Lake Worth raised electric rates to cope with rising power costs

Lake Worth Beach could cut electric rate under these conditions

Chris Persaud, Palm Beach Post

A fee on Lake Worth Beach electric customers' bills, which city officials raised months ago in the face of an unexpected winter chill, is slowly bringing the city-owned utility out of a six-figure financial hole, fueling hope that the rate can be cut again.

The hike to the utility's power cost adjustment fee netted nearly $271,000 from its nearly 30,000 customers in March, the first month it was in place, a recent report shows. That's the largest amount collected in at least two years.

The utility buys fuel and energy with money it collects through the fee, and it also aims to build savings in case either of surges in energy prices or electricity demand. Lake Worth Beach is Palm Beach County's only city generating its own electricity.

City commissioners approved the increase Jan. 29, anticipating a spike in energy demand due to a giant blast of winter air. But commissioners also voted for the rate hike after data presented to them by utility director Ed Liberty showed energy purchases cost more than the power cost adjustment fee brought in.

The utility spent $1.2 million more than the fee collected during 2025. The power cost adjustment fee in 2025 rose from $24.38 per megawatt in January to $33.96 by the end of year, before reaching $40.96 in March this year. The fee mainly pays for natural gas and solar power.

While Lake Worth Beach gets less of its energy from natural gas compared to other places — about 32% during the first quarter of 2026 vs. 70% for Florida Power & Light Co. in 2025.

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New President of FMEA, Ed Liberty Lake Worth Beach

Lake Worth Beach's Utility Director, Ed Liberty, elected as President of FEMA

The Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) has elected a new executive board to lead the organization over the coming year. And Lake Worth couldn't be more prowd.

FMEA represents Florida’s community-owned electric utilities — from large cities like Jacksonville and Orlando to small towns such as Wauchula and Havana — which collectively serve 4 million customers and employ more than 5,800 Floridians.

The association actively represents and advocates for member cities’ interests on a wide variety of state and federal issues, provides emergency response and mutual aid coordination, provides education and training for members and serves as a clearinghouse for industry news and information.

Read about it...

I sent Mr. Liberty a congratulatory e-mail and he wrote back that a new tie-line for Lake Worth Electric Utility was installed yesterday at the Canal Substation on Davis Road…huge project visible from Davis Road. Massive poles connected on Lake Worth Road and 6th Avenue South also installed that go all the way to Military Trail.

Lake Worth Beach new Electric System Operations Center

City of Lake Worth Beach's new Electric System Operations Center

The City of Lake Worth Beach is excited to announce our new Electric System Operations Center (ESOC) is now officially completed and has been placed in service. This new facility significantly modernizes our operations and allows us to better serve our customers.

“Our new Electric System Operations Center (ESOC) is now officially completed and has been placed in service”, says Ed Liberty, Lake Worth Beach’s Electric Utility Director. “Housed within an existing City facility, this long-awaited new facility is the culmination of years of planning and preparation by various Lake Worth Beach Electric Utility departments. Team members from our System Operations, the Power Plant team, Engineering, Operational Technology, and Project Management Office helped design the facility and coordinated efforts to successfully transition all operations from the prior location.”

The new ESOC provides our electric utility with a modern, storm hardened and secure environment from which to monitor all aspects of the operation of our electric transmission and distribution system. Staffed around the clock, seven days per week, by a rotating team of Electric System Operators who monitor our electric system and dispatch crews to respond to power outages, direct network switching by field personnel, and issue work requests.

“Our new ESOC incorporates all of the technologies we’ve updated and installed over the past few years on a readily viewable and configurable interactive wall of monitors and smart boards that give us a broad overview of the electric system. A wall of interactive monitors tied to servers and multiple system sensors and meters gives us the ability to drill down in detail block by block and more quickly assess problems with our system and rapidly initiate corrective actions. This new facility significantly modernizes our operations and allows us to better serve our customers”, adds Jason Bailey, Assistant Director Electric System Operations.

The project was funded using proceeds from our Series 2020 Consolidated Utility Revenue Bond and is an element of our System Hardening and Reliability Improvement Program.

🔌Congratulations and Thank You to everyone who was involved.

Ed Liberty, Electric Utility Director

Lake Worth Beach to lower Electric rate

PRESS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE UPON RECEIPT
City of Lake Worth Beach
7 North Dixie Highway
Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460
www.lakeworthbeachfl.gov

Contact: Ed Liberty
Phone: 561.586.1631
Email: eliberty@lakeworthbeachfl.gov

February 6, 2024

PRESS RELEASE: Electric Utility Rates

Lake Worth Beach, FL - The City of Lake Worth Beach is pleased to announce that on January 30, 2024, the City Commission voted unanimously to reduce the monthly electric bill for all customers of the City’s electric utility effective March 1, 2024. As a point of reference, a typical customer using 1,000 kWh (kilowatt-hours) of electricity monthly will see a decrease of $6.95 in their bill. Customers will see the reduction in the Purchased Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) line item on their bills.

