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The Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) is the largest electric utility company in the United States. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida, the company serves approximately 5.9 million accounts, totaling approximately 12 million people. As of 2023, FPL had 114 electricity generation facilities with a generating capacity of approximately 33,276 megawatts.

PA Consulting rated FPL as the most reliable electric utility in the United States six times from 20142021.

Early years
Early power stations in Florida were primarily used to manufacture ice and sold excess power during off-hours from manufacturing. By the 1920s, demand for power had grown sufficiently that the excess power produced by the ice plants no longer met the need. During 19241925, American Power & Light (APL) purchased power stations in Florida and connected them to provide more consistent power in the network. In December 1925, APL spun off its Florida properties into a new subsidiary, FPL, to replace the Miami Beach Electric Company. The following year, a hurricane hit Miami, damaging much of the electrical infrastructure. APL paid to repair the damage and build two new power stations. By early 1927, FPL had 115,000 customers.

19502009
The company continued to expand its customer base and generating power, and in 1950 became independently listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, FPL built new power stations, including Florida's first nuclear power plant at Turkey Point, which began operation in October 1972. The company launched the Watt-Wise home energy audit program in 1978, designed to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy demand during peak demand.

In 1984, FPL created the holding company FPL Group for acquisitions and the creation of companies. FPL became the first non-Japanese company to win the Deming Prize for quality in 1989.

In 1990, FPL Group began expanding its reach beyond Florida, purchasing a majority stake in a Georgia Power generation facility that year. Over the course of the next two decades, FPL expanded into the southern and eastern United States, creating a new holding group in 1998, FPL Energy, to manage the company's efforts in electricity markets outside of FPL's service area. It acquired a controlling stake in New Hampshire's Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in 2002 and acquired Texas-based Gexa Energy in 2005. The company also launched the telecommunications subsidiary FPL FiberNet during this time. FPL's customer base reached 4 million in 2002.

During the early 2000s, FPL began modernizing its power generation infrastructure, resulting in reduced emissions of flue gas, fuel costs, and oil usage; by 2013, the company was using fewer than 1 million barrels of oil annually. In 2007, the company was the largest utility in Florida. That year, the Florida Public Service Commission rejected an FPL proposal to build a coal-fired power station near Moore Haven, Florida.

At the end of the 2000s, FPL Group and FPL Energy rebranded and were renamed NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Resources, respectively.

2009present
In 2009, the company started installing smart meters, which communicate with FPL via radio transmissions and provide alerts for outages. The same year, environmental activists camped near the Barley Barber Swamp in protest of the closure of the swamp to public access. The activists claimed FPL was draining the area; the company denied the allegations and said it was working with state and local officials to reopen the area to the public. Seventeen protesters were arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest during the demonstration.

In 2011, FPL razed an old power station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the outflow from which warmed the surrounding area and attracted manatees. Following the plant's destruction, the company added pumps and heaters to the area to maintain the environment for the manatees while a new plant was built. Similar replacement projects were undertaken at plants in Riviera Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Following completion of the Riviera Beach project, FPL built the Manatee Education Center and observation area near the plant in 2016.

FPL built the first hybrid solar plant in the world in 2011, which combined solar thermal collectors with combined cycle natural gas generation. The plant, located in Martin County, Florida, had a generation capacity of 75 megawatts. It was decommissioned in 2023. By 2013, FPL owned $34.8 billion in assets and operated 23 plants that generated 24,000 megawatts of electricity. As of 2014, the company had installed 4.9 million smart meters.

Consulting firm Matrix LLC, of which FPL was a client, allegedly surveilled a Florida Times-Union columnist at home and on vacation in 2019 and 2020, after he wrote critically of FPL's attempts to influence the Jacksonville City Council to approve its acquisition of a local utility. Through a shell company, FPL allegedly offered one Jacksonville City Council member a $250,000 a year job promoting his pet issue of marijuana decriminalization on the condition he resign his council seat.

By 2021, FPL was the largest power utility in the United States. Gulf Power Company merged with FPL in January 2022, after which former Gulf Power customers saw a spike in their electric bills for several months. The company said the rate increase was related to the cost of hurricane recovery and fuel. In June 2023, bills were reduced due to lower than expected fuel costs. The company and the Jacksonville Electric Authority, closed its jointly owned coal power generation at Plant Scherer in 2022. In the same year, FPL began constructing a green hydrogen production facility in Okeechobee, Florida. The same year, FPL proposed a severe winter weather plan critics have argued would create unnecessary costs for consumers, considering the unlikelihood of a severe winter freeze in Florida.

Documents reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel and the Miami Herald in 2022 allegedly revealed that FPL executives used consultants and shell companies to funnel money to the local news website The Capitolist in order to get pro-utility articles and negative coverage about their political enemies published. An investigation by National Public Radio and Floodlight News concluded that FPL allegedly did so through consulting firm Matrix LLC, which also supported positive coverage for itself and FPL-friendly governor Rick Scott in Florida Politics and the Sunshine State News.

Hurricane response
Following the recovery from hurricanes Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma during 20042005, FPL invested more than $3 billion in infrastructure improvements to strengthen its power grid against future storms. These efforts included replacing wooden power poles with concrete structures, replacing ceramic insulators with polymer insulators, the installation of systems to monitor water levels at electrical substations, burying overhead power lines, and installing smart grid devices to monitor service.

In 2018, 4.4 million FPL customers temporarily lost their power due to Hurricane Irma. It took approximately 10 days to restore power to the majority of customers; following Hurricane Wilma in 2005, it took the company 18 days to restore power to 3.2 million customers.

By 2022, 45 percent of FPL's power lines were underground. FPL has also purchased a fleet of remotely controlled air and ground vehicles to inspect damage after storms. It deployed its first unmanned aerial vehicles in 2016 following Hurricane Matthew.

Company overview
FPL is the largest power utility in the United States. In 2023, it provided electrical power to approximately 5.9 million accounts, totaling approximately 12 million people. FPL employs approximately 9,500 people. It had operating revenues of $18.37 billion in 2023. The company is headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida; Armando Pimentel Jr. is the president and chief executive officer.

The company also operates various assistance programs, including an in-house team that connects customers with resources to assist with their bills and the Care to Share program, which provides funds for bills and repairs to the electrical infrastructure of a home.

Power generation
FPL operated 114 generation units as of 2023, with power transmitted along 90,000 miles of power lines. It has a net generating capacity of approximately 33,276 megawatts; of its net capacity, 73 percent is produced by natural gas or dual-fuel plants, 14 percent comes from solar power, and 11 percent comes from nuclear power.

Fossil fuel
FPL owns and operates 44 natural gas generating units and has joint ownership of three coal-fired power stations in Mississippi and Georgia. Its natural gas facilities have a generating capacity of approximately 24,254 megawatts. It operates facilities throughout southern and northwestern Florida, including plants in Cape Canaveral, Port Everglades, Riviera Beach, and Palm Beach County. Each of these plants were commissioned in the 2010s and replaced less-efficient oil burning plants.

During construction, the West County Energy Center power station in Palm Beach County was the subject of protests by environmental activists who claimed the plant would damage the Everglades and contribute to climate change. The plant began operations in 2009, and a further expansion started in 2010.

Nuclear power
FPL owns and operates four nuclear power generators at two sites: Turkey Point, which opened in 1972, and St. Lucie, which opened in 1976. Between October 2007 and January 2008, there were three non-contaminating incidents at the St. Lucie plant. Each incident was contained within the plant and regulators said each situation was handled appropriately.

The company's Turkey Point nuclear facility received criticism in 2015 from some South Florida mayors over concerns about high water usage, insufficient evacuation zones and increased risks from rising sea levels. FPL responded that they were working to find a solution. In 2018, the company received licenses to expand the facility from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Solar power
As of February 2024, FPL owned and operated 66 solar power generation facilities with a generating capacity of approximately 4,803 megawatts. It is the largest collection of solar facilities in the United States. Among these plants is the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center. Comprising more than 90,000 photovoltaic panels, it was the largest power station of its kind in the United States when it was completed. President Barack Obama attended its opening. FPL opened a 74.5 MW solar plant at the Kennedy Space Center in 2021.

In addition to large-scale plants, FPL has built smaller scale solar generation facilities, including solar trees and canopies, through its SolarNow program, as well as 469 megawatts of battery storage.

Advocacy
According to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, several of the top utility companies in Florida, including FPL, have contributed over $12 million towards the election campaigns of state lawmakers since 2010.

FPL contributed $2 million to promote 2016 Florida Amendment 1, which would have preserved the monopoly of utilities on rooftop solar in Florida.

According to records obtained by the Miami Herald and Floodlight, in 2021 FPL lobbied for a bill that would have made changes to net metering in Florida, the policy allowing rooftop solar panel users to offset the cost of solar panels by selling excess power back to utilities like FPL. The bill would have reduced the amount of money rooftop solar owners received for the power generated by their panels and allowed FPL to charge more for facilities fees and access to the power grid. Three days after sending the bill to Florida state senator Jennifer Bradley, FPL parent company NextEra Energy donated US$10,000 to Bradley's political action committee. Bradley filed the bill in the Florida Senate a month after the donation was made, but denied the filing was related to the donation. A version of the bill eliminating credits for net metering passed in March 2022, but was vetoed by Governor Ron DeSantis. Also in 2021, records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel allegedly tied top FPL executives to the political consultants responsible for the "ghost" candidate scandal, promoting spoiler candidates in key races in order to siphon off votes from Democrats.

Philanthropy
FPL has established multiple education-related philanthropic programs. FPL sponsors FIRST Robotics Competitions in Florida, as well as individual robotics teams at schools in its service area. FPL also sponsors a robotics scholarship and scholarships for students in STEM-related programs. Through its NextEra Energy Foundation, FPL provided five $50,000 grants in 2022 to schools in Florida to refit classrooms. It also has a grant program designed to provide teachers with training to more effectively design and share lesson plans for math and science topics.

FPL partners with Student ACES, a nonprofit organization that provides training and job placement in the solar industry.

Recognition
FPL received the Deming Prize in 1989.

J.D. Power rated FPL as the best electric utility in the southern United States in 2016. The agency also recognized FPL for its customer service, ranking it the top residential service provider among southern electric utilities in 2021 and 2022.

In 2019, the Edison Electric Institute recognized the company with its Emergency Assistance Award after FPL sent 900 employees to assist with restoring power in North Carolina after the state was hit by Hurricane Florence.

PA Consulting Group has awarded FPL with its ReliabilityOne award multiple times, ranking it as the most reliable utility company in the U.S. The company won or shared the award six times between 20142021. PA Consulting also recognized FPL for its technological innovation with an award in 2021.