Experts don’t know how exactly much money utilities have lost nationwide on natural-gas hedges. Natural-gas prices have plunged 74% in the past 10 years, but some U.S. utilities haven’t reaped the full benefit because of bad bets they made to hedge the cost of the fuel. Utilities that distribute natural gas or burn it to make electricity often enter into hedging contracts as a form of insurance to protect themselves and their customers against wild variations in the fuel’s price. The derivatives contracts don’t represent actual fuel deliveries. Rather, if gas prices go up, utilities make profits on the contracts that help offset their higher fuel costs. If gas prices go down, they lose money on the contracts but still benefit by paying less for their fuel. But in Florida, four utilities including the state’s largest, Florida Power & Light Co., suffered net losses of $6 billion on their […]