The decrease in the PCA is reflective of lower natural gas costs associated with the production of electricity to meet the needs of the utility’s customers. By approving this rate decrease, the City Commission of Lake Worth Beach maintains its commitment to constant cost of services evaluation and passing any cost savings on to the customers. Out of the 37 Municipal and IOUs (Investor Owned Utilities), the City’s electric rate is currently the 8th lowest in the State of Florida.

The City Commission also voted to transfer $1 million of PCA working capital to the Rate Stabilization Fund, which will grow the fund to a total of $3.5 million while leaving approximately $600,000 in the PCA working capital account to accommodate short term fluctuations in wholesale energy prices. The Rate Stabilization Fund is intended to provide a source of funds to lessen the impact to customer rates of rapid increases in wholesale energy costs.

Located in central Palm Beach County, Lake Worth Beach is a dynamic, multi-cultural city with an individualistic style. People are drawn to the City by its acceptance of different cultures and lifestyles, historic districts, hip downtown and colorful arts district. ####

Lake Worth Utility Gets a Bundle!

LAKE WORTH BEACH ELECTRIC UTILITY TO RECEIVE $23,462,167

On October 18, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected Lake Worth Beach Electric Utility to receive $23,462,167 to enhance the U.S. power grid's ability to deliver affordable, clean energy to American communities across Lake Worth Beach and surrounding communities.

The funds will advance the ongoing System Hardening and Reliability Improvement Project (SHRIP) which is already reducing outages and providing more stable service to customers of Lake Worth Beach Electric Utility.

For more information...

Electric rates to be reduced in Lake Worth Beach

Commission votes to reduce electric rates for all Lake Worth Beach Utility customers

FPL is raising its rates

On May 2, the city commission voted in approval of reducing the Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) charge on bills for all residential and commercial electric customers effective June 1. This adds to the reductions that went into effect on May 1.

The city commission provided an example stating, "A typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month of electricity will experience a reduction of $7.29 per month in their bills effective May 1, followed by a further reduction of $22.30 per month effective June 1, for a total reduction of $29.59 in time for the summer cooling season."

The water charges and sewer are the ones I am most concerned about.

Read more about it...

Critters causing Power Outages in Lake Worth Beach

Why pesky critters are causing so many power outages in Lake Worth Beach

"In November and December alone, Lake Worth Beach has dealt with four power outages - two caused by raccoons and another two caused by iguanas.

Iguanas and other lizards are the top animal causes of outages in Lake Worth Beach. Squirrels, birds and raccoons are a close second. In 2022, there have been 30 sustained power outages (defined as an outage of more than one minute) from animal contacts caused by iguanas and other lizards (19), birds (nine), raccoons (two) and a snake (one).

Lake Worth Beach often deals with meddling raccoons at power substations that will electrocute themselves and cause major power outages. "Most of the time, it's instant death," Liberty said. "You're talking about 26,000 volts and the result is pretty gruesome."

Read about it... at the Palm Beach Post.

Electric Cost of Service Study

Presentation tonight, July 27, 5pm City Hall on Electric Cost

Placed on the agenda by Sarah Malega--

Based on the analyses in this Report, the proposed rates represent a realignment of costs allocated among the residential and commercial classes.

It is projected that the proposed rates will be sufficient to meet the projected revenue requirements for the fiscal years ending September 30, 2020 through 2023. For certain analyses, the "Test Year" has been identified as the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020.

Recent Electric Outages in Lake Worth

Click to read

Lake Worth Utility Commission Meeting

Lake Worth Electric Utility Commission Meeting Today 1-26

PRESENTATIONS: (there is no public comment on Presentation items)
A. Electric Utility & Customer Service Presentation

• Update on outage caused by private tree trimming at 1029 S G Street on Dec 26, 2020

• Update on Utility Payments and Payment Plans

• 3 Year overview of EU Activities and Progress

• SHRIP Project Example(s)

Lake Worth (Beach) Utility Past-dues

Last call for Lake Worth Beach utility customers with unpaid accounts

Customers of Lake Worth Beach’s utility company with unpaid accounts got a two-week extension to pay their bills or get on the payment plan. Disconnections were slated to begin on July 17, but the city commission agreed Tuesday to effectively lengthen the moratorium on shutoffs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic  through the end of July.

As of Jun 30, there were 1,963 accounts that were past-due. This equated to nearly $1 million.

