Agreement to begin January 2018 will reduce city’s wholesale power costs

ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 24, 2017 – The city of Bartow will see lower wholesale electric costs in 2018 since city officials negotiated new five-year agreements for purchasing wholesale power from the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) and the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC). Bartow’s City Commission approved the agreements on Monday, and FMPA’s Executive Committee approved the contract today.

“Municipals helping other municipals is what FMPA was founded on,” said FMPA General Manager and CEO Jacob Williams. “We worked with the city of Bartow to find the best option for low-cost, reliable wholesale power, and we are honored to come to an agreement that will save money for the city and its residents.”

Bartow received 51 bids from 24 power generators in a competitive bidding process. The lowest price option was a combination of FMPA’s five-year bids with OUC’s three-year bid.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2018, OUC will supply Bartow with up to 40 megawatts of electricity. When demand exceeds that amount, such as on a hot afternoon or cold morning, FMPA will supply 20 megawatts, and potentially more, to fulfill the city’s power needs. In 2021 and 2022, Bartow will purchase all of its power from FMPA.

FMPA currently provides all the wholesale power needs for 13 Florida cities, and partial power supply needs for an additional six cities. Serving the power supply needs of other municipal electric utilities, such as Bartow, is an opportunity for the Agency to optimize its generation resources as part of FMPA’s strategic plan to lower electric costs and to keep rates affordable for its customer-owners.

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Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) is a wholesale power agency owned by 31 municipal electric utilities. FMPA’s mission is to provide power that is competitively priced, reliable and clean, as well as provide value-added services for its owner-customers. The 31 members of FMPA serve approximately two million Floridians and employ nearly 3,300 people.