NextEra Energy Inc., Emera Energy Services Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. confirmed they are among the 16 organizations that submitted bids Monday to purchase JEA.
Juno Beach-based NextEra owns Florida Power & Light Co., whose CEO confirmed interest in the city utility in August, according to WJCT News partner the Jacksonville Daily Record. Emera is the parent company of Teco and Peoples Gas.
JEA opened responses at 2 p.m. to its invitation to negotiate. It announced the number of responses and not the names of the bidders. Those identities are confidential.
FPL Vice President and Chief Communications Officer David Reuter confirmed Monday afternoon that NextEra Energy replied to JEA’s invitation to negotiate. He declined to say if Florida Power & Light bid for all or a portion of JEA’s assets and said his company is “respecting the ITN process.”
Duke Energy spokeswoman Catherine Butler confirmed the energy company’s bid in an email Monday.
“We responded to the invitation to negotiate with a comprehensive demonstration of our qualifications to participate in the process,” she wrote. “We are familiar with JEA and have worked with them for many years on power purchase agreements. This is just the first step in a lengthy, complex process – and we look forward to learning more.”
Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the largest electric power holding company in the U.S. and has 7.7 million customers in six states. It also has natural gas distribution services to more than 1.6 million customers in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Emera company spokesperson Jeff Myrick confirmed his company's bid in an email Monday.
JEA’s bid deadline was noon Monday. Utility Media Relations Manager Gina Kyle said in a public meeting notice that JEA officials would not take questions or give interviews about the procurement process.
Only one bidder spoke with the media before the bid opening. Rob Nicholas, vice president of resource optimization at Veolia North America, told WJCT News partner News4Jax.com that his company is interested in part of JEA’s assets and wants to partner with another bidder during the negotiating process.
Veolia Water Technologies is a division of Paris-based Veolia Environmental S.A., a global water and wastewater services provider with almost $1.9 billion in annual revenue, according to the company’s website.
An expanded version of this story that includes a breakdown of the bid requirements and next steps is at JaxDailyRecord.com.
