A change in Florida’s corporate income tax will benefit customers; utility passing savings on to you
Tampa Electric is again reducing customers’ bills for 2020. In total, residential customers will pay about $26 less for annual electricity costs than they did in 2019.
Florida officials reduced the state’s corporate income tax rate, and Tampa Electric is passing the savings onto customers.
Beginning in January, the average residential customer will save 33 cents a month because of the reduction in corporate income taxes. The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) today unanimously approved the company’s request to reduce bills.
This reduction is in addition to other changes previously approved by the PSC, which are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, that will reduce customers’ bills by a total of about 1 percent. With these changes, the average residential bill in 2020 will drop to $102.19 for 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of usage. Additionally, in January, customer bills also will reflect a one-time credit as a result of federal tax reform, which for a typical residential bill is a reduction of about $9.
“Tampa Electric works hard to keep bills among the lowest in Florida,” said Nancy Tower, president and chief executive officer of Tampa Electric. “We are pleased we can pass these additional savings on to our customers.”
Large commercial and industrial customers also will see a decrease of about 2 percent, depending on usage. Smaller commercial customers will see a reduction of about 1 percent. Tampa Electric currently has the lowest commercial rates in the state.
The proposed decrease reflects a combination of filings that take effect in January, including expected low natural gas prices, more solar energy on our system and other factors. It also includes the addition of two new utility-scale solar projects that will come online in January.
Tampa Electric residential customers’ bills will continue to be among the lowest in Florida – about the same as customers paid in 2013 – and will drop to about 21 percent below the national average. According to September 2019 data from the Energy Information Administration, the national average of residential electric bills is $129.90 per month.
Tampa Electric, one of Florida’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, serves about 765,000 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.
