The City of Wauchula, Florida owns and operates a non-generating municipal electric utility system and currently receives its wholesale power from Tampa Electric Power Company (TECO).

Our mission is to serve our customers with reliable, quality power and to provide service in a prompt courteous manner at competitive rates.

The City went into the electricity business in 1922, and originally operated a power plant to generate the power sold through its electric distribution system. The City’s generators supplied power to the system at a voltage of 2.4 kV delta.

This was later supplemented in 1968 by wholesale purchases at 12.47 kV from Florida Power Corporation (FPC). The City interconnected with a feeder from the FPC Wauchula Substation through a 12.47 – 2.4 kV transformer bank with a capacity of 3750/4310 kVA.

In 1981, the City of Wauchula constructed the 69-7.2/12.47 kV Substation, with a capacity of 15/16.8/21 MVA and began to purchase power at 69 kV. Conversion of the 2.4 kV electric distribution system to 7.2/12.47 kV commenced at that time and was completed in 1992. In 1993 the City began to purchase wholesale power from Tampa Electric Company (TECO) instead of FPC; however, the physical connection to the transmission grid is still with FPC, now Progress Energy Florida (PEF). The power plant has been retired since then, however stationary batteries and some of the substation controls remain in the power plant building.

The present installed substation transformer capacity of the City of Wauchula has a base rating of 15.0 MVA and an emergency rating of 21.0 MVA. The firm emergency rating is16.8 MVA. Through 2005, the electric utility has experienced a peak winter billing demand of 15.4 MW (15.9 MVA), a peak summer billing demand of 14.4 MW (16.3 MVA), and annual energy consumption has passed 65 million kWh.

The actual hourly peak summer demand recorded on the system, per metering information obtained from TECO, was 15.3 MW (17.4 MVA) in August 2005.

Geographical Location (Service Territory)

The service territory of the electric utility includes the entire City Limits of the City of Wauchula (approximately 2.3 square miles and growing) and extends into unincorporated Hardee County, for a total area of approximately 10.0 square miles according to Hardee County GIS 2000

Historical System Growth

The State of Florida has recognized the need for growth management and planning so that essential services can continue to be supplied. Municipalities and counties have been required by Statute to develop and maintain a Comprehensive Plan covering elements such as land use, traffic, utilities and capital improvements.

The growth of an electric utility system is both a direct and indirect result of the population growth in the area served by that utility. The University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR, Revised April 2004), documented for Hardee county an average growth rate from 1993 to 2003 of approximately 1.66% in the population of incorporated areas and, according to the Preliminary Population Estimate (April 2005), an average annual growth rate of approximately 0.64% for unincorporated areas.

Population projections from applicable sources indicate that the City of Wauchula can anticipate an increase growth in both permanent and seasonal populations. The University of Florida BEBR projects an average annual growth rate in the population of approximately 0.92% through the year 2030 for Hardee County as a whole. However the City is aware of construction within planned developments that indicate an annual growth rate more on the order of 5.7% for demands of electric utility.

Historical Power and Energy Requirements

The combination of increasing population in the area and increasing energy use per customer has contributed to a steady increase in annual energy requirements of the electric utility. This statistical grid shows a graphical representation of annual energy purchases from 1999 through 2005. The dip in energy consumption for 2004 is due primarily to extended outages from Hurricane Charlie. Since many customers use electricity for both space heating and cooling, the extremes both the winter and summer directly affect the annual demands and energy requirements. The following table lists the total energy purchased, the system annual load factor, and the maximum winter and summer power demand of the City of Wauchula for the fiscal years 1999 through 2005.

Historical Energy Purchases and Power Demand
City of Wauchula Electric Utility

An analysis of the above table indicates an increase in annual energy purchases from 61,442,000 kWh in 1999 to 65,320,000kWh in 2005, or an average annual increase of 0.9%. During the same period the summer power demand increased from 12,532 kW to 14,410 kW, an average annual increase of 2.0%.

The grid shows the summer and winter peak power demands experienced during each fiscal year since 1999. This illustrates how winter peak demands are more sensitive to the mildness or severity of the weather.

Power Supply

The City of Wauchula purchases all of its wholesale capacity and energy requirements under a contract with TECO. This contract was the result of an RFP process for wholesale power supply in 1991 and subsequent negotiations. The contract went into effect in June 1992 and will continue through calendar year 2013.