The Commission on a 4/1 vote rejected a proposal by Commissioner Omari Hardy that would have extended the freeze on disconnects beyond July.

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Lake Worth to have discussion on sale of our Electric Utility

Tomorrow night, the Lake Worth commission meets at 6pm. Under New business, there are four items. I am addressing Item A.

Item A. Commissioner Hardy brought forward this item. He thinks it a good idea to get our Electric Utility "off our plate." He wants the City Commission to deliberate and decide the following two questions:

(1) Should the City Commission engage the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA)
to ascertain whether it and its members will release the City from its obligations to
them for an agreed upon price?
(2) Should the City Commission engage Florida Power and Light to ascertain whether
it is willing to transact with the City and purchase its electric utility assets?

Commissioner Hardy, acting alone without vote or any authorization of the commission,  approached FMPA and FPL.

For a little bit of trivia--In year 2002, we entered into a contract with FMPA that locked us into higher power costs.

The beginning of lowering rates started in December 2008 when we voted to exit FMPA All Requirements. By the end of 2013, we ended our contract with them. In January 2014 we got a new energy provider with Orlando Utilities giving us a rate that was more favorable to Lake Worth and renewed with them in 2018 on a five year contract.

Then what did the commission do? FMPA had been contracted again, this time regarding our solar and signed a Solar Power Sales Contract with FMPA; deliveries began June 2020. FMPA screwed us on the gas line years ago so the City must be masochistic to be back in business with them.

The FMPA solar procurement is a 20-year power purchase agreement. Normally they give option renewals to extend the agreement and I have a Public Information Request for the contract. And good luck with the wish to sell our electric utility to Florida Power & Life (NextEra Energy). It will never happen. They don't want it. We all could have told you that Commissioner Hardy.

Even though we have had some problems with our solar energy program...some people believe it easier to sell the whole damn Electric Utility--easier to get it off our plate. We go through this every decade or less.

Just like there is no systemic racism in Lake Worth Commissioner Hardy, no one wants to sell our utility that has been around since 1914. Any sale of our Utility would take a vote of our electorate.

Immediately following is New Business B, Commissioner Maxwell's Resolution 30-2020 in support of the Lake Worth Electric Utility.

Lake Worth's Electric Utility Meeting

Ed Liberty, Electric Utility Director gave a presentation on how they are getting ready for the storm.  Employees will be working on Saturday should there be any issues. Gearing up and watching it closely. The city is waiting before they shutter up. Reliability has gone up so far in 2019 and they are restoring outages quickly. State wide they are also doing better.

A.  Comcast Pole Attachment & Settlement Agreement
After an audit and a recount of the number of attachments to our poles, it was discovered that Comcast was attached to 7,313 utility poles but only being charged for 4,267.  The city never counted the number of attachments since 1998. Comcast will pay $109,367 for the Settlement. Also the cost of each attachment for 2019 is $12.50 per pole and $16.50 per pole for years 2020 through 2024.

B.  Resolution 46-2019
Extends the deadline for existing Net Metering customers to comply with Resolution 21-2019 to submit the required documentation and signed interconnection agreements by August 30, 2019 as Moratorium will end on that date. Only 21 out of 91 net metering accounts has complied thus the date for compliance is extended to December 31, 2019.

C.  Resolution 45-2019
Amended the rates, credits and billing for Net Metering Accounts. All the accounts in our city must pay for the service to deliver energy to the customer no matter if that owner has disconnected or is using solar. We have already committed to 10 megawatts of solar city-wide.

For all the nitty gritties, please refer to video.

Staff brought up FMEA  So, I wanted to include where we stand state-wide on rate comparisons to FPL.

As the commission is always telling us that our rates are very close to FPL's, here are the facts from the latest report from FMEA of July 2019:

RESIDENTIAL
1,000kwh
Lake Worth: 107.99
FPL: $104.66 including franchise fee

COMMERCIAL:
1,500kwh
Lake Worth: 191.23
FPL: $157.68

Layoffs in Lake Worth (Beach) Utility

Layoffs loom as Lake Worth Beach struggles with electric utility issues

The above is the headline from the Palm Beach Post. As Commissioner Omari Hardy said, “It’s going to be a painful time for the city. The fact that we are even considering layoffs when the economy is ostensibly quite strong shows that, as a city, we are not where we need to be.”

All we talk about is spending money such as a new aquatic center. Fix the pool that we have! Stop insisting that we have to be in parity with FPL. We have to run our electric utility to break-even and have cash for capital projects, etc. Commissioners don't want to take money from the utility and give to the General Fund but they continue to put our electric utility in a financial bind.

Read the Palm Beach Post article

The Costly Situation in Lake Worth (Beach)

The Lake Worth city manager has reminded us that Lake Worth has had decades of neglect that has placed us in the situation we find ourselves in today--falling farther and farther behind the 8 ball. Lake Worth has never maintained anything. When talking about our electric utility and a second tie-line to the statewide electrical grid, Michael Bornstein said  it was undoing 30 to 40 years of neglect. Shocking. Beside our beach property, this is our most important and valuable asset.

They have installed new little palm trees in front of city hall but haven't swept the steps in months which gives a blighted appearance to our government building. If you neglect the little things, you will definitely overlook the big ones. And now Omari Hardy has suggested more than once, that we have a referendum to give the owner of Benny's a 99 year lease on our Pier property.  This is what you do when you can't/won't maintain anything...you find a public/private partnership or another clever way to give up an asset.

Due to all the major and ungodly costly issues in the City of Lake Worth (Beach) such as roads (even a $40 million bond won't fix them all but around 1/3rd),  pool, parking, rebuilding the public works building and another Tie-Line for our Electric Utility (how many millions would this cost?), I have to think that former city commissioner Bo Allen had a viable idea years ago--raze the entire city to the ground and start over.

A few Snipits from last Night's Commission Meeting

Stricter rules on utility deposits? Lake Worth Beach commission tables controversial agenda item

“I don’t think we had a good reason to do this,” said Commissioner Omari Hardy. “I think this gave the city an unnecessary black eye."

See the video at WPTV

During the time I was there last night, which was through Presentations B...discussion of Resolution 34-2012 on Net Metering, (had to get home to see debates), Commissioner Omari Hardy was on his A game. He usually is. He made a motion to move the item to New Business as it was on an important item and he wanted the public to be able to weigh in (no public discussion is allowed under presentations).

The vote was 2/2 and therefore the motion failed. Two of the Trio blocked Hardy from moving it on the Agenda most likely because the city manager was the one who placed it under Presentations. And, they like to stop Hardy's argument at every chance. Mayor Pam Triolo was absent and Vice Mayor Andy Amoroso chaired the meeting. As Commissioner Hardy said, the Resolution was not even in their backup. How do you discuss a resolution when you have no idea what it says?

Ed Liberty, Electric Utility Director, gave an update for the 3rd quarter and discussed Net Metering. There were many residents in the chamber who spoke to the issue, mentioning that we are a "progressive" city and suggesting some of the city's policies are regressive as far as solar.

Meeting tonight on the Electric Utility

$1,400 electric deposit? Lake Worth Beach customers hit with surprise additional deposit

What better article today as the City commission has a meeting tonight at 6pm on the Electric Utility.

Under New business, 8, will be Resolution 36-2019 on utility deposits.

Read about it...

Electric Utility City Commission Meeting

Commission meeting on Tuesday, July 30 on the Electrical Utility

Several items of interest are on the Consent Agenda:

• For years and back in the Becky Mattey days when she was our Utility Director (she gave notice in 2011), we have been talking about and all concur, that Lake Worth needs a 2nd tie-land. Back at the end of 2018, the city commission agreed. An RFP was generated and the Wantman Group was chosen to do the survey. According to the city, the preferred option is to follow the same path as the existing tie-line, Hypoluxo to the Main Tie-Line. Design services will be done by Subsurface Utility engineering Services at a cost not to exceed $89,650.

• Power Engineers will provide engineering services design concept for the new underground 138kv tie-line, cost not to exceed $551,278.

• FMPA is requesting an additional $80,000 for call services for 4 months, June through September. We exited FMPA at the end of 2013 but we are still a part of the contract with them that gives us Call Center Support Services. Also, our Solar Power Sales Contract with FMPA deliveries begin June 2020. I'm assuming that's still in effect.

• There will be an update on the 3rd quarter as well as discussion on Resolution 34-2012 Net Metering.

Emergency Repair on Utility line in Lake Worth

August 2, 2018

Contact:           Ben Kerr, Public Information Officer
Phone:             561.586.1631
Email:              BKerr@lakeworth.org  

Lake Worth, Florida – During a pre-construction inspection, undertaken as part of system hardening activities, Electric Utility staff became aware of the need to perform an immediate emergency repair on a main line. Assessment of the damage made clear the potential for greater damage if the repair was not made immediately. Due to the high risk to repair crews, in the next hour (between 1-2pm), it will be necessary to de-energize a portion of the Lake Worth Electric Utility Service area which will cause an estimated thirty minute outage for 4780 customers located north of 7th Ave N and east of I95.

Lake Worth Electric Utility apologizes for the inconvenience caused by this outage and crews will work rapidly to safely make the repair and restore power to the system.

For more information please call 561.586.1631