OUC’s clean-energy plan criticized for rushed timeline, lack of transparency

Critics say a clean-energy plan set for approval by Orlando Utilities Commission is on a rushed timeline with analysis being kept secret, lacks commitment to energy efficiency and is setting a pathway for gutting motivation for residents to install rooftop solar panels.

OUC announced recently that it will quit using coal by 2027 at its landmark power plants in east Orange County. Those two units are to be converted to run on natural gas as part of a proposed utility schedule to reduce climate-heating carbon emissions 50 percent by 2030 and entirely by 2050.

Encouraged by city leaders, those moves are specified in the utility’s Electric Integrated Resource Plan, or EIRP, which was produced from more than $1 million in studies, customer engagements and utility analysis by industry consultants since last year.

But OUC’s plan lacks in public accountability and technical details and appears to ensure risky dependency on fossil fuels, said David Schlissel, director of resource planning at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an international, nonprofit think tank focused on accelerating a sustainable and profitable energy economy.

Schlissel said his review of OUC’s proposed energy plan, an exercise his organization routinely performs, was prompted by a request of members of Poder Latinx, a community activism group.

“The proposed resource plan is a black box, lacking the information needed to verify its key results and conclusions,” Schlissel said.

Schlissel said that it’s possible that converting OUC’s coal-burning power plants to run on natural gas may result in highly inefficient generators that emit enormous amounts of carbon dioxide.

“If you have confidence in your analysis and in your consultants then you are OK sharing their data, sharing their work papers and their results,” Schlissel said. “I’ve been doing this work for 47 years and when somebody doesn’t want to give me something in terms of data or work papers, it makes me suspicious.”

OUC spokesman Tim Trudell said data and analysis is available to anyone who asks for it. But Susannah Randolph, a Sierra Club senior campaign representative in Florida, said their attorney also has been denied study data produced by OUC’s consultant, Siemens Industry Inc.

OUC told Sierra in an email late last month: “It is Siemens’ position the spreadsheets, modeling information, and other analysis is their proprietary toolset. It was not provided to OUC or included as a deliverable in the contract; therefore, Siemens does not consider the analysis tools and spreadsheets public records.”

While OUC’s board is set to vote on adopting the energy plan during a meeting Tuesday, many people who have reviewed it are calling for more time for public consideration.

Michael Cohen, an Orlando resident and co-founder of the nonprofit group Solar United Neighbors of Florida, which encourages household installation of solar panels, is worried the plan would undermine the prospects for solar energy pursued by customers.

Cohen said OUC’s energy plan would set the stage for the eventual elimination of the utility’s policy of “net metering,” or crediting customers the retail rate of electricity – about a dime per kilowatt-hour – when their solar panels produce extra power that flows back into OUC’s system.

OUC would likely switch to crediting customers the wholesale rate of electricity, or a few cents per kilowatt hour, Cohen said.

That would greatly discourage residents from installing solar panels on their rooftops at a time when they would be needed most to solve the city’s clean-energy needs, Cohen said.

Cohen said he plans to appear before Orlando’s mayor and council Monday to urge them to support continuation of net metering.

If the energy plan is not delayed and modified, Cohen said, “then OUC, its leadership, the EIRP, net metering and energy efficiency will be key issues in the next mayoral race.”

OUC’s Trudell said there is no current proposal for doing away with net metering.

Gordon Spears, who was appointed by OUC to an advisory committee for the development of an energy plan, also said he is concerned about the fate of net metering.

Solar panels on rooftop would significantly lessen the amount of landscape needed for OUC solar plants, Spears said.

“OUC’s preferred plan would entail the destruction of undeveloped natural habitat and productive farmland to build vast solar farms nearly the size of the current city itself,” Spears said. “This will be vigorously opposed by conservation groups.”

An ongoing source of strife between environmental groups and OUC hinges on the degree of effort and investment the utility devotes to helping customers use less electricity and reduce their power bills.

Susan Glickman, Florida director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said under OUC’s proposed energy plan, the utility would invest in and strive for even less energy efficiency than currently pursued.

Also troubling, Glickman said, is that OUC is planning to spend tens of millions of dollars on converting the coal plants to run on natural gas. But the utility never examined the possible energy advantages from investing that much in energy efficiency, she said. “We can do better,” Glickman said.

OUC’s Trudell said the utility will pursue further improvement in energy efficiency. “We want to make sure we are spending our money wisely,” he said.

Randolph of the Sierra Club urged OUC to shut down coal use but to delay moving forward with convert generators from coal to natural gas and instead to put out a request for proposals on renewal-energy options.

“With a new federal administration committed to tackling climate change and bolstering renewable energy, the market for renewables and energy storage will only get better, and cheaper,” Randolph said.

kspear@orlandosentinel.com

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