Florida Data Center Tariffs Are In. How Do They Score?

Florida data center tariffs are now on file under SB 484. FSU's Mark McNees scores each utility's filing against the law's full-cost test.

SB 484 required Florida's investor-owned utilities to file data center tariffs by Oct. 1. FSU's Mark McNees scored Tampa Electric, FPL, Florida Public Utilities and Duke against the law's full-cost test.

Florida data center tariffs are now on file with state regulators. On Oct. 1, SB 484 required each investor-owned utility to file a tariff for its largest customers.

The law covers large-load customers drawing 50 megawatts or more. Each must bear its own full cost of service, and the risk of nonpayment may not fall on everyone else.

Mark McNees scored the filings in a guest column for Florida Politics. He directs the MS in Social and Sustainable Enterprises at Florida State University's Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship.

How Were the Filings Scored?

McNees published a rubric on Sept. 15, before any filing existed. He finished amending it before the first one arrived.

Each filing gets one of three results. It clears, it has a shortfall to defend, or it misses a required test.

Three utilities made Oct. 1 filings. FPL asked the Commission to deem its existing tariff compliant. Duke filed nothing new.

What Did Tampa Electric File?

Tampa Electric put real numbers on the page. It stated charges and a 20-year minimum term.

Its customer contract adds a termination fee covering remaining generation, transmission, fuel transportation and purchased-power charges.

McNees finds two required tests only partly met. The tariff reaches only new or incremental load.

Security for an investment-grade customer is 50% of $2.0 million per contracted megawatt. By McNees’s arithmetic, committed plant and transmission run roughly $2.7 million per megawatt.

The open question is year 20. A customer giving notice can leave owing nothing more.

Meanwhile, the company’s exhibits show about $1.07 billion of generation net plant still on the books in 2047.

Tampa Electric says that plant would then serve its other customers. McNees notes that no one has agreed to pay for it if it does not.

What About FPL?

FPL filed no new large-load tariff. It asked the Commission to find that tariffs approved in January already comply.

Those tariffs carry a 20-year term, two years’ notice and an exit fee covering remaining generation charges.

McNees flags coverage. The tariffs apply only to projected new or incremental load of 50 megawatts or more.

They also require a projected load factor of 85% or more.

The statute defines the customer by peak demand alone. McNees says that may describe few customers today, but his rubric reads the text, not the current queue.

How Did Florida Public Utilities and Duke Fare?

Florida Public Utilities says it has no qualifying customers and no inquiries. It leaves rates to customer-specific agreements that the Commission must approve before service starts.

McNees calls that reasonable for a small utility. Under his first test, a filing with no stated rate still misses.

Duke Energy Florida relies on a petition filed in April, heard in August and briefed in September. President Melissa Seixas wrote on Oct. 2: “Floridians should never be asked to finance someone else’s business decision.”

McNees calls that the right standard. He finds one required test unmet.

Duke measures the 50-megawatt threshold over 30 minutes, while the statute says 15. Its policy also reaches only firm load, so a customer on interruptible service falls outside it.

Duke committed in its brief to a large-load rate in 2028. Until then, qualifying customers pay existing general-service rates with a 20-year term and an exit fee.

What Should Readers Watch?

McNees makes two points. The statute requires the outcome and only permits the tools, such as exit fees and minimum terms.

Second, FPL asked for proposed agency action. The Commission can rule without a hearing unless an affected party asks for one.

He adds one number. SB 484 does not reach municipal utilities or rural electric cooperatives, which hold about 25% of the state’s customer accounts.

How Does This Reach South Florida?

The law sets the price rules, while local fights set the sites. MAIN has covered Miami Lakes considering a ban on AI data centers.

MAIN has also covered MetroBloks' MIA-A1 becoming Miami's next AI data center. And South Florida's own utility betting big on AI power demand.

McNees stresses that these are readings of the filed words, not Commission findings. He calls the result a promise written in mandatory terms, met unevenly.

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