In a move that would create a utility with customers from Miami to Pensacola, Florida Power & Light and Gulf Power plan to merge in 2022, their parent company, NextEra Energy, said.

NextEra, which has long included FPL, closed a deal in January 2019 to purchase Gulf Power from Southern Company. But FPL and Gulf, which have a combined total of about 5.5 million customers, did not merge.

In a news release Wednesday about its quarterly earnings, NextEra said it has made a filing at the state Public Service Commission that "reflects the expectation that FPL and Gulf Power will begin to operate as an integrated electric system in 2022."