Consumer activists said Tuesday that the proposed $9.8 billion rate hike that Florida Power & Light (FPL) is asking for is excessive and should be rejected by state regulators.
In February, FPL, the state’s largest public utility servicing approximately 12 million people, submitted a four-year request for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to set new rates once its current base rate agreement expires at the end of this year. [FPL is, with rare exception, the only power provider in Flagler County and its cities.]
“Floridians are facing a full-blown affordability crisis,” said Brooke Ward, senior Florida organizer with Food & Water Watch. “Yet FPL wants to raise rates by almost $10 billion over the next 4 years. Let’s be honest, this is not about reliability or infrastructure, it’s about boosting profits.”
In June, the state Office of Public Counsel told the PSC that FPL would be overcharging customers were the proposed rate hike approved and said it should receive only around $105 million of the nearly $10 billion it is asking for.
Among the organizations that have been rallying their members to contact the PSC to tell them to oppose FPL’s proposed rate increase is the AARP. The senior-rights group created an online petition months ago asking its nearly 3 million Florida members who are also FPL consumers to ask the PSC not to approve the rate increase
“FPL is proposing a sharp increase on monthly electric bills, and older residents living on fixed incomes will be hit the hardest,” said Zayne Smith, senior director for advocacy with AARP Florida. “FPL is also seeking the highest return on investment in the country. This is not about serving customers. It’s about corporate greed and the customers who will pay the price.”
In its petition to the PSC, FPL says if its proposed rate increases are approved it will earn a return on equity of 11.9%. That’s the percentage of profit a utility company generates relative to the amount of money invested by shareholders. The national average is 9.5%.
Residential customers can calculate how the proposal would affect their individual bills by using the calculator feature at FPL.com/answers, according to a news release. By 2029, the “typical” FPL customer in Florida would pay $151.99 per month compared with the $134.14 a month average customers in peninsular Florida now pay and the $143.60 a month average that Panhandle customers now pay, according to FPL.
The difference between “rates” and “bills”
Residential rates would be raised by about 2.5%, FPL officials say, which would keep bills well below the national average and below many other Florida electric utilities.
But opponents counter that claim. Ward says there’s a difference between “rates” and “bills.”
“At the end of the day, FPL customers will be paying higher bills. And what do Florida families care about? The amount that they put in their bill,” she said, adding that utilities in Florida can collect additional funds from items like storm recovery costs that came last year in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
And in May of this year, the PSC approved Storm Protection Plan agreements for FPL, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric Co., and Florida Public Utilities Co. designed to strengthen long-term storm protection measures and improve grid resilience.
How much is “public” about the Public Service Commission?
Tampa Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, criticized the Public Service Commission, saying it should be renamed the “Utility Service Commission” because “more often than not, they are in service to the electric utilities, rather than the public.”
Displeasure with the PSC isn’t limited to Democratic lawmakers.
Florida Supreme Court Justice Carlos Muñiz late last year basted the PSC for not providing enough information to justify a public utility rate increase. He made those remarks after the Supreme Court in September 2023 ruled that the PSC did not adequately justify approval of a settlement that increased base electric rates for FPL and ordered a new explanation, the News Service of Florida reported.
Panhandle Republican state Sen. Don Gaetz filed a bill (SB 354) during the 2025 legislative session that would have required the PSC to become much more transparent in its actions.
Its provisions included that the agency provide adequate support for its conclusions when issuing orders; keep the return on equity for public utilities as close as possible to the risk-free rate of return; and submit an annual report of public utility rates that includes benchmarking and analysis on economics, cost impacts, return on equity, and executive compensation.
The bill passed in one committee in the Senate before failing to advance. Gaetz said the measure was killed by the public utilities, according to Politico.
Public hearings for the PSC to consider the rate hike will begin on Aug. 11. The final decision is expected in the fall.
–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
PB says
Watch how this works. Ask for 10 and politicians will give them the 6 they really wanted. Politicians look good and we all are happy. Can you name the other empire destroyed by greed and corruption? Welcome to the slippery slope!!!
JimboXYZ says
It’s all those solar farms that we’re being forced to fund & build. They sent out their sales teams to the neighborhoods a week ago. Woman asks me why there are so many duplexes in my section. She can’t find a home owner with $ 10’s of thousands to spend on solar panels that can enter into a contract for Biden’s Green New Deal of BS. They’d still be raising the rates on us if every roof had solar panels on them. But I told the woman, the duplexes are rental properties with over-utilizers living in them. Why would half a duplex for a 3 BR/2BA have 4 cars & commercial vehicles parked in front of the place ? I told her this is unaffordable Biden-ville/Alfin-ville. Let’s keep that growth movement in full swing. It’s just getting better & better, sandbagged by the Biden-Harris fraud & abuse. I’m actually impressed Trump has reduced inflation by what he has in +/-6 months. Part of what I heard from the discussion with the solar girl hottie was that power poles will need to be replaced with concrete one’s, some of the areas are getting underground power to replace or outright new develop residentials that had or has never been over head for power lines.
