Tampa Electric customers missed out on saving millions of dollars over the next few years, as the utility’s regulator chose to not cut a rate increase in half this week.
Staff for the Florida Public Service Commission recommended cutting TECO’s original request amounting to over $400 million by about $200 million. The entire package included rate increases, higher profits, and a new fracked gas plant for MacDill Air Force Base.
The PSC staff recommended a cut in proposed rate hikes that would have saved residential and small business customers $71 million in increases over three years, but PSC commissioners voted against their own staff recommendations.
Brooke Ward, with Food and Water Watch and the Hillsborough Affordable Energy Coalition, said the increases are being pushed unfairly onto residential customers — who are already struggling — and not onto big businesses.
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"The Public Service Commission does not serve the interests of the people of Florida, but instead serves the interests of big corporate, commercial and industrial interests," Ward said, pointing to the fact that the commission is made up of people appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis who are not as experienced in the industry as the staff are.
The PSC also approved a return on TECO’s equity of 10.5%, up from 10.2% currently, but that is less than what the utility requested: 11.5%, which advocates say “would have been among the highest guaranteed utility profits in the nation."
Commissioners further denied staff recommendations by allowing residential customers to foot the $167 million bill to build MacDill a new fracked gas plant. It’s being called the “South Tampa Resiliency Project.”
Ward said the energy produced would only be used at the base, and has no benefit for residents.
"We felt this was a pretty egregious ask, being that the Defense budget's rather large, and if a new energy source needed to be provided, that it would make sense for it to come from that budget rather than on the backs of struggling families," Ward said.
Ward also said adding a large amount of fracked gas to a peninsula that sticks out into Tampa Bay, which is prone to getting hit by storms, creates an added risk for the region.
“Most of these extreme weather events are a direct result of the burning of fossil fuels, and adding another new fossil fuel project to our region goes against all sanity in attempting to be more resilient,” Ward said.
TECO isn't releasing the official monthly increase until Dec. 19, and the changes will take effect in January.
That increase does not include TECO's storm recovery costs, which haven't been determined yet.
