Tampa Electric Company will ask for a 10 percent increase on residential rates. It could mean an average of $11 extra a month coming out of customers' pockets.
TECO is blaming the slow recovery of the economy and costs to maintaining their infrastructures for the rate increase request.
"We know there's never a good time to raise rates and we empathize with our customers who like us are also feeling the effects of a difficult economy," says company spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs.
"The pace of this economy recovery has not been what anyone predicted. We've been working diligently to keep our costs low but those costs continue to outpace our growth," she says.
The company is trying to make up $135 million and they want to charge about another 35 cents a day for the average residential customer.
Jacobs says these rates mostly pay for the power coming into a person's home.
"The base rates on a customer bill pays for just about the entire process of producing and delivering electricity, the only thing it doesn't cover is cost of fuel," she says.
The rates also help cover transmission expansions, the Big Bend equipment, and projects like the water pipeline that serves the Polk Power Station.
Tampa Electric will file the request with the state Public Service Commission in April .
