ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Duke Energy Florida is celebrating Earth Day by sharing key milestones as part of its clean energy transformation and commitment to the environment, customer affordability and reliability.

“As the energy needs of customers and communities in our state change, we must be ready to meet those needs,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “We believe generating electricity from renewable resources and expanding innovative technologies will play an important role in delivering energy that’s reliable, affordable and increasingly clean.”

In Florida, Duke Energy continues to execute its strategy on renewables, electric vehicles (EVs) and grid investments to benefit customers.

Solar generation commitment

With a combined investment of more than $2 billion, Duke Energy Florida’s solar generation portfolio will include 25 grid-tied solar power plants, which will benefit all Florida customers and will provide about 1,500 megawatts (MW) of emission-free generation and approximately 5 million solar panels in the ground by 2024.

The company is well on its way to a major milestone by placing its 17th solar project in operation by the end of 2022.

The first 10 large projects are projected to lower the emission of global warming gases such as CO₂ at an average rate of over 700,000 tons per year, based on the equivalent reduction in generation from fossil fuels.

Additionally, Duke Energy Florida leads the state in the amount of customer-owned or leased renewable interconnections, which includes processing more than 1,300 customer applications per month.

Duke Energy Florida currently has over 400 MW and more than 46,000 customers with solar generation at their home or business that are relying on the power grid.

Battery energy storage systems

Duke Energy’s battery energy storage plays a significant and evolving role in how electricity is delivered to customers now and in the future. Through energy storage and microgrids, the company can enable the integration of more renewables onto the grid and help improve reliability and security while keeping costs as low as possible for customers.

Earlier this month, Duke Energy Florida announced the completion of three battery projects in Gilchrist, Gulf and Highlands counties. The new sites are part of Duke Energy’s commitment to have six battery sites, totaling 50 MW, operating in Florida this year.

Electric vehicle (EV) charging

In addition to expanding its battery storage technology and solar investments, Duke Energy Florida is investing in transportation electrification to support the growing U.S. adoption of EVs through the addition of 627 EV charging stations, including 52 DC fast chargers (the fastest EV charging option available) and a modernized power grid to deliver diverse and reliable energy solutions to best serve our customers.

To find EV chargers near you, visit the Greenlots app.

Grid improvements

Duke Energy Florida is committed to building a stronger, better protected and smarter electric infrastructure that is more resistant to disruptions from severe weather, as well as physical and cyber threats. The company continues to invest in enhancements such as self-optimizing grid technology, utility pole and power line upgrades, and targeted undergrounding of outage-prone power lines to reduce power outage frequency and duration during extreme weather events and to enhance overall reliability.

In 2021, smart, self-optimizing grid technology in Florida helped avoid more than 250,000 extended customer power outages and saved more than 283,000 hours of total lost outage time.

Learn more about these programs at https://www.duke-energy.com/our-company/florida-future.

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 10,300 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 1.9 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 28,000 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business and at least a 50% carbon reduction from electric generation by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The 2050 net-zero goals also include Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 emissions. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune’s 2022 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list and Forbes’ “America’s Best Employers” list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy’s illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media contact: Audrey Stasko Cell: 315.877.3031 Media line: 800.559.3853

There is a growing gap between the revenues that come from Inverness’ water and sewer services and the costs of keeping the systems operational.

That’s the warning that rate consultants gave the city’s council this spring and which the Inverness Council members will take up Tuesday.

City Manager Frank DiGiovanni said he will ask the council members for the green light to create an ordinance raising the rates for its customers 2.5% annually for the next five years.

Currently, the utilities rates are tied to the country’s consumer price index, which measures changes in the price level of household goods and services.

“This really comes down to what the cost is to deliver services,” DiGiovanni said.

The rate analysis was performed by an independent, third party company, which showed the rates don’t cover the costs to operate the system and needed capital improvements, DiGiovanni said.

“And a 2.5% hike would put us right around the middle (for rates charged by other municipalities)” he said.

Earlier this year, the city hired Maitland-based Public Resources Management Group, Inc. to review the city’s utility rates and $10 million worth of improvements and expansions to the utility. The utilities serve about 4,200 water customers and 2,400 wastewater customers.

