Duke Energy bid to raise Florida rates moves toward resolution

Duke Energy customers in Florida may soon get a definitive answer to how much more they’ll be paying for base rates on their electric bills starting next year.

On Monday, lawyers for Duke as well as the Office of Public Counsel, which advocates for electricity consumers, filed a joint motion to regulators in which they agreed to suspend the typical procedures of the rate case to instead turn their attention to hammering out a settlement agreement.

That agreement would contain important details, such as the guaranteed rate of shareholder profit that Duke will make from customers over the next three years. Duke’s requested margin has come under scrutiny for being above the national average with a midpoint of 11.15%. At a series of public meetings last month, Duke customers in the Tampa Bay area implored state utility regulators in the Public Service Commission to bring that figure down. Last year, the average Duke bill in Florida ranked fifth-highest in the nation compared to other utilities with at least 100,000 customers.

Base rates are a major component of electric bills, which also include other charges. Duke requested an increase of about $820 million, but has said that other costs will be falling off customers’ bills next year.

Several other groups involved in the case, including large industrial power users as well as advocacy organizations that have opposed Duke’s requested profits, supported the motion to work on a settlement.

When an agreement is finalized in the next few weeks, it will become public. Once that happens, the Public Service Commission would meet to discuss approval.

Few details were available Monday about what the agreement could say.

“We look forward to sharing more details as it progresses,” said Duke spokesperson Audrey Stasko.