Florida Power & Light's CEO Eric Silagy spoke at CERAWeek in Houston during the panel "State of the North America Power Business" on March 14, 2019:
"[Developments] in Texas have been great. But the reality is, the renewables that have been built here, the vast, vast majority of them have been built with contracts with the munis and the co-ops. Because they get entered into long-term contracts. If the municipals and the co-ops were not carved out of the system in Texas, and weren't able to enter those long-term contracts, you wouldn't have renewables built in Texas.
"Those are structural differences that you have in different areas. It's not that it's right, wrong, better, worse. There are differences that we need to recognize. It means that one size doesn't fit all.
"Florida, as an example, is a peninsula that has limited electrical interconnection and limited natural gas. We're the third largest user of gas in the country, and we have three major interstate pipelines.
"If you look at Texas, it's the second or first in gas usage. I think it's second. But it's a web of pipelines. And it sits on top of massive amounts of reserves of gas.
"Those are just physical differences that have to be recognized. And have to be engineered, if you will, into the marketplace, to make sure that in the end, the customer gets affordable and reliable power."