Residential bills will remain among Florida’s lowest and below national average
Beginning in January, Tampa Electric customers will see slightly higher bills to reflect the prices of fuel and other factors, as part of an annual adjustment approved today by state regulators.
A residential customer’s monthly bill will rise by $1.32 to $106 for 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh), about a 1 percent rise from the current $104.68 a month, beginning in January. Tampa Electric residential customers’ bills would remain about 17 percent below the national average – which is $127.20 per month, according to June 2017 data from the Energy Information Administration. Commercial and industrial customers would see bills rise by approximately 2 percent.
The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) today unanimously approved Tampa Electric’s request. Although natural gas prices remain low, the proposed increase is due to a 2017 refund to customers that is cycling off bills for 2018. The refund was related to over-collected fuel expense from a previous year.
“Tampa Electric continues to have some of the lowest rates in Florida,” said Gordon Gillette, president and chief executive officer of Tampa Electric. “We are proud to provide outstanding value to our customers every day – for about the cost of a gallon of milk.”
The company estimates that by the end of 2017 it will spend $36 million less on fuel than originally projected. The fuel portion of the bill is based on actual costs for natural gas and coal during the first six months of 2017, projections for the remainder of 2017 and expected fuel prices in 2018.
Tampa Electric’s fuel mix is predominantly comprised of coal and natural gas. The cost of fuel is a substantial portion of an electric bill, currently about one-third of a residential customer’s bill. Fuel costs are passed through from fuel suppliers to our customers with no markup or profit to Tampa Electric. Tampa Electric maximizes the use of existing low-cost, well-performing plants and power purchased from other companies to mitigate costs and pass the savings to customers.
Tampa Electric, one of Florida’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, serves about 750,000 customers in West Central Florida. Tampa Electric is a subsidiary of Emera Inc., a geographically diverse energy and services company headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
