONY. 10 11 12 PROCEEDINGS: WORKSHOP 13 14 BEFORE: CHAIRMAN MATTHEW M. CARTER, II COMMISSIONER LISA POLAK EDGAR 15 COMMISSIONER KATRINA J. McMURRIAN COMMISSIONER NANCY ARGENZIANO 16 COMMISSIONER NATHAN A. SKOP 17 DATE: Friday, July 11, 2008 18 19 TIME: Commenced at 9:30 a.m. Concluded at 3:17 p.m. 20 21 PLACE: Betty Easley Conference Center Joseph P. Cresse Hearing Room 148 22 4075 Esplanade Way Tallahassee, Florida 23 24 REPORTED BY: MARY ALLEN NEEL, RPR, FPR 25 2 1 I N D E X 2 PAGE 3 OPENING REMARKS BY CHAIRMAN CARTER 3 4 DISCUSSION OF 2008 AMENDMENTS TO 366.92, F.S. 7 5 PRESENTATIONS BY INTERESTED PARTIES: 6 STEVE ADAMS, Florida Energy and Climate Commission 12 CHRISTY HERIG, Solar Electric Power Association 14 7 CHRISTOPHER MAINGOT, Solar Coalition 30 MICHAEL DOBSON, FREPA 35 8 MARK SINCLAIR, Clean Energy Group 45 GUS CEPERO, Florida Crystals 60 9 CLAY BETHEA, Buckeye Florida 71 MICHELLE CURTIS, Buckeye Florida 76 10 JOHN WILSON, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy 92 ERIC DRAPER, Audobon of Florida 103 11 MIKE BRANCH, Smurfit-Stone Forest Resources 116 VICKI GORDON KAUFMAN, for Wheelabrator 120 12 RENE SILVA, Florida Power & Light 128 BILL ASHBURN, Tampa Electric Company 131 13 BOB McGEE, Gulf Power Company 134 BOB NIEKUM, Progress Energy Florida 143 14 DISCUSSION OF DRAFT DATA REQUEST 148 15 PUBLIC COMMENT: 16 MIKE TWOMEY, for AARP 152 17 ROY RATNER, Atlas Solar Innovations 158 JOE TRESHLER, Covanta Energy 164 18 DISCUSSION OF SCHEDULING, POST-WORKSHOP 167 19 COMMENTS, AND PROCEDURAL MATTERS 20 CLOSING REMARKS BY THE COMMISSIONERS 171 21 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER 181 22 23 24 25 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 CHAIRMAN CARTER: Good morning to everyone. 3 We'll ask everyone to take your seats, and welcome to 4 our workshop on the renewable portfolio standards. 5 And with that, staff, would you read the 6 notice. 7 MS. MILLER: Cindy Miller with the Commission 8 legal staff. Pursuant to notice issued June 27th, 2008, 9 this date, time, and place were set for a Florida Public 10 Service Commission workshop on the renewable portfolio 11 standard. 12 CHAIRMAN CARTER: Commissioners, just kind of 13 a brief statement, and then we'll ask Mr. Futrell to 14 kind of go from there for our staff presentation. 15 Just for the record, the Florida Public 16 Service Commission has a longstanding policy of 17 promoting the use of renewable energy in Florida. 18 Today, given the growing environmental and economic 19 concerns in our state and across our nation, it's even 20 more important that we find ways to utilize renewable 21 generation technology to meet more of our future energy 22 needs. 23 Our Governor and the Legislature have 24 demonstrated support for the development of renewable 25 energy as an important part of an overall state energy 4 1 policy designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 2 increase fuel diversity and energy security, and to 3 encourage capital investment and economic development in 4 our great state. Recently enacted, the energy 5 legislation requires the Commission to submit a 6 renewable portfolio standard rule to the Legislature by 7 February 1 of 2009 for ratification. 8 The purpose of our workshop today is to 9 discuss the renewable portfolio standard requirements of 10 the new energy legislation and hear the stakeholders' 11 specific recommendations for elements of an RPS that 12 should be addressed in the Commission's rule. 13 Commissioners and those of you in the public, this 14 workshop is a opportunity for us to take input from the 15 interested parties who are joining us today to discuss 16 the issues and give direction to our staff on how to 17 move forward on the development of our RPS rule. 18 With that, Mr. Futrell, you're recognized. 19 MR. FUTRELL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mark 20 Futrell with the Commission staff. And before we move 21 into our formal part of our agenda, I would like to just 22 take care of a few housekeeping matters. 23 First, the agenda and all the presentation 24 materials and comments that have been filed prior to the 25 workshop are available to the audience here at this end 5 1 of the workshop. Also, Commissioners, you should have a 2 notebook with all the presentation materials and 3 comments that have been filed. 