Florida Power & Light Co

Risks

• Risks Relating to NEE's and FPL's Business
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially adversely affected by the extensive regulation of their business.
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially adversely affected if they are unable to recover in a timely manner any significant amount of costs, a return on certain assets or a reasonable return on invested capital through base rates, cost recovery clauses, other regulatory mechanisms or otherwise.
• Regulatory decisions that are important to NEE and FPL may be materially adversely affected by political, regulatory and economic factors.
• FPL's use of derivative instruments could be subject to prudence challenges and, if found imprudent, could result in disallowances of cost recovery for such use by the FPSC.
• Any reductions or modifications to, or the elimination of, governmental incentives or policies that support utility scale renewable energy, including, but not limited to, tax laws, policies and incentives, RPS or feed-in tariffs, or the imposition of additional taxes or other assessments on renewable energy, could result in, among other items, the lack of a satisfactory market for the development and/or financing of new renewable energy projects, NEER abandoning the development of
• renewable energy projects, a loss of NEER's investments in renewable energy projects and reduced project returns, any of which could have a material adverse effect on NEE's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially adversely affected as a result of new or revised laws, regulations, interpretations or ballot or regulatory initiatives.
• NEE and FPL are subject to numerous environmental laws, regulations and other standards that may result in capital expenditures, increased operating costs and various liabilities, and may require NEE and FPL to limit or eliminate certain operations.
• NEE's and FPL's business could be negatively affected by federal or state laws or regulations mandating new or additional limits on the production of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Extensive federal regulation of the operations and businesses of NEE and FPL exposes NEE and FPL to significant and increasing compliance costs and may also expose them to substantial monetary penalties and other sanctions for compliance failures.
• Changes in tax laws, guidance or policies, including but not limited to changes in corporate income tax rates, as well as judgments and estimates used in the determination of tax-related asset and liability amounts, could materially adversely affect NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially adversely affected due to adverse results of litigation.
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could suffer if NEE and FPL do not proceed with projects under development or are unable to complete the construction of, or capital improvements to, electric generation, transmission and distribution facilities, gas infrastructure facilities or other facilities on schedule or within budget.
• NEE and FPL face risks related to project siting, financing, construction, permitting, governmental approvals and the negotiation of project development agreements that may impede their development and operating activities.
• The operation and maintenance of NEE's and FPL's electric generation, transmission and distribution facilities, gas infrastructure facilities, retail gas distribution system in Florida and other facilities are subject to many operational risks, the consequences of which could have a material adverse effect on NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be negatively affected by a lack of growth or slower growth in the number of customers or in customer usage.
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects can be materially adversely affected by weather conditions, including, but not limited to, the impact of severe weather.
• Threats of terrorism and catastrophic events that could result from terrorism, cyberattacks, or individuals and/or groups attempting to disrupt NEE's and FPL's business, or the businesses of third parties, may materially adversely affect NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
• The ability of NEE and FPL to obtain insurance and the terms of any available insurance coverage could be materially adversely affected by international, national, state or local events and company-specific events, as well as the financial condition of insurers. NEE's and FPL's insurance coverage does not provide protection against all significant losses.
• NEE invests in gas and oil producing and transmission assets through NEER’s gas infrastructure business. The gas infrastructure business is exposed to fluctuating market prices of natural gas, natural gas liquids, oil and other energy commodities. A prolonged period of low gas and oil prices could impact NEER’s gas infrastructure business and cause NEER to delay or cancel certain gas infrastructure projects and could result in certain projects becoming impaired, which could materially adversely affect NEE's results of operations.
• If supply costs necessary to provide NEER's full energy and capacity requirement services are not favorable, operating costs could increase and materially adversely affect NEE's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
• Due to the potential for significant volatility in market prices for fuel, electricity and renewable and other energy commodities, NEER's inability or failure to manage properly or hedge effectively the commodity risks within its portfolios could materially adversely affect NEE's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
• Reductions in the liquidity of energy markets may restrict the ability of NEE to manage its operational risks, which, in turn, could negatively affect NEE's results of operations.
• NEE's and FPL's hedging and trading procedures and associated risk management tools may not protect against significant losses.
