Florida utility regulator votes to jack a utility's rates despite its own staff's recommendations

[lizkat]

If you don't smell some lobbying on behalf of Tampa Electric on this gig, try to see a doctor before Trump 2.0 makes that too expensive also,

Florida regulators approve Tampa Electric charging residents more so big companies save

The vote by the utility commissioners defied the recommendation of their staff.

www.tampabay.com

The Legislature-appointed consumer advocate, Walt Trierweiler, has called Tampa Electric’s rate hike requests “breathtaking” and “egregiously excessive,” warning they would exact “severe economic pain” on Floridians. The commission staff seemed to agree at least in part, formally recommending that the regulators deny many aspects of Tampa Electric’s request and slash its increases almost in half.

But on Tuesday, as the commissioners met to vote on the recommendations, they deviated several times in ways that will result in higher costs to residential electric bills.

“The staff recommendation was pretty good, and the commission just added back in a bunch of the costs,” said Jordan Luebkemann, an environmental lawyer who represented two pro-residential groups in the case. “This is a really disappointing outcome.”

Since a 2021 agreement that was signed by large corporations including a hospital group and Walmart, Tampa Electric has been shifting more costs onto its residential customers, while large power users — especially industrial companies — see smaller increases. That’s because the new structure weights how much power each customer class uses in four key months: January, June, July and August, when residents crank either their air conditionings or heaters the highest.

But in this year’s case, commission staff said Tampa Electric had not sufficiently proven this structure made sense, especially because it means residents largely foot the bill for new solar plants that are not related to seasonal peaks in demand. If commissioners had followed the staff recommendation, Tampa Electric’s cost structure would have become more similar to what’s used by Duke Energy Florida.

The Florida Public Service Commission regulators were all appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Tuesday’s meeting was rare, as an electric utility rate case hasn’t required these types of votes from commissioners in more than a decade.

Utility rate cases in Florida are often settled by the utility and regulators coming to an agreement before this point, which allows the companies to avoid the trial-like procedure in which sometimes-unflattering internal documents become public. Multiple pro-consumer lawyers in the case, including Trierweiler, have alleged that Tampa Electric is seeking to extract as much money as it can from Florida so it can prop up its Canadian parent company, Emera, which is more strictly regulated and is experiencing financial issues. Tampa Electric CEO Archie Collins has said there’s “no correlation” between the rate hike request and Emera’s struggles.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Just what Florida residents, already reeling from horrendous insurance rates, needed. 😡

 

[SouprMatt]

If you don't smell some lobbying on behalf of Tampa Electric on this gig, try to see a doctor before Trump 2.0 makes that too expensive also,

Florida regulators approve Tampa Electric charging residents more so big companies save

The vote by the utility commissioners defied the recommendation of their staff.

www.tampabay.com

This reminds me of the situation in North Carolina. Duke Energy is hooking up 2 GW of new capacity for data centers. They are doing it by burning more coal and charging residential consumers higher prices. Public utilities should be PUBLIC.. or at least non-profit!!!

$50 monthly hike in Duke Energy bills by 2033 is likely, officials say - Business North Carolina

Duke Energy residential customers will be paying about $50 to $60 a month more for electricity by 2033, on average, and about $80 a month more by 2038, according to the company’s latest projections.

businessnc.com