4 There's a sign-up sheet in the back of the 5 room on this side, and we would appreciate it if all 6 those attending would sign up so we can have a record of 7 your attendance. We keep a list of attendees to our 8 various workshops and use that to notify parties of 9 upcoming Commission events and also documents that have 10 been received and posted onto our website. 11 We are going to make copies of all the 12 materials that are submitted in this workshop on our 13 home page. Hopefully, that will start appearing on 14 Monday, and we invite you to check that out to access 15 those documents. Also, we'll be having post-workshop 16 comments, and those materials will also be posted onto 17 the website. 18 Commissioners, as you recall, four workshops 19 were held last year to gather information on a renewable 20 portfolio standard. These workshops were in many ways 21 conceptual in nature, where the many policy 22 considerations that go into the development of an RPS 23 were discussed. 24 As the Chairman mentioned, the Legislature has 25 given direction on a specific Florida RPS. Going 6 1 forward, we will look to the statute in developing the 2 RPS rule. Ms. Peterson of the staff will give you a 3 description of exactly the contents of this new statute 4 with regard to the RPS rule. 5 We view the Legislature's directions that the 6 RPS covers supply-side renewable resources, and in the 7 energy efficiency goal setting process that the 8 Commission will undertake, that will be the forum for 9 discussing demand-side or customer-side resources. 10 Now, this morning, we'll first hear, as I 11 mentioned, a presentation from Ms. Peterson on the RPS 12 statute, and then we'll look forward to discussion among 13 the parties and Commissioners on several presentations 14 and remarks that parties have signed up to speak on. 15 We'll also have a period at the end of the day for 16 public comment. And also, any other parties who wish to 17 speak, if they would come see staff during the day, 18 during breaks any time, and give us a list of those who 19 want to speak, we'll keep a record, and then we'll have 20 a period of time at the end of the day for that. 21 First we're going to ask Ms. Angela Peterson 22 if she would come forward and provide some remarks on 23 the RPS requirements of the energy bill. 24 CHAIRMAN CARTER: Before Ms. Peterson comes, 25 just as a heads-up, we want to have an opportunity to 7 1 hear from everyone, so we've asked, and I think staff 2 has conveyed to those that are making presentations to 3 kind of keep your presentations within the context of 4 ten minutes. That way we can hear from everyone as well 5 as have a discussion from the bench with the parties. 6 Ms. Peterson, good morning. 7 MS. PETERSON: Good morning. Among other 8 things, House Bill 7135 included many provisions, one of 9 which included and encouraged the development of 10 renewable energy technologies here in Florida. I want 11 to take the opportunity today to discuss what the law 12 says with regard to establishing a renewable portfolio 13 standard, in particular, looking at Section 366.92, 14 which outlines Florida's renewable energy policy. 15 The legislative intent of this section remains 16 the same, and that is to promote the development of 17 renewable energy, to protect the economic viability of 18 existing renewable energy facilities, to diversify the 19 type of fuel used to provide energy, to lessen 20 dependence on natural gas and fuel oil, to minimize the 21 volatility of fuel costs, to encourage investment within 22 the state, improve environmental conditions, and at the 23 same time, to minimize the cost of power supply to 24 electric utilities and their customers. 25 The PSC is directed to adopt rules in order to 8 1 establish a renewable portfolio standard, an RPS for 2 each provider. "Provider" in this case means an 3 investor-owned utility, an IOU. 4 Additionally, each municipal electric utility 5 and rural electric cooperative is to develop its own 6 standards for the promotion, encouragement, and 7 expansion of its renewable energy standard and encourage 8 energy conservation and efficiency measures. These 9 standards are to be identified in a report submitted to 10 the PSC on or before April 1st, 2009, and every year 11 thereafter. 12 Looking at the definitions, the Florida 13 renewable energy resources definition remains the same, 14 that is, electrical, mechanical, or thermal energy 15 produced from a method that uses one or more of the 16 following fuels or energy sources: hydrogen, biomass, 17 solar, geothermal, wind, or ocean energy, waste heat, or 18 hydroelectric power.