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Gulf Power Company (GPC) was an American electric utility. Headquartered in Pensacola, Florida, it provided electricity to over 450,000 customers in 8 counties in the Florida panhandle. The company owned four power plants and a stake in two more, giving it a total generating capacity of 2.278 GW.[1]

Gulf Power was founded in 1925 and was, for most of its life, a subsidiary of the Atlanta-based Southern Company. It was acquired by Juno Beach-based NextEra Energy, the parent company of Florida Power & Light, in 2019.[2] In 2021, GPC was legally merged into Florida Power & Light, operating as a separate unit of FPL until early 2022. The former GPC territory is currently administered as FPL Northwest Division.[3]

Overview

Gulf Power had a service territory of 7,550 square miles (19,600 km2) in eight counties: Bay, Escambia, Holmes, Jackson, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton, and Washington.[4] The company owned 1,670 miles (2,690 km) of transmission lines and 7,750 miles (12,470 km) of distribution lines, 1,940 miles (3,120 km) of which were underground.[1]

History

  • Feb. 10, 1925 – Southeastern Power and Light Company – a holding company which operates electric, gas, and street railway systems in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi – purchases the Pensacola Electric Company.
  • Oct. 29, 1925 – Gulf Power Company is organized as a Southeastern subsidiary.
  • Feb. 6, 1926 – Gulf Power Company acquired the Chipley Light and Power Company and becomes a true operating public utility.
  • Late 1926 – The Pensacola Electric Company merges into Gulf Power after being rescued from receivership by the holding company. Electricity during this period was very unreliable and erratic, and came from about 20 scattered and individually operating units. These generators were designed to supply power to ice plants, lumber yards and electric transit systems. In spite of northwest Florida’s poor economic state, Gulf Power had no choice but to modernize its equipment in order to continue operating.
  • Sept. 6, 1926 – The Great Miami Hurricane hits Florida with 120 mph (190 km/h) winds and nine-foot storm surges, destroying nearly 4,000 rotting power poles and extinguishing fires in the old downtown Pensacola generating plant. As a result, more than 600 employees from sister companies work to restore service and install a more modern system. They restore power to the region in record time – within 65 days.
  • Late 1926 – A 110,000 volt transmission line is built from the northern Alabama/Florida border to Pensacola, Florida – causing the old Allis-Chalmers steam turbine-generator to be placed on standby and therefore ending the era of local power generation. Gulf Power relies on imported energy for the next 39 years, even with an additional 7,366 customers inherited in 1926, and another 40,000 customers after World War II in the mid 1940s.
  • 1945 – Gulf Power takes the first step toward producing its own electricity by building a 22-megawatt generating unit at the Crist Steam Plant in Pensacola, Florida, to help supply power after years of outages due to war shortages.
  • Feb. 24, 2010 – Gulf Power breaks ground on a landfill gas facility at Escambia County’s Perdido Landfill.[5]
  • Jun. 2014 – Gulf Power is sued by environmental organization Earthjustice for violating the Clean Water Act by improperly discharging coal ash at its Plant Scholz facility.[6]
  • Mar. 31, 2015 – Gulf Power decommissions two coal-fired units at its Lansing Smith Generating Plant near Panama City.[7]
  • Apr. 2015 – Plant Scholz, an 80-megawatt coal-fired plant, is closed after 60 years of service due to the expense of meeting newer EPA regulations.[7] In the following months, the company settled with Earthjustice and agreed to undertake cleaning and containment activities at the facility.[8]
  • Aug. 22, 2017 – Gulf Power announces the completion of Gulf Coast Solar Center, three solar farms built on land leased from the U.S. military. The farms were developed in partnership with Coronal Energy, which would own and operate them. With the opening, 10% of Gulf Power’s energy came from renewable energy sources.[9]
  • 2018 – NextEra Energy announces it will acquire Gulf Power from Southern Company.[10] The acquisition was completed in Jan. 2019.[2]
  • Apr. 2020 – Gulf Power completes its first fully-owned solar field, the 75-megawatt Blue Indigo Solar Energy Center near Jacob City.[11][12]
  • Jan. 1, 2021 – Gulf Power is legally merged into Florida Power & Light. NextEra Energy will operate GPC as a separate division within FPL through 2021.[3]
  • Jan. 22, 2021 – Plant Crist is converted from coal to natural gas and renamed the Gulf Clean Energy Center.[13]
  • Early 2021 – FPL begins construction on the Blue Springs Solar Energy Center and Cotton Creek Solar Energy Center, two solar fields which had been planned by Gulf Power prior to the merger.[12][14]

