Rates raised in January; more increases possible
\nTAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The current cost of electricity has Tampa Bay area residents worried about keeping their lights on.
\nA report just released by Wallet Hub found Tampa Bay has the highest inflation rate in the country \u2014 including everything from food to utilities.
\n\u201cWe’re looking at my bill that I just got in the mail… on here it\u2019s my current charges, but it was worth $449, and within a week, I got a new bill for $2,360,\u201d said St Petersburg resident Tammy McMullen, who rents a house in Coquina Key and has fallen several months behind on her electricity bill.
\n\u201cIt says installment plan ending balance $1,351. That’s installment plan. Keep in mind my bill was $950. I had agency help with $500, so I’m trying to figure out how do they jump from $449 to $2,300,\u201d she said in disbelief.
\nDuke Energy put her on what they call an installment plan which spreads out a larger bill over several months in addition to that month\u2019s current bill.
\nMcMullen is part of the 17% of U.S. households that the Bank Of America Institute found either missed or made late payments on utilities in 2022.
\n\u201cThe monthly bills are getting out of control, and a lot of people have told me the same thing,\u201d said Kim Zeches, who also rents a small home in St Pete. \u201cDuke Energy, I’ve been on budget billing with them, and I was paying $147 to $149 a month, which was, I thought it was reasonable, but then it jumped up to $245.\u201d
\nDuke\u2019s budget billing is another program aimed at helping reduce seasonal spikes in usage by spreading payments out evenly based on estimated usage from the year prior and adjusting every few months.
\nA closer look at Zeches bills shows charges exceeded payment predictions starting in October, pushing her further and further behind. Now she\u2019s paying double her previous bill every month.
\nAccording to the Bureau Of Labor Statistics, U.S. consumers paid about 14% more for electricity in 2022. In Tampa Bay, it was almost 22% more.
\nThis is largely due to the cost of natural gas skyrocketing in the last year for three main reasons:
\n1.The war in Ukraine increased the demand for liquefied natural gas from the U.S.
\n2.Higher than normal temperatures across the U.S.
\n3.A prolonged outage at a liquid natural gas facility in Texas
\n\u201cNatural gas prices have continuously increased and really fluctuated throughout the last 18 months,\u201d explained Ana Gibbs, a spokesperson for Duke Energy based in St Petersburg.
\nElectric companies across the country raised rates this year.
\nIn Florida, starting January 2023:
\n\uf0b7Duke Energy rates went up about 13%
\n\uf0b7Tampa Electric rates have jumped 11%
\n\uf0b7Florida Power And Light also rose roughly 8%
\n\u201cOn average, customers are going to see about a $27 difference from approximately one year ago,\u201d Gibbs explained. The dollar amount refers to the average 1,000 kilowatts used.
\nDuke Energy, like other power companies, encourages customers to call if they can\u2019t afford a bill.
\n\u201cWe help connect our customers through agencies who help provide financial assistance,\u201d Gibbs said.
\nBut both McMullen and Zeches said the community resources have only been able to help so much.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been calling different agencies. A lot of them help like with $50, and a lot of them don’t have any financial money to give,\u201d McMullen exclaimed.
\nWe asked Duke at what point would they shut someone\u2019s power off.
\nGibbs said, \u201cdisconnect for non-pay is a last resort. We try every way to help our customers either connect with assistance or provide installment plans, so we can basically avoid a disconnect.\u201d
\nWe also reached out to the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC), which regulates power companies in the state. We asked about their efforts to help Floridians with the rising cost of electricity.
\nA spokesperson referred us to a document explaining their thorough review process and clarifies the charges are to recover the costs spent by the companies, not for a profit.
\nWhen it comes to fuel and purchased power charges, the document reads: \u201cThe FPSC annually conducts a public hearing to review the fuel and purchased power costs of the four utilities. Charges are established to recover the costs found to be reasonable but these costs do not include a return or profit.\u201d
\nThe encouraging news for consumers is that the winter hasn\u2019t been as cold as expected, which means prices for natural gas are going down.
\nTwo things you can do to lower your electricity bill:
\n1.Monitor your usage \u2014 turn off lights and TVs when you\u2019re not home and try not to drastically cool or heat your residence.
\n2.Ask your utility company to come and do a free or low-cost energy audit to evaluate homes and buildings
\nSolar panels are also an option to help save on your bill. Companies often offer net metering for customers with solar panels, where they are credited back for energy they produce but don\u2019t use. Click here to read more in-depth about solar panels
\nSolar panels are also a method companies are using to help reduce their costs.
\nDuke Energy\u2019s website explains: \u201cDuke Energy Florida is already passing approximately $56 million of corporate tax savings annually to customers from the Inflation Reduction Act. For residential customers this resulted in a decrease of $1.90 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours beginning in January 2023. Additionally, the company is refunding customers another $11.7 million in tax savings from 2022 solar generation.\u201d
\nUnfortunately, the price of paradise isn\u2019t letting up. Despite tax breaks from the national Inflation Reduction Act, Florida companies have more requests for rate increases filed with the FPSC. The companies state they need more revenue to recover 2022 fuel costs as well as impacts from restoring power after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
\nIf approved, these increases could equate to about a 10% monthly increase for TECO customers and a 20% increase for Duke Energy customers starting in April of 2023. A decision should come in March.
\nFPSC\u2019s spokesperson said a utility company should be a resident\u2019s \u201cfirst line of relief.\u201d The commission does provide a form for customers to file utility complaints. Click here to file a complaint.<\/p>\n
Abcactionnews<\/p>\n
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Rates raised in January; more increases possible TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The current cost of electricity has Tampa Bay area residents worried about keeping their lights on. A report just released by Wallet Hub found Tampa Bay has the highest inflation rate in the country \u2014 including everything from food to utilities. \u201cWe’re looking at my bill that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[2563,2562,2561],"class_list":["post-6271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-area","tag-bay","tag-tampa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6273,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271\/revisions\/6273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}