Investor-owned utility profits have soared as consumer utility bills have skyrocketed in recent years, according to a new analysis of dozens of electricity providers.
The Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group tracking fossil fuel and utility industries, analyzed financial disclosures from 110 investor-owned electric utilities between 2021 and 2024, as well as available 2025 filings. The report, published on Thursday, does not include nonprofit electric providers such as municipal utilities or rural electric cooperatives.
Last year, state-regulated, investor-owned electric utilities kept about 15 cents of every dollar they collected as profit, the report concluded. (For a customer paying a $200 monthly electric bill, that means about $30 went to corporate profits.) The 2025 figure is up from around 13 cents on average between 2021 and 2024, it said.
Florida Power and Light, which serves around 12 million customers through 6 million accounts in Florida and serves all of Flagler County, far exceeded those margin, ranking atop the list in profit margin for 2025, and second on the list between 2021 and 2024. FPL’s profit margin in 2025 was 27.44 percent, followed by MidAmerivan Energy with 27.16 percent.
The report found the utilities with the highest average margin between 2021 and 2024 were MidAmerican Energy (27.22%), Florida Power & Light (23.51%), Nantucket Electric (23.24%), Empire District Electric (22.45%) and Florida Public Utilities (20.35%).
Among the companies reporting figures, FPL in 2025 had a profit of $5.012 billion, second-highest to SoCalEdison’s $5.03 billion. In November, the Florida Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in the state, approved what opponents of the deal called the largest rate hike in U.S. history. (See: “FPL Customers Face $6.9 Billion Rate Increase in 4 Years as Regulators Approve Controversial ‘Settlement’.”)
The utilities examined in the analysis reported almost $186 billion in profits between 2021 and 2024, the study concluded.
“These patterns suggest that a substantial share of what customers pay for electricity is consistently flowing to investors as profit,” the report said, “a finding that is especially significant as consumers face persistently high energy costs and financial stress.”
The analysis found regional variation in utility profits.
Utilities in the Southeast operating outside of organized wholesale electricity markets, where electricity is sold and bought in bulk, earned higher profits. Across Alabama, Florida, Georgia and other Southeastern states, utilities retained nearly 16% of their revenue as profit between 2021 and 2024, the report said.
By contrast, utilities in the PJM Interconnection regional market serving the mid-Atlantic averaged about 11.8%, while utilities in New York and New England reported similar or lower levels.
The analysis comes as consumer utility bills continue to outpace the rate of inflation and state lawmakers of both parties increasingly scrutinize utility prices.
A February report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association found about 1 in 6 U.S. households were behind on utility bills. That organization, which represents state employees administering federal energy assistance programs, said American households were collectively behind $25 billion on electric and gas bills at the end of 2025 — up from about $23 billion the year before.
The association said home heating costs were projected to rise by 11% this winter — more than four times the rate of inflation — reaching their highest level in at least four years amid higher electricity and natural gas prices and colder-than-average weather.
Most consumers get their electricity from utilities that must seek state approval for rate changes, with appointed or elected state boards approving price structures.
While state lawmakers, governors and regulators are increasingly questioning utility prices, the Energy and Policy Institute says states can take more action to control profits.
Thursday’s report calls for states to set lower profit rates for investor-owned utilities, scrutinize the financing of new capital investments, link utility earnings to customer results and strengthen the role of consumer advocates in rate decisions.
—Kevin Hardy, Stateline, and FlaglerLive
Al says
When an hurricane knocks out power across a couple of hundred miles those profits are used up quickly. California limited the profits of it’s electric companies and it worked out great if you like blackouts constantly. I’ll pay the additional rate as long as my power is either on or restored quickly after a storm.
PaulT says
Do you have investments in FPL?
Haven’t you noticed that each time tnere’s widespread hurricane damage FPL adds a surcharge to our bills to cover repairs?
Are you even aware that Tallahassee has approved a significant, incremental price hike in favor of FPL?
Do you not wonder why DeSantis’ governance protects and supports increased profits for service industries instead of protecting the interests of the general population of Florida?
Deborah Coffey says
AI Overview
Based on 2023-2024 data, the CEO of Florida Power & Light (FPL), Armando Pimentel Jr., had a total compensation of approximately $10.4–$11 million, which included a base salary around $900k–$1M, with the remainder in stock awards, options, and bonuses. John Ketchum, CEO of parent company NextEra Energy, earned significantly more, totaling over $20 million.
REALLY? Because it isn’t only power you’re paying for!
Sherry says
For the Maga/Fox indoctrinated who have probably never been to CA:
I’ve lived in both states for many years. The “reality” is that here in CA we DO NOT have “blackouts constantly”! Our personal experience is that in the 4 years since we returned to CA, we’ve experienced ONE outage due to someone knocking over a local pole with his car. It took PG&E about 3 hours to fully restore power. Otherwise, we’ve had one planned outage of about 1 hour due to a transformer upgrade. Nothing else.
While living in Flagler Beach, it was much the same except during hurricane season. There were times when we went over 1 week without power. Several times it was 2 or 3 days.
The data says:
In the last 20 years, Florida has had the most people “per capita” impacted by power outages — more than 900,000.
In 2022, California fires accounted for 24% of all U.S. power outages, and Texas accounted for 14%.
California, Texas, and Pennsylvania are the states most affected by power outages during the winter.
BTW. . . our monthly bills are similar to Florida, and they have risen about 2% in the last 4 years.
Al says
Actually I’ve been to California and I conducted business there for years until the beauracy added so much paperwork to comply that it wasn’t worth it. My company left and never returned and till this day we won’t consider customers in California. Everyone has a place they love, some it’s large cities, others it’s wilderness so stay where your happy and let us be happy here.
Jim says
No offense to Al says but Florida got hit with four hurricanes between 2021-2024 (Wikipedia) and during that time, according to this article, FPL averaged 23.51% profit. That’s almost $1 profit for every $4 paid by their customers. Sounds like you were satisfied with their response to any outages you experienced. That is good. But each and every year, FPL goes to this state legislature crying the blues about how they need money for this and that. That’s to be expected but isn’t if fair to expect our representatives to look at the cost/profit performance over time and demand more fiscal accountability? I’ve got no problem with FPL making a profit. That is their right and it’s a core expectation of their investors. However, 23.51 percent on average sounds a “little” high to me. I worked for several large government contractors in my career and our target profits were in the range of 10-15% per contract. The government audited our proposal before giving us the contract and they audited our performance afterwards. Occasionally, we’d perform exceptionally well (perhaps find a better, cheaper way) and exceed 15%. That was fine if we could provide justification. But, interestingly enough, the government had this strange requirement that that savings be passed on to them in follow-on contracts. So exceeding 15% was much more the exception than the rule. With that in mind, seems to me that Florida should be doing the same thing or similar. Florida residents deserve to pay as reasonable a rate as possible for power. FPL should be required to justify their expenditures and explain the high profits vs. their forecasts. I don’t see anything unreasonable about that.
And, since the average profit reported in this article is around 15%, seems to me it’s not unreasonable to expect FPL to move a little closer to that figure over time.
Mr. Bill says
Yea FPL!
We have the 2nd lowest power bills of any state.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/states-where-americans-pay-most-least-electricity
Keep on making those profits (Liberal Cuss Word) and giving us almost the lowest power bills in the country!
Ain’t it great?
Deborah Coffey says
A complete