Duke Energy Florida proposes fuel adjustment plan to limit bill increases

Duke Energy Florida today proposed a fuel adjustment to limit the impact of volatile natural gas prices.

Natural gas is the primary fuel source that Duke Energy Florida uses to generate electricity at most of its power plants, and since last January, prices have increased almost 45 percent.

Instead of trying to recover the increased fuel costs, which total $247 million, over a 10-month period in 2022, Duke Energy Florida will spread it over a longer period, starting in March 2022 and ending no earlier than February 2023. By recovering costs over a longer period, the typical residential customer using 1,000 kWh will have a slightly lower bill than they would have otherwise had — about 1 percent.

Specifically, the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) will see an increase of $6.62 in the average customer’s monthly bill for 2022, while commercial and industrial customers will see increases ranging from 4 percent to 10 percent. The change would take effect in March 2022.

“We want to help our customers who may already be struggling to pay their current energy bills,” Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president, said. “We are working hard to minimize the impact and provide customers the opportunity to better manage their energy usage and reduce their bills. In addition, we are managing our fuel and generation resources in the most cost-effective manner for our customers, and our rate mitigation plan will continue to reduce some of the price pressure on customers.”

Residential customers will also benefit from the removal of credit card fees for bill payments starting in 2022.

The Florida Public Service Commission approved the company’s rate mitigation plan on Nov. 2.

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, provides about 10,200 megawatts of owned electric capacity to approximately 1.9 million customers in a 13,000-square-mile service area.