About Your Municipal Power System

The Utilities Commission, City of New Smyrna Beach is one of the 2,000 municipal power suppliers throughout the United States. We are a community-owned and -operated public utility that supplies 24,000 homes and businesses in the greater New Smyrna Beach area with electricity. Like all public power suppliers, our purpose is to provide reliable and safe not-for-profit electricity at a reasonable price while protecting the environment.

Unlike private power companies, public power utilities like UCNSB are public service institutions and do not serve stockholders. Instead, our mission is to serve our customers.

We measure success by how much money stays within the community through low rates, jobs and contributions to the city budget, not how much goes out to stockholders across the country and around the world.

On a national basis, public power residential customers pay average electricity rates that are about 10% less than those paid by private power customers. On average, public power systems return to state and local governments in-lieu-of-tax payments and other contributions that are 18 percent greater than state and local taxes paid by private power companies.

The Utilities Commission’s electric service area encompasses 71.9 square miles, of which 34 square miles are inside the New Smyrna Beach city limits. The service area is established by the Florida Public Service Commission, and the surrounding areas are served by Florida Power & Light (FPL).

The Utilities Commission electric system has 115 kV interconnections with Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy Florida (PEF) at the Smyrna Substation located west of I-95. There are three major substations within the Commission's territory: Smyrna Substation, Airport Substation and Field Street Substation. From these substations, the Utilities Commission owns and maintains approximately 231 miles of overhead and 33 miles of underground electric circuits.

The power and energy used by the Commission's customers comes from a variety of sources:

• Ownership interest in FPL's St. Lucie Nuclear Plant and FPC's Crystal River Plant account for approximately 12% of the Utilities Commission's annual load.
• The remainder is made up of purchased power contracts with PEF and others.
• The Utilities Commission also has three sites for generating its own power with the use of diesel generators.

The facilities are located at the Smith Street, Swoope, and Field Street Sites. All resources available are evaluated on an hourly basis, and the most economical is dispatched by the Utilities Commission's System Operations staff 24 hours every day at the Electric Operations Center located on S.R. 44.