Special Committee on JEA Meeting – Combined Cycle Project Presentation (June 8, 2026)
Special Committee on JEA Meeting – Combined Cycle Project Presentation (June 8, 2026)
The Special Committee on JEA met on June 8, 2026, to receive a presentation on JEA's proposed combined cycle generating facility. The presentation, originally given to the JEA board on August 26, 2025, covered the need for new capacity, the evaluation of self-build versus purchasing power from FPL, and the status of regulatory approvals. Committee members questioned JEA officials about risks, costs, public outreach, and transparency.
Discussion Items
- Combined Cycle Project Overview: JEA Chief Administrative Officer Denise Brooks presented the project history, noting that JEA has not built new generation in 14 years. The proposed 600 MW combined cycle unit at the former SGRPP site is needed to replace retiring Northside Unit 3 and meet growing demand. A self-build option was compared to a 30-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with FPL, with less than 1% variance in net present value ($6.24B vs $6.18B over 30 years). The JEA board selected self-build in August 2025, approving a not-to-exceed cost of $1.57 billion.
- Regulatory Approvals and Risk: Brooks confirmed that JEA filed a need determination application with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) and a site certification with DEP on June 4, 2026. PSC is expected to issue a determination by November 1, 2026. Chair Salem expressed concern that the risks of PSC and DEP approval were not discussed publicly at board meetings, only in one-on-one meetings with board members. Brooks stated that in the history of PSC need determinations, no utility has opposed another's application, though NGOs like the Sierra Club could intervene.
- Upfront Financial Commitment: JEA entered a reservation agreement for the turbine with a non-refundable deposit to secure its place in line. The deposit amount is confidential under a non-disclosure agreement. Councilman Teal questioned why JEA committed hundreds of millions of dollars before receiving regulatory approvals. Brooks explained that waiting would delay the project beyond the 2031 need date, and that the deposit is assignable.
- Transparency and Streaming of Meetings: Chair Salem and Councilman Carlucci noted that JEA committee meetings and workshops are not streamed or recorded, unlike past practice under former CEO Jay Stowe. Brooks committed to ensuring future meetings are streamed.
- Community Outreach: Greg Corcoran, Director of Community Affairs, reported that a town hall on February 19, 2026, drew 16 attendees, with only three phone calls from residents. Councilwoman Pittman expressed concern that residents are not well-informed about the project and suggested alternative outreach methods.
- Cost Overrun Risk: Brooks acknowledged that cost overruns would be borne by ratepayers. She noted that a one-year delay could cost JEA $91 million. Councilman Pittman asked about lessons learned from past projects like Plant Vogtle; Brooks emphasized that this project uses proven technology and JEA controls the contracts.
Key Outcomes
- The committee received the presentation and asked detailed questions. No formal action was taken by the committee.
- JEA officials committed to improving transparency by streaming committee meetings and workshops in the future.
- The project will proceed through regulatory reviews, with a PSC hearing anticipated in September 2026 and a final determination by November 1, 2026.
Meeting Transcript
Special committee on JEA. Let me begin by introductions, starting on my far left. Colleen Hamsey, Council of Research. Mary Stepopoulos, Office of General Counsel. Brian Parks, Council Auditors Office. Philip Peterson, Council Otter. Jason Teal, Council Legislative Council. Ron Salem, group two at large. Jacoby Pittman, District 10. Nick Allen at large group three, just visiting. Welcome, Mr. President Elect. We're appreciate you being here. We're going to have an approximate 20 to 30 minute presentation on combined cycle, and then we'll take the rest of the time with questions. Let me swear in this Miss Brooks. I just soon do it at the beginning, just so we're sure we cover it. And as I indicated to her, anyone that comes up to answer any questions going forward will have to be sworn in as well. Do you solemnly swear or form to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth on the penalties of perjury? Thank you. The floor is yours, Miss Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Committee members. I'm going to give a presentation that was presented to the JEA board by Ricky Erickson and Julie Crawford on August 26th of 2025. And instead of creating a new presentation for this committee, I'm going to walk through what the board saw and provide you with an update of this exciting project for the city of Jacksonville. Sorry, starting off with a the JEA team here, the project team for the combined cycle. I'm one of the chief champions of the project along with our chief financial officer Ted Phillips. But I have with us today Ricky Ericston, our Chief of Electric Systems, Jim Stanson, the director of energy production, Jamila Akree, our project manager, Melinda Fisher, the director of electric systems planning, William Goodrich, our manager of resource planning, and Kevin Holbrooks, our senior director of environmental services. This is the project team that's leading this project for the new combined cycle for the city of Jacksonville. We're also supported by a host of consultants, Black and Beach Resource Innovations In Front Consulting, and the law firm of Sturms and Weaver with our primary attorney being Brooke Humphrey. So part of this presentation. Okay, I wasn't sure. The historical generation portfolio slide is what the, you know, what for history has shown. The chart shows JEA's electric capacity through the years, both assets that we own and operate and power purchase agreements we have with other utilities. As you can see, there's been a lot of activity in the 2000s. We added seven combustion turbines, which we call CTs, and converted two of those to a combined cycle at the Brandy Branch site, and we repowered north side units one and two, creating more fuel diversity. CTs use natural gas as their main fuel source. Looking past 2011, there was not much activity, mainly due to the decline in sales following the 2008 financial crisis, coupled with increasing energy efficiency. There was just not a demand for additional capacity. In fact, we had more capacity than we needed. At that time, JEA co-owned two coal power plants with Florida Power and Light, SGRPP 1 and 2 and SHERE Unit 4. FPL was in the period of retiring coal generation, and so that coupled with a decrease in JA's demand led to an agreement to retire SJRPP in 2018 and then the retirement of SHERE Unit 4 in 2022. Since then, JEA has only added capacity through power purchase agreements. We have not built new generation in 14 years. So that's the history of our generation. So now we're going to talk about the seasonal capacity and the reserve margin and what we need to look for in the future. These charts represent JEA's projected capacity and reserve margin for both winter and summer. The bars represent JA's existing resources. Just like the previous slide, the black line shows our projected peak demand each year. That is the maximum energy required from our customers at any point in time. The red line is what we call the reserve margin.
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