Deborah Coffey says
The Fascists will likely give FP&L it’s way…meaning that every customer will be paying $817 more a year…until FP&L wants even more money. How is America enjoying Fascism?
Pogo says
@Data centers, AI
… send their regards — and the bill.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/07/ai-in-wyoming-may-soon-use-more-electricity-than-states-human-residents/
Follow the cheese — to the rats on their knees
https://www.google.com/search?q=nvidia+stock+price
R.S. says
I’d like for FPL to shut down its St. Lucy nuclear reactor, which was deemed unsafe in 2012 already, when FPL fired the safety engineer who pointed out the cracks in the reactor. We have sun; we have wind; we have the tides! There is no reason to maintian something as lethal as a nuclear reactor. A very casual comparison with a map of thyroid cancer will show the main impact in the vicinity of the St. Lucy facility. Besides I’m standing with the indigenous Shoshone where cancer rates have increased ever since atomic waste has been deposited there at Yucca Mountain. A simple building code change that would place at least one solar collector on every new home built in Florida would drop prices and increase power production.
No money for school says
That’s great now anyone on Florida unemployment will get enough money to pay their electric bill and that’s it! Hungy homeless the first month what a program! Sick and sad. Ready to end this fascist regime yet?
PB says
ATTENTION! all of you political haters!
GREED is color blind!
Bored says
@jimboxyz Suffering from Biden Derangement Syndrome I see. What you said is 100% false. But I expect nothing less from an uneducated mouthpiece that supports a pedo. Taco is in the Epstein files. And don’t scream Clinton is there too. If he diddled kids, arrest him. Difference is, I’m not in a cult. Everyone on that list involved with the over 1,000 girls Epstein AND Maxwell trafficked (including some Epstein “stole” from Taco, which was choice phrasing by the way), should have book thrown at them, including your demigod.
JimboXYZ says
@bored,
“@jimboxyz Suffering from Biden Derangement Syndrome I see. What you said is 100% false.”
Not BDS, not false the discussion I had with the salesperson for FPL solar panels on my, now 2 year old roof. End of the day, we had 4 years of an administration in between the Trump admins that is on record to go solar, battery & electric in every home & for every type of transportation 2 & 4 wheels for the masses. Who was that tweener POTUS again ? Biden ?
One doesn’t need to be a genius to see all the increasing usage of ebikes & EV’s moving around Flagler County, the push toward a Tesla or 2 in every garage. What do you think “Grid Resiliency”means in FPL jargon ? I was told the wood power pole at the edge of my property was marked for replacement for a concrete power pole, was told that other areas were moving towards underground power distribution for power lines. I lived in North Miami Beach for a couple of decades. Aventura, FL has the underground power lines. Hurricane Wilma knocked out the above ground power for 10 days where I lived in NMB, Aventura had power restored and maybe missed a few hours of any outage in those same 10 days. We all stood out & watched the sun go down together, who had power, who didn’t. Another hurricane had wiped out above ground power poles on the west side of Miami-Dade county. After years of service above ground poles can & did snap from storms. The dead wood dries out & cracks, high winds, water, ice (in some locations, FL did get snow recently, as earlier as 2025 Winter, all it takes is sub 32* F, some rain for a few days, FL is a little bigger than just your little Alfin-ville reduced plot of ground for a residence or that rental duplex that Palm coast has turned into) Go ahead Google images of storm damages for above ground power poles. Advice, maybe think before you post ? Another might just be commenting on something from a 1st hand perspective & real world experience that you were spared ? I don’t need to be the actual victim of a tornado to understand that we’ve had several here in Flagler county. It’s very real to the one(s) that found their SUV flipped in the road, a house or two from where they parked it the night before.
Grace says
The republican terror party has taken more money from citizen programs and functional govt and given it All to richest 200 people in the world . That’s just evil! If a monkey hordes all the bananas while other monkeys starve the hoarding monkey is forcibly removed from the group . Let’s forcibly remove the fascist cons! !! I’ve seen enough of their leadership!
Steve says
We should be given the option to MUTE Posters that we want.
Enough is Enough says
Flaglerlive was kind enough to post a link to a petition. If you don’t want to see high electric rates, feel free to sign and share.
https://action.aarp.org/secure/get-ampd-keep-rates-down-florida-power-light-rate-increase