Florida Public Service Commission

Utility leaders say they are responding to a trend of stronger and more unpredictable hurricanes as the 2024 outlook calls for what may be the busiest hurricane season ever.

Electric bills will be reduced starting in June due to lower-than-expected natural gas costs.

Duke will also collect $166.1 million in storm-related costs from customers next year.

After Florida Power & Light said the tab for restoring electricity after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole was lower than expected, state regulators Thursday approved a proposal that will reduce the amount of storm costs passed along to customers.

The Florida Public Service Commission are bringing up their concerns to the EPA over a federal proposal aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. State regulators argue that the changes could drive up costs for consumers and hurt the reliability of the state’s electric system.

The new area code will be assigned in the same territory as the 305 and 786 area codes that cover Miami-Dade County and the Keys.

The Florida Public Service Commission has oversight of certain issues for local utilities but does not regulate their rates.

The Public Service Commission is slated March 7 to take up proposals from Duke and other state utilities. Customers can expect to see higher bills in April.

One legislator compared customers paying surcharges while not being able to vote for municipal offices as “taxation without representation.”

Under the proposals, the increases would mean around 20% higher electric bills for Duke customers and about 10% for TECO customers.

Bills will go up for many customers of Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric, FPL and Florida Public Utilities. They likely will increase again in the spring because of high costs of natural gas used to fuel power plants.

Duke customers are expected to see increased electric bills in 2023, but the proposal would ease that rise.