• If price movements significantly or persistently deviate from historical behavior, NEE's and FPL's risk management tools associated with their hedging and trading procedures may not protect against significant losses.
• If power transmission or natural gas, nuclear fuel or other commodity transportation facilities are unavailable or disrupted, the ability for subsidiaries of NEE, including FPL, to sell and deliver power or natural gas may be limited.
• NEE and FPL are subject to credit and performance risk from customers, hedging counterparties and vendors.
• NEE and FPL could recognize financial losses or a reduction in operating cash flows if a counterparty fails to perform or make payments in accordance with the terms of derivative contracts or if NEE or FPL is required to post margin cash collateral under derivative contracts.
• NEE and FPL are highly dependent on sensitive and complex information technology systems, and any failure or breach of those systems could have a material adverse effect on their business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
• NEE's and FPL's retail businesses are subject to the risk that sensitive customer data may be compromised, which could result in a material adverse impact to their reputation and/or have a material adverse effect on the business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects of NEE and FPL.
• NEE and FPL could recognize financial losses as a result of volatility in the market values of derivative instruments and limited liquidity in OTC markets.
• NEE and FPL may be materially adversely affected by negative publicity.
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected if they are unable to maintain, negotiate or renegotiate franchise agreements on acceptable terms with municipalities and counties in Florida.
• NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially adversely affected by work strikes or stoppages and increasing personnel costs.
• NEE's ability to successfully identify, complete and integrate acquisitions is subject to significant risks, including, but not limited to, the effect of increased competition for acquisitions resulting from the consolidation of the energy industry.
• The operation and maintenance of NEE's and FPL's nuclear generation facilities involve environmental, health and financial risks that could result in fines or the closure of the facilities and in increased costs and capital expenditures.
• In the event of an incident at any nuclear generation facility in the U.S. or at certain nuclear generation facilities in Europe, NEE and FPL could be assessed significant retrospective assessments and/or retrospective insurance premiums as a result of their participation in a secondary financial protection system and nuclear insurance mutual companies.
• NRC orders or new regulations related to increased security measures and any future safety requirements promulgated by the NRC could require NEE and FPL to incur substantial operating and capital expenditures at their nuclear generation facilities and/or result in reduced revenues.
• The inability to operate any of NEE's or FPL's nuclear generation units through the end of their respective operating licenses, or in the case of Duane Arnold through expected shutdown, could have a material adverse effect on NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
• NEE's and FPL's nuclear units are periodically removed from service to accommodate planned refueling and maintenance outages, and for other purposes. If planned outages last longer than anticipated or if there are unplanned outages, NEE's and FPL's results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
• Disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit and capital markets, among other factors, may negatively affect NEE's and FPL's ability to fund their liquidity and capital needs and to meet their growth objectives, and can also materially adversely affect the results of operations and financial condition of NEE and FPL.
• NEE's, NEECH's and FPL's inability to maintain their current credit ratings may materially adversely affect NEE's and FPL's liquidity and results of operations, limit the ability of NEE and FPL to grow their business, and increase interest costs.
• NEE's and FPL's liquidity may be impaired if their credit providers are unable to fund their credit commitments to the companies or to maintain their current credit ratings.
• Poor market performance and other economic factors could affect NEE's defined benefit pension plan's funded status, which may materially adversely affect NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations and prospects.
• Poor market performance and other economic factors could adversely affect the asset values of NEE's and FPL's nuclear decommissioning funds, which may materially adversely affect NEE's and FPL's liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.
• Certain of NEE's investments are subject to changes in market value and other risks, which may materially adversely affect NEE's liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.
• NEE may be unable to meet its ongoing and future financial obligations and to pay dividends on its common stock if its subsidiaries are unable to pay upstream dividends or repay funds to NEE.
• NEE may be unable to meet its ongoing and future financial obligations and to pay dividends on its common stock if NEE is required to perform under guarantees of obligations of its subsidiaries.
• NEP may not be able to access sources of capital on commercially reasonable terms, which would have a material adverse effect on its ability to consummate future acquisitions and on the value of NEE’s limited partner interest in NEP OpCo.
• Disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit and capital markets may exert downward pressure on the market price of NEE's common stock.