Florida Power & Light is asking the Public Service Commission for permission to raise electric bills to recover hurricane costs and the increased price of natural gas.
FPL residential customers using 1,000 kWh in Northwest Florida saw a decrease on their January bill of one penny to $155.60. That same bill is set to go $159.79 in February. If the proposal filed Monday is approved, that same 1,000 kWh bill will increase to $173.09.
Customers in the rest of the state pay less for 1,000 kWh — $129.59 in February and, with the increase, $142.88 in April.
FPL is seeking $1.3 billion due to Hurricanes Ian and Nicole over 12 months, beginning in April. They also want to recover $2.1 million in increased natural gas costs over 21 months.
FPL is also seeking permission to recover about $2.1 billion to make up for the difference between projections and actual costs for natural gas in 2022. FPL’s proposal would spread these unrecovered 2022 fuel costs over a 21-month period beginning in April 2023 to reduce the impact on customer bills.
Partially offsetting these higher fuel costs, FPL plans to decrease its projected 2023 fuel factor by about $1 billion during the final nine months of this year due to a sharp drop in projected natural gas prices after 2023 projections were filed with the PSC in the third quarter of 2022.
FPL customers in the former Gulf Power territory may get some relief in the coming months.
As part of Monday’s filing, FPL also responded to the PSC’s request to calculate the impact of spreading the remaining costs from past hurricanes that affected customers of the former Gulf Power across all FPL customer bills. Doing so would reduce the monthly storm charge on a typical 1,000-kWh bill in Northwest Florida by nearly $10.
“FPL has a proven track record of keeping bills below the national average. When events beyond our control – like hurricanes and significant changes in fuel prices – force a change to customer bills, we try to do so in a thoughtful way that minimizes the impact on our customers while balancing the risk of invoices piling up,” said FPL Chairman and CEO Eric Silagy. “Still, we recognize that every dollar matters, which is why we encourage customers to use FPL’s free tools and simple tips to save energy and money on their electric bills.”