If you're in Clearwater, the company turning your lights on could change.
The city council is scheduled to vote Thursday on a study to see if creating a locally run utility is a better option than Duke Energy.
The study, to be conducted by NewGen, would cost over $500,000 and take nine months to complete.
“We don’t know what the outcome of this is going to be," David Margolis, the Clearwater city manager, said at a workshop Monday, "but what I know for sure is that it is impossible to come up with a recommendation or even intelligently assess our options without doing a feasibility study."
Customers have brought up many issues to the city about Duke, including allegations of the company cutting down trees on private property.
Councilman Ryan Cotton said a city-run utility would help alleviate these concerns.
"They've (Duke) spoke to the issue, but it would be nice if we had control over it so that people could come to us and let us know their issues," Cotton said. "Then we could talk to the director of our power company and say, 'Hey, what's going on with that? What are we doing? Are we trimming or we're cutting down trees?' take care of it in-house."
Citizens are also speaking out about rising electricity costs. Duke officials say they lowered rates in January and June this year, and they plan to continue reducing rates.
According to a Tampa Bay Times analysis, the average Duke bill rose by 28% over five years.
Duke Energy's Ana Gibbs said in a statement, "Duke Energy Florida has a right to serve in Clearwater through the Florida Public Service Commission. It’s not granted through franchise agreements. The current agreement does not have a purchase clause and none of Duke Energy Florida’s service area is for sale, including the system that serves Clearwater and the surrounding areas."
Duke's 30-year agreement with Clearwater ends in December 2025.
