Florida's three largest electric utilities are seeking regulatory approval to recover hundreds of millions from ratepayers for proposed storm hardening projects as the East Coast enters another hurricane season.

Duke Energy Florida LLC, Florida Power & Light Co. and Tampa Electric Co. filed proposals with the Florida Public Service Commission for 2023 projects intended to improve grid reliability as part of the utilities' storm protection plans. The projects include underground transmission lines, vegetation management and strengthening existing infrastructure, such as overhead lines and substations. (Docket No. 20220010-EI)

Florida Power & Light, or FPL, is looking to recover about $368.7 million in storm protection plan projects in 2023. The NextEra Energy Inc. utility subsidiary did not provide many project-level details, since the specific projects that will be completed in 2023 could vary based on weather events, permitting, resource constraints and other factors, according to testimony from Michael Jarro, FPL vice president of distribution operations.

Duke Energy Corp.'s Florida utility is requesting recovery of about $142.8 million in storm protection plan project costs in 2023. Projects include "distribution feeder hardening, lateral hardening, self-optimizing grid, underground flood mitigation and vegetation management," according to testimony from Christopher Menendez, Duke Energy Florida director of rates and regulatory planning.

Emera Inc. subsidiary Tampa Electric is seeking about $53.6 million in cost recovery for storm protection projects in 2023. They include undergrounding existing power lines; replacing remaining wood transmission poles with non-wood poles; vegetation management; hardening substations vulnerable to floods and storm surge; hardening overhead feeder systems; and improving transmission facility access during outages, according to testimony from David Plusquellic, Tampa Electric storm protection project manager.

"Tampa Electric's distribution lateral undergrounding program will convert existing overhead distribution lateral facilities to underground to increase the resiliency and reliability of the distribution system," Plusquellic said in written testimony.

The requests by FPL, Duke and Tampa Electric are based on the utilities' individual 2023-32 storm protection plans all filed in April, which outline grid resiliency plans over the 10-year period and are pending regulatory approval. (Dockets No. 20220051, 20220050 and 20220048).

Previously, Florida utilities incorporated these costs in base electric rate cases, but state legislation enacted in 2019 after hurricanes Irma and Michael separated the processes. Utilities are now required to file long-term storm protection plans to recover the costs of projects intended to strengthen and defend the power grid.

"It is in the state's interest to strengthen electric utility infrastructure to withstand extreme weather conditions by promoting the overhead hardening of electrical transmission and distribution facilities, the undergrounding of certain electrical distribution lines and vegetation management," Senate Bill 796 reads. "Protecting and strengthening transmission and distribution electric utility infrastructure from extreme weather conditions can effectively reduce restoration costs and outage times to customers and improve overall service reliability."

Those plans, and subsequent recovery of costs, are subject to prudence review and approval by the PSC.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its 2022 Atlantic hurricane season forecast May 24, including the potential for as many as six major hurricanes, classified as Category 3, 4 or 5 with winds of 111 mph or greater, as atmospheric and oceanic conditions remain conducive for a busy season. The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

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