Generating facilities

Plant Location Fuel Units Total capacity[15]
Blue Indigo Solar Energy Center Jacob City, Florida Solar – 75 MW[11]
Gulf Clean Energy Center[a] Pensacola, Florida Natural gas[b] 4 924 MW
Lansing Smith Generating Plant Southport, Florida Oil and natural gas[c] 2 645 MW[d]
Pea Ridge Facility Pace, Florida Natural gas 3 15 MW[e]
Perdido Landfill Gas-to-Energy Facility Cantonment, Florida Landfill gas 2 3 MW
  1. ^ Formerly James F. Crist Electric Generating Plant
  2. ^ Originally a coal plant; coal units were shut down in 2021[13]
  3. ^ Originally a coal plant; coal units were shut down in 2016[7]
  4. ^ 609 MW in summer
  5. ^ 12 MW in summer

Partially-owned

Plant Location Fuel Ownership share[15] Other owners
Victor J. Daniel Electric Generating Plant, Units 1 & 2 Escatawpa, Mississippi Coal 510 MW (50%)[a] Mississippi Power
Robert W. Scherer Power Plant, Unit 3 Juliette, Georgia Coal 214 MW (25%)[a] Georgia Power
  1. ^ a b Ownership percentage is of specified units only

Leased

Plant Location Fuel Leased capacity[16]
Bay County Resource Recovery Facility Panama City, Florida Landfill gas 14 MW[17]
Gulf Coast Solar Center I Eglin Air Force Base (Valparaiso, Florida) Solar 30 MW
Gulf Coast Solar Center II Naval Outlying Landing Field Holley (Navarre, Florida) Solar 40 MW
Gulf Coast Solar Center III Saufley Field (Bellview, Florida) Solar 50 MW
Kingfisher Wind I and II Canadian County, Oklahoma Wind 101 MW

Former

Plant Decomissioned Location Fuel Units Total capacity
Herbert Scholz Generating Plant 2015[7] Sneads, Florida Coal 2 80 MW[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c “Our Company”. Gulf Power. NextEra Energy. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2021.
  2. ^ a b “NextEra Energy completes acquisition of Gulf Power from Southern Company” (Press release). NextEra Energy. January 1, 2019.
  3. ^ a b “FPL reaches comprehensive four-year rate settlement agreement, keeping bills low and accelerating the nation’s largest solar buildout” (Press release). NextEra Energy. August 10, 2021.
  4. ^ “August 2019 Investor Presentation” (PDF). NextEra Energy. 2019. p. 13. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
  5. ^ Reynolds, William (February 25, 2010). “Groundbreaking Held For Landfill Gas Generator That Will Power Over 900 Escambia Homes”. NorthEscambia.com. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  6. ^ “Ending Dangerous Coal Ash Pollution into Florida’s Apalachicola River”. Earthjustice. June 5, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  7. ^ a b c d “Gulf Power to shut down coal units at local plant”. Panama City News Herald. GateHouse Media. February 7, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  8. ^ Guest, David (July 1, 2015). “Protecting Florida’s Apalachicola River from Coal Ash Pollution”. Earthjustice. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  9. ^ Baucum, Joseph (August 22, 2017). “Gulf Power, Coronal Energy celebrate completion of three military solar farms”. Pensacola News Journal. Gannett. Retrieved June 15, 2026.
  10. ^ Saunders, Jim (May 24, 2018). “FPL parent to buy Gulf Power”. South Florida Times.
  11. ^ a b “Gulf Power Hits Historic Milestone With First Panel Install At Blue Indigo Solar Energy Center”. WUWF. University of West Florida. November 21, 2019. Retrieved June 15, 2026.
  12. ^ a b Dunwoody, Dave (January 20, 2021). “Solar Farms Cropping Up In North Escambia”. WUWF. University of West Florida. Retrieved June 15, 2026.
  13. ^ a b Little, Jim (January 22, 2021). “Gulf Power’s Plant Crist converts to natural gas, renamed Gulf Clean Energy Center”. Pensacola News Journal. Gannett. Retrieved June 15, 2026.
  14. ^ Kovaleski, Dave (February 26, 2021). “Florida’s Gulf Power begins construction on two solar energy centers”. Daily Energy Insider. Retrieved June 15, 2026.
  15. ^ a b Gulf Power Ten Year Site Plan (2018-2027) for Electric Generating Facilities and Associated Transmission Lines (PDF) (Report). Florida Public Service Commission. April 2, 2018. pp. 20–21. Retrieved June 11, 2026.
  16. ^ Gulf Power Ten Year Site Plan (2018-2027) for Electric Generating Facilities and Associated Transmission Lines (PDF) (Report). Florida Public Service Commission. April 2, 2018. pp. 69–73. Retrieved June 14, 2026.
  17. ^ Randolph, Kevin (November 9, 2017). “Florida PSC approves Gulf Power’s purchase of renewable energy produced at municipal solid waste plant”. Daily Energy Insider. Retrieved June 15, 2026.
  18. ^ “Plants”. Gulf Power. Southern Company. Archived from the original on May 6, 2012.