“I would probably be in favor of it,” Councilman Cabot McBride told the Chronicle Monday. “It’s just something that needs to be done.”

If the council approves the hike, the plan is for DiGiovanni to create an ordinance allowing for the increase and return for a first reading on the issue during Sept. 3 council meeting.

If the council approves the 2.5% increase, an average residential family would see an increase of $1.53 per month. Currently, the average residential bill for both water and wastewater service is $61.53 per month.

The utility consultants recommended the hike to begin fiscal 2019-2020.

At current rate levels, the revenue from the city’s water and wastewater services for fiscal 2019-2020 is projected to be $3.88 million, according to Public Resources Management Group, Inc. That’s projected to increase to $3.95 million by 2024-2025, due mostly to additional customers.

But while revenues are expected to climb, they won’t be enough to cover expenses beginning in 2020-2021, and will keep lagging further behind through 2024-2025, according to the consultant’s report.

Expenses include the new capital improvements, operating expenses, debt-service payments, and transfers to the general fund.

The utility also pays about $400,000 annually in debt payments for the system.

Projected expenses for both water and wastewater for 2020-2021 are $4 million. Revenues are expected to be about $100,000 short of that by that fiscal year, according to the consultant’s report. The proposed 2.5 percent hike each year would generate enough to cover expenses into 2024-2025.

Capital improvements include proposed new sewer lines along State Road 44 West, new water mains along U.S. 41 and new Inverness Highlands sewer-line extensions.

About one third of Inverness’ residents use septic systems and not the city’s wastewater system.

McBride told the Chronicle that now was a good time to address many of the city’s water issues, including aggressively trying to get state and federal grants to pay for hooking up homes with septic systems to the city’s wastewater treatment system.

“Over the next handful of years that needs to be a priority for the city,” McBride said.

Avoiding the rate hike now to save money would be equivalent to “shooting yourself in the foot. It does not make sense,” he said.

Consultants in May warned the city council that having a predetermined utility rate increase rather than tying rates to the consumer price index would better protect the city.

They also warned that if a recession occurred again and the consumer price index stalls or even falls, revenues would not only fail to generate enough money for the utilities’ capital projects but also have trouble covering other costs.

The rate increase would also be sufficient to help the city’s general fund and generate an additional $50,000 annually to those coffers, according to the report. That means the utility would transfer a total of $525,000 to the general fund in fiscal 2019-2020.

DiGiovanni said the proposed rates would still be well under rates in neighboring counties and cities.

The average combined water and sewer rates for 19 surrounding utilities was $68.07 per month, according to the consultants’ report. The average Citrus County utility bill is $74.90. The proposed Inverness rate is $63.06.

DiGiovanni said that raising the utilities’ customer rate would generate the money the department needs and ties rates to usage rather than a broad tax that affects all citizens.

“It’s about costs and revenues,” he said. “So we’re hoping the (council) directs us to build the ordinance.”

The Inverness City Council gave its final greenlight this week to developers of the new Wyld Palms subdivision.

The council approved the new owner’s final plat, giving the go ahead to a project that was first approved in 2007 but languished ever since, with only a few structures built on the site of the gated community on the banks of Lake Tsala Apopka on East Turner Camp Road.

Get more from the Citrus County Chronicle

“Wyld Palms is an old (missed) opportunity,” City Manager Eric Williams told his council member bosses Tuesday. “This was a beautiful piece of property on the lake.”

“Don’t lose sight of how important what we’re doing tonight is (for Inverness),” Williams said.

The final plat calls for 62 townhomes and 168 single family homes. It shows 10 fewer single family homes than the council approved the in the subdivision’s preliminary plat.

Williams told the council that the city and developers have gated Turner Camp Road to ensure it’s used only by emergency vehicles and not as a thoroughfare by construction vehicles.

Greg Rice, Inverness’ community development director, told the council that the developer, Garden Street Communities out of Gulf Breeze, was already entitled to use the road, but worked with the city to close it.

The owners have already demolished the few homes that were present. The clubhouse and pool remain.

Also in council business, the council agreed with its city manager and rejected Inverness’ only bid to build Whispering Pines its new maintenance building. The existing one is dilapidated.

The only bidder was D-Mar Construction of Clearwater, according to city records.

Williams said the company bid $675,625.

“However, the unit cost breakdown in the (bid) response only totaled $176,635. This represents a significant differential between the unit cost and the total bid amount and draws concern for proceeding with an award,” Williams wrote the council.

“Additionally, the total cost proposed is over two times the amount of the design professional’s probable cost estimates,” he said.

But he also warned the project can’t he held off indefinitely

“We can’t wait forever,” Williams said. “(There are only so many) blue tarps you can put out there.”

Safety grades by the health care watchdog group Leapfrog show how hospitals in Florida responded to the coronavirus pandemic.

FLORIDA — Seventy-six Florida hospitals received top safety marks while others didn't quite measure up in The Leapfrog Group's annual spring safety grades released Thursday.

The nonprofit health care watchdog group grades hospitals twice a year, assigning letter grades from "A" to "F" based on each hospital's ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

More than 2,700 general, acute-care U.S. hospitals were assessed for Leapfrog's Spring Safety Grades. Among those hospitals, 27 have achieved 19 consecutive "A" grades in every biannual grading cycle since Leapfrog launched the safety grades in spring 2012.

In Florida:

It's worth noting the hospitals were graded during a time of extraordinary pressure on the health care system due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"This pandemic emphasized how much we rely on America's health care workforce," Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. "Our straight 'A' hospitals remind us how preparedness protected their patients as well as their workforce and created a high level of organizational resilience."

Here are the Leapfrog Group's spring 2021 grades for hospitals in Florida:

There were no "F" grades.

Across all states, highlights of findings from the spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade include:

To determine each state's grade, Leapfrog used up to 28 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources. When averaged, performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital's overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries.

Leapfrog estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at "A" hospitals, 50,000 lives at other facilities would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is peer-reviewed by a panel of national experts, and the Leapfrog Group receives guidance from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.

Sinkholes are a well-known part of Florida's geological landscape. Some parts along the I-4 corridor, however, have more reported sinkholes, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

University of Florida professor emeritus of geology Dr. Anthony Randozzo calls the area that begins along the I-4 corridor and stretches north to Tallahassee "sinkhole alley."

Florida's geological survey study shows all reported incidents of sinkholes. Here's a look at how the number of sinkholes that have been reported in surrounding Orlando-area counties.

ORANGE COUNTY

The bulk of Orange County's sinkholes appear along I-4 and into Seminole County. Many incidents appear to be in the northern part of the county, north of State Road 408 and in the area of the Maitland Boulevard interchange.

Several sinkholes appeared in the Lake Butler area, indicative of where experts say they can happen in lakes because of the weight of the water.

SEMINOLE COUNTY The bulk of the sinkholes in Seminole County appear in the area along I-4 and U.S. 17-92. There are only a few in the eastern part of the county.

OSCEOLA COUNTY Historically, very few sinkholes have been reported in Osceola County, with just a few in the St. Cloud area and some south of the Orange County line, near the Walt Disney World Resort.

BREVARD COUNTY Only two sinkholes have been recorded in the county historically, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

VOLUSIA COUNTY Fewer sinkholes are located on the east coast of Florida. Reported sinkhole have opened up in the DeBary, Deltona, DeLand and De Leon Springs areas, generally near U.S. 17-92. The map shows a significant cluster of sinkholes in the Pierson area.

FLAGLER Florida's geological survey map shows that only one sinkhole has ever been reported in Flagler County. It was south of Royal Palms Parkway.

LAKE COUNTY The Florida geological survey map shows a sprinkling of sinkholes throughout Lake County. As in other areas of Central Florida counties, the bulk of the sinkholes appear in the vicinity of major roadways, especially State Road 44.

MARION COUNTY The map shows a high concentration of sinkholes, mostly near the city of Ocala and surrounding areas emanating out from the center of the city. There are many reported sinkholes along major roadways such as U.S. 441 and I-75.

Sinkholes appear throughout the county but are most frequent in areas with some of the highest population and construction.

SUMTER COUNTY Most of the reported sinkholes in Sumter County opened up toward the northern end of the county on I-75 and in the The Villages. A few others are scattered around the county, including near Lake Panasoffkee.

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