BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
The city of Starke would promote the advantages of living and doing business here than still defending itself from complaints about high electricity rates.
In January, General Manager Drew Mullins told commissioners Starke finished 2024 with one of the lowest average electric bills out of 33 municipal members of the Florida Municipal Power Agency and lower than all investor-owned utilities in the state.
The report came after news that Bradford County’s government was working with a consultant to improve the efficiency of its facilities and operations to reduce its annual utility costs. Among the issues the consultant listed were high electric rates.
Commissioner Bob Milner, the former sheriff, reminded everyone that his bill for the jail included all utilities and services water, sewer and garbage collection, not just electricity, although that was not mentioned. Commissioner Scott Roberts said the narrative about high electric rates was a thing of the past, and the city needs to be proactive about sharing the positive, including system reliability and quick restoration following outages.
Starke officials are sensitive to the city’s reputation for having high electric rates — a reputation that makes it more difficult to attract new residents and businesses. It persists though it has been years since citizens came to meetings complaining that the fuel adjustment charge was doubling their electric bills and businesses left saying it was too expensive to stay. 
The price of the natural gas used to generate most of electricity purchased as an FMPA member was never something the city commission could control, but changes in the way the agency contracted to purchase that fuel has been able to lock in lower prices in a volatile market.
In February, Mullins updated the commission following an FMPA strategic planning session he attended with Mayor Andy Redding. Saying the agency’s mission is to provide reliable low-cost energy to its members, Mullins touted the rate stabilization program, which kicked off in the 2022 at a time, he said, when natural gas prices were “insane.”
To help stabilize the cost of generation against market fluctuations, he said FMPA contracts up to 75% of its gas purchases up front at a fixed long-term price. This winter 60% of purchases were at this price. The result was a nearly 30% savings on wholesale power prices, with members paying $85.50 per Megawatt-hour instead of $110. That means bills were 30% lower than they would have been otherwise, according to Mullins.
“This is an enormous savings for our customers versus what we saw in 2022 when natural gas prices were above $9,” he said. “Investor-owned utilities like FPL aren’t able to do this and combined with other factors, that results in higher electric rates than municipal-owned electric utilities like Starke.”
“As a result of measures FMPA has taken to stabilize pricing, our current rates are near the same level as 2015 even considering inflation,” Redding said.
Last year, residential bill comparisons from January to December showed the average municipal electric bill was $122.29 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours. There were only eight other cities more affordable than Starke, and like Starke, all of them were under $120. Only Alachua was under $100. On the other hand, investor-owned utilities in Florida averaged $148.47 for the same amount of power during the same period.
To further illustrate the pricing trend Florida municipal electric utilities were higher on average than the U.S. average and investor-owned utilities in 2010, with cities being at $120 per 1,000 kWh, the U.S. at $115 and IOUs at $109. By 2024, Florida municipal utilities bills increased just 2%, compared to 28% at the state’s IOUs and 43% across the U.S.
As for reliability of the system, FMPA has recognized Starke as one of 13 out of 33 members with a record of restoring power in under 60 minutes, according to Mullins.
“Our restoration time has been under 50 minutes, which is a testament of the investments and dedication of staff. Being the oldest municipal power provider in the state, I am extremely proud of the work that has been done for this accomplishment,” he said.
Contributing to this success is the city’s investment in the system, including extensive annual tree trimming, upgrading of equipment, pole replacements, circuit rerouting, and staff training and retention.
Eighty-two percent of FMPA’s power is generated with natural gas, and that is expected to grow to 85% by 2033. It is the only provider for which that is true, according to the presentation shared by Mullins. While FMPA does have a plan to increase generation using solar power from 1% to 9% by 2033, others are moving at a faster rate. Florida Power and Light plans to increase its solar generation from 6% to 38%, reducing its reliance on natural gas to 42% within 10 years. By that time, 31% of the state’s power could be generated by solar, compared to 5% now. Nuclear generation (around 20% of FPL’s and 11% of statewide generation) will remain relatively unchanged.
Only time will tell what that means for electric customers.
