West County Energy Center — Frequently Asked Questions

1. How many customers does FPL serve and what is the company doing to meet overall growth?

FPL presently serves about 4.5 million customers or about eight million people. FPL is adding approximately 85,000 customers each year to the FPL service territory. Additionally, our customers are using about 30 percent more electricity than just 20 years ago. FPL’s customer base is expected to grow to 5.5 million by 2020. We continue to meet our customers’ growing power needs by encouraging energy efficiency, taking advantage of new technologies to get more power from existing generation facilities (repowering) and building new generation facilities when appropriate.

FPL files a 10-year plan every year with the Florida Public Service Commission that outlines how we’ll meet these energy needs. The West County Energy Center is an important element in our plan to add more clean power to our generating fleet.

2. Why not respond to growing customer power needs with more energy efficiency?

Indeed, FPL encourages all customers to take advantage of our industry leading energy efficiency programs. Energy efficiency is important because 1) it will help you gain control over the use of electricity and, of course, the electric bill 2) it reduces our dependence on fossil fuels needed to produce electricity and reduces CO2 emissions and 3) it helps defer the need to build new generation.

FPL is the recognized U.S. Leader in energy efficiency, but this alone can’t offset growing demands for electricity. A Dept. of Energy study shows FPL is the nation’s top utility for energy conservation. Our customers represent about three percent of the U.S. population, yet we have delivered 13 percent of the utility industry’s conservation efforts.

FPL invests more than $100 million each year in energy efficiency programs for our customers. Energy efficiency efforts brought about by partnering with our customers have eliminated the need to build 11 power plants over the last two decades. Recently added energy management opportunities for both residential and business customers promises to save enough energy through 2014 to enable us to forgo building nearly 4 more medium size power plants.

Visit our web site at www.FPL.com to find out how you can take advantage of these programs to control energy use at your home or business.

3. Florida is nicknamed the Sunshine State. Why don’t you use more solar power or other renewable resources to keep up with the growing power needs?

Most people don’t realize that FPL has made use of renewable energy resources for years. FPL purchases more than 30 megawatts of power from renewable facilities annually, and we’re working to purchase even more. As a matter of fact, we’ve recently issued a request for proposals to incorporate more renewable energy, including solar, into our fuel mix.

FPL supports pilot projects in solar photovoltaic technology in an effort to provide platforms to refine the technology and reduce its cost.FPL is now moving ahead with three commercial solar energy projects in Florida, including one that will be the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant and another that will be the first “hybrid” energy center, coupling solar thermal technology with an existing combined-cycle generation unit.

With our solar projects, FPL is expanding the use of renewable energy in Florida and demonstrating our commitment to our customers. Solar power will increase the amount of clean, renewable energy while decreasing greenhouse emissions and displacing the use of oil and natural gas. The three solar projects combined will prevent the release of nearly 3.5 million tons of greenhouse gases over the life of the project, the equivalent of removing 25,000 cars from the road per year and will make Florida No. 2 in the nation in the generation of solar power. Additionally, we are actively looking into a site to construct wind power facility in Florida, likely to be located somewhere on the east coast

Other uses of renewable energy in Florida include waste-to-energy plants, facilities that harness methane gas from landfills and biomass waste such as sugar cane and wood chips. Unfortunately, large scale wind, geothermal and hydro-power generation are neither readily available, nor financially viable in Florida at this time.

4. When was the last time FPL added new generation in Palm Beach County?

FPL has not added any power generating facilities in Palm Beach County since the 1960s. In fact, the only FPL generating facility in Palm Beach County is the Riviera Beach Power Plant, which produces about 556 megawatts of power or enough to serve about 111,000 homes and businesses.

5. What is the West County Energy Center?

The West County Energy Center presently under construction in western Palm Beach County, is a clean burning natural gas power plant. Two units are presently under construction. A third unit is proposed.

6. Where is the West County Energy Center located?

The plant is located in western Palm Beach County, off of State Road 80 (Southern Boulevard) about 20 miles inland from the coast. The plant site, which was zoned for power plant use by Palm Beach County in 2000, is located within an area formerly used for an aggregate mining operation. Other portions of the site are no longer actively mined are being put to good use by the construction of water storage facilities for the South Florida Water Management District.

7. What regulatory approvals did FPL have to go through in order to build Units 1 and 2?

The siting of the plant followed a rigorous 22 month regulatory and governmental agency review. Among the reviewing agencies were the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, South Florida Water management District, South Florida Regional Planning Council, Palm Beach County, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Department of Community Affairs, Florida Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The process ended with final approval by the governor and Cabinet in late December 2006.

8. When will the West County Energy Center be operational?

The project continues on track to bring the two units under construction into service between 2009 and 2010. If approved, Unit 3 will be able to begin supplying customers with electricity in 2011.

9. How much power will be produced at the West County Energy Center?

Once completed each unit will produce about 1,250 megawatts of power. That means each unit would be capable of supplying power to about 250,000 homes and businesses.

10. Will the West County Energy Center generate CO2 emissions?

Yes. All fossil fuel power plants generate a certain amount of CO2 (greenhouse gasses). However, because the plant will be so highly efficient the addition of it to the FPL fleet will cause the company’s overall CO2 profile to diminish, resulting in a net reduction in carbon emissions. Overall, due to the efficiency of the FPL power plant fleet, CO2 per megawatt-hour will actually decrease. Further the natural gas units at the plant will emit CO2 at a rate well below the proposed standards in California, a state that’s an acknowledged clean energy leader. Now, Gov. Crist is spearheading a new clean energy future for our state. FPL is well-positioned to support and advance that vision. In fact, we’ve been doing so for years.

For more information on the company’s position on climate change and what we’re doing at FPL Group to address emissions visit www.FPLGroup.com and click on the climate change banner in the center of the page.