Of the two privately owned utilities serving the seven county region, the 

 Florida Power Corporation is the largest. In 1979, it generated 18.5% of the 

 total megawatt hours (MWh) produced in Florida, wheras the Gulf Power Corpora- 

 tion produced only 7.0%. The Gulf Power Corporation is 90.4% dependent on 

 coal as its source for generating power, but the Florida Power Corporation 

 uses a much broader range of fuel types for power generation (Table 23). Much 

 (42.8%) of its production is generated from residual fuel, 21.9% from coal, 

 21.7% from nuclear fuels, and lesser amounts from natural gas and distillate 

 fuel. For Florida as a whole, 47.9% is based on fuel oil, 19.5 on coal, 

 16.4% on nuclear fuel, 16.1% on natural gas, and 0.3% for hydroelectric power 

 (Florida Public Service Commission 1980). The Gulf Power Corporation is 

 highly dependent on the delivery of coal from out-of-state sources. 



Table 23. Electrical generation (megawatt hours) by fuel types (percentage 

 composition in parentheses) by privately owned utilities serving Northwest 

 Florida, 1979 (Florida Public Service Commission 1981). 



Fuel type Florida Power Corp. Gulf Power Corp. 



Coal 3,811,782 (21.9) 6,000,522 (90.4) 



Natural gas 1,373,976 ( 7.9) 627,562 ( 9.4) 



Residual 7,443,897 (42.9) 1,651 ( 0.1) 



Distillate 976,945 ( 5.6) 2,717 ( 0.1) 



Nuclear 3,775,837 (21.7) ( 0) 



Total 17,382,437 (100.0) 6,632,452 (100.0) 



% of State total 18.5 7.0 



The net generation of power for Florida in 1979 was about three times 

 greater than it was in 1965. In addition, the percentage fuel types have 

 changed considerably. The principal factor in this change has been the gen- 

 eration of power from nuclear fuel. There was no generation of power from 

 this fuel source prior to 1972, but it has already climbed to 16.4% of the 

 State's total generated power. Fuel oil is the major fuel type used for gen- 

 eration, but its percentage share of the total generated in the State slipped 

 from 56.2% in 1965 to 45.0% in 1979. Coal has increased slightly over the 

 past year or two and is likely to take an even greater share of the State 

 total in the 1980's. More than twice as much power is generated by gas than 

 it was 15 years ago, but its proportion of the State total has slipped from 

 25.0% to 16.1%. Hydro power is now an insignificant source of energy in 

 Florida. (Florida Public Service Commission 1980.) 



The private utility companies serving Northwest Florida have a different 

 distribution by class of service than do the electric cooperatives serving the 

 area (Table 24). This is to be expected because the cooperatives primarily 

 serve rural areas. Most of the service provided by the cooperatives is resi- 

 dential use. Talquin Electric, probably because it serves the relatively 



90 



