Higher fuel costs will force Floridians to accept bigger electricity bills next year. But homeowners and renters can take back some control over their monthly energy expenses ― besides extreme behavior changes — by making sure their abode is as energy efficient as possible.

Some measures can be as simple and inexpensive as switching to LED lightbulbs or using a low-flow shower head. Bigger investments like an efficient air conditioner or home insulation to reduce heating and cooling costs require larger up-front payments and can be cost-prohibitive for lower-income residents, but utility-offered incentives may sweeten the deal.

Florida Power & Light’s current offerings include a $150 rebate for a new energy-efficient air conditioning unit, a $220 rebate for ceiling insulation and an energy-management program that could save a customer up to $90 a year in savings by letting the utility temporarily turn off A/C or certain appliances during extremely high demand. The utility also offers free home energy audits to determine what efficiency improvements the homeowner could make. These changes might be more palatable to residents than more drastic measures like stopping use of the air conditioner or being militant about unplugging devices from the outlet after use.

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Now the rule that for the past three decades has dictated Florida utilities’ energy efficiency goals and the incentives or information they offer customers is getting an upgrade by the Florida Public Service Commission. But energy conservation advocates feel the proposed changes the PSC is taking a look at don't go far enough to require utilities to broaden access to these home improvements.

“There’s a lot of potential to capture energy savings through utility-sponsored energy efficiency programs because, after all, they have the best relationship with the customer,” said George Cavros, Florida director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The current incentives are “so weak that they don’t drive behavior and they don’t meaningfully help customers,” Cavros added, leading to more energy being used, more power plants needed and increased exposure to volatile fuel costs.

Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest electric utility, expects to ask the commission in January for permission to charge its customers about $2 billion in under-recovered fuel costs for all of 2022.

Florida’s electric utilities offer energy efficiency programs, such as rebates and information on these types of improvements, because of the Florida Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act. Passed in 1980, the purpose of the law was to promote reduced energy use that would in turn lower electricity demand and, ultimately, the need to spend billions of dollars more on power plants, as well as the fuel to power them.

The PSC sets electric utilities’ goals every five years for a 10-year period, and requires those utilities to propose programs that will help them meet those goals.

“It was a good start, but it’s just stayed static and hasn’t grown,” said Dan York, senior fellow at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a Washington, D.C.-based research nonprofit.

What sparked the commission to reassess the energy efficiency rule for Florida utilities was a utilities-sponsored 2019 proposal for zero or near-zero energy efficiency goals. The utilities had argued that building codes and new appliances would do a better job of cutting back electricity usage than any rebate they would provide.

But energy conservation advocates say the proposal, even after two years of receiving feedback, doesn’t make meaningful changes and would effectively codify the status quo.

“If these outdated practices continue, they're going to lock in unnecessarily high bills for Florida families and businesses for many years to come,” Cavros said.

Energy conservation advocates want to see two major changes in the Florida rule

Instead, Cavros and other energy conservation advocates want to see two major changes in the rule.

First, the draft rule would still allow for the heavy reliance on what’s called a “ratepayer impact measure” test. This benchmark essentially considers energy-efficiency programs as lost revenue that needs to be recovered by increased rates. Florida is the only state that uses this as a primary cost-effectiveness test, the advocates said. They point out that viewing energy efficiency as lost revenue, rather than savings, deflates momentum behind programs to reduce electric consumption.

The second is the use of what is known as the two-year payback standard in determining goals for the utilities. This analysis suggests that consumers will implement certain improvements on their own and without an incentive if it pays for itself within two years.

“Especially if you’re a low-income customer, you’re not doing a calculation of a simple payback when you’re at the hardware store,” Cavros said. “A lot of these folks are just trying to put food on the table.”

In fact, advocates also call for utilities to do more to create energy-efficiency opportunities for their lower-income customers, whether that’s dedicating a certain percentage of money spent on these programs or setting a goal for a percentage of energy savings to come from these customers.

Florida Power & Light ranked 51st in energy-efficiency performance out of the 52 largest investor-owned utilities in the U.S. in 2020 due to the lack of investment in these types of programs, according to an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

“If the commission staff really takes to heart our suggestions, it will improve all ratepayers because even if you’re not creating efficiency in your home or business, if your neighbor is doing that, that supports the resilience of the grid. It does come back to that concept that every little bit counts,” said Alyson Laura, project manager for Florida advocacy for the Atlanta-based nonprofit Southface Institute.

Juno Beach-based FPL supports the proposed draft rule because it would allow for the simultaneous approval of goals and programs and let Florida’s electric utilities “bring innovative programs to our customers while continuing to keep rates low,” said spokesperson Chris McGrath.

All customers pay for their utility-sponsored efficiency programs through their monthly bills. And because of this, FPL “continues to support cost-effective conservation programs that benefit all customers regardless of whether they participate,” McGrath added.

“We have long believed that empowering our customers to make energy-efficient choices that are right for them is a better approach than charging higher electric rates to pay for inefficient programs that only some customers can use,” he said.

For a short time, FPL had a solar rebate program that, between 2011 and 2013, gave nearly 4,000 customers an average of $7,535 in rebates for solar panels or solar water heating equipment. That program ended in 2014 because the commission agreed with utilities that it was not cost-effective and only benefited a small portion of customers who could afford the panels. Also, during the time the rebate was offered, about 1,200 customers from FPL, Duke Energy Florida and Tampa Electric Co. invested in solar panels without the rebate.

Over the next two decades, separate from the Florida Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act requirement, FPL plans to wean itself off of its reliance on natural gas with a goal of producing 99% of its electricity from non-carbon-emitting sources.

While that would eventually inject some much-needed stability for customers against the ups and down in pricing for natural gas, FPL's largest power plant fuel source, it still requires FPL to build more clean energy facilities, and in doing so the utility makes a profit. FPL also plans to increase its solar generation capacity from 4,000 megawatts today to 90,000 megawatts. The utility is also investing in expanded battery storage, a reserve of solar power at night and on cloudy days, from 500 megawatts to 50,000 megawatts.

More than 1 million customers have engaged in FPL’s energy-efficiency programs, McGrath said. Doing so has prevented the need for generating units that provide 6,600 megawatts, equivalent to roughly three or four natural gas power plants or 86 solar power fields.

The utility’s energy efficiency programs through 2021 have reduced summer peak demand by 5,500 megawatts and overall saved 95,000 gigawatt hours of energy, FPL said.

Still, energy conservation advocates say utilities should lead the way to help more customers become more energy-efficient. PSC commissioners are likely to finalize the rule next year.

“Efficiency is always the least costly resource, compared to building new solar panels or building a new natural gas plant,” Laura said. “Every kilowatt hour that we save doesn’t need to be produced elsewhere.”

Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Energy conservation advocates say rule won't help Florida consumers