Company is spreading out costs to reduce impact on bills
Tampa Electric is committed to providing safe, reliable energy to the Tampa Bay area, where customers depend on the company to power their homes and businesses every day. And the company shares customers’ concerns about rising prices and wants to help.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) today unanimously approved Tampa Electric’s requests to seek uncollected fuel costs from 2022 and expenses for the prompt restoration efforts after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. The price of natural gas tripled between 2020 and 2022 due to global and economic conditions. Although TECO paid fuel and storm expenses upfront, Tampa Electric waited until early this year to make this request, to help mitigate the impact on customer bills, as natural gas prices dropped and began to stabilize.
"We are proud to provide great value to our customers every day, and we worked hard to reduce the impact of these unforeseen events,” said Archie Collins, president and chief executive officer of Tampa Electric. "We encourage customers to use our many free programs to better manage electricity use, which can lead to lower bills. If more help is needed, we can provide information on additional options.”
This adjustment is the second of two steps, as initially mentioned in the autumn. The company phased in the increases in two steps, to ease the transition. To further reduce the impact on customers, the company spread out fuel costs over 21 months, through the end of 2024. Storm costs will be spread over 12 months. Fuel and storm costs are passed directly to customers without any markup by the utility.
The typical residential customer’s monthly energy bill will increase by about 10 percent, or $14.41, to $161.13 for 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of use, from the $146.72 customers pay today. Commercial and industrial customers’ increases will rise between 5 percent and 10 percent, depending on usage.
Bills will adjust in April. Even with the change, the typical residential bill would remain among the lowest in Florida.
To ease the strain of higher energy bills, Tampa Electric is working directly with customers. To help customers during this time, the company has:
- Created a dedicated Customer Assistance team to connect eligible customers with financial assistance and to ensure they get the help they need.
- Contributed $2 million to help qualified customers pay past-due bills.
- Streamlined the application for certain financial assistance programs and reduced paperwork.
- Worked with thousands of customers to provide payment arrangements and waive certain fees.
- Reduced customer fuel costs by about $80 million in 2022 because of our investment in clean, renewable solar power.
- For commercial customers, the company provides energy conservation programs and energy audits to help use energy more efficiently.
Tampa Electric provides more energy-saving programs than any other utility in the state to help customers manage energy costs. Customers can learn more and sign up at tampaelectric.com/save (residential) and tampaelectric.com/bizsave (business). A variety of appliance calculators also are available online to help customers pinpoint opportunities for savings.
Tampa Electric understands some customers are experiencing financial hardship and wants to help. The company partners with many community agencies to offer programs that support customers in need and offers flexible payment arrangements. More information on resources and programs can be found online at tampaelectric.com/updates.
If you need help paying your electric bill:
- Call us, we can help set up a payment plan and connect you to the Customer Assistance team for additional support, if eligible.
- Call 211, you can connect with other financial assistance programs available through our community partners, including the Share program.
Tampa Electric, one of Florida’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, serves about 830,000 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.
