Florida Power & Light Company announced the commercial startup of a 300-megawatt expansion of its Martin plant site near Indiantown, Florida and Lake Okeechobee in Martin County.

The power from FPL's new Martin plant -- plus 900 megawatts of new generation from FPL's Fort Myers plant -- gives FPL a reserve margin of 20 percent this summer and the capability to serve an additional 255,000 homes and businesses.

"There is no energy crisis in Florida," said FPL President Paul Evanson. "FPL customers enjoy an adequate supply of electricity at reasonable rates, and the company is well-positioned to serve customers far into the future."

"This past week, in fact, we set a new record and comfortably met the highest-ever customer demand of 18,340 megawatts on Wednesday, June 13," Mr. Evanson said.

FPL's new capacity additions are part of the company's on-going expansion, which will ultimately see 6,300 megawatts of new capacity -- a 33 percent increase -- put into service to meet customer needs between now and 2010.

FPL's capacity expansion plans also include new energy conservation goals equivalent to avoiding the need to build two 400 megawatt power plants during the same timeframe. This will be accomplished using Florida Public Service Commission-approved customer programs whereby demand on the system is reduced at peak periods in return for a credit or discount, as well as through other customer energy conservation programs. These are similar to programs being recommended as part of President Bush's energy plan.

In addition to meeting increasing electricity demand, the expansion at Martin and Fort Myers also provide economic benefits to the community from the investment in plant and additional property tax payments for the life of the power plant.

FPL said construction is underway on an additional 1,450 megawatts of new generation in Southwest and Central Florida that will be available to serve customers by 2003.

Florida Power & Light Company is the principal subsidiary of FPL Group, Inc. , one of the nation's largest providers of electricity-related services with annual revenues of more than $7 billion. The company serves approximately 3.9 million customer accounts in Florida. FPL Energy, LLC, an FPL Group energy-generating subsidiary, is a leader in producing electricity from clean and renewable fuels. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.fpl.com.

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EDITOR'S ADVISORY: If you would like pictures of FPL President Paul
Evanson at the press briefing held today at the Martin plant, please call FPL
corporate communications at 305-552-3888 and provide us with your email
address.
Also available are a bar graph of FPL capacity expansion, a graphic of how
combined-cycle power plants work and photos of FPL plants sites with new
generating units including Martin, Fort Myers and Sanford power plants.
TV media have been sent b-roll and a 60-second "news release" via Vyvx
, which should be available around 3 p.m. today.
Other FPL Group, Inc. press releases are available at no charge through
PR Newswire's Company News On-Call fax service and on PRN's Web site. For a
menu of FPL Group, Inc. press releases or to retrieve a specific release, call
800-758-5804, ext. 319763, or http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/319763.html
(FPL)

SOURCE: Florida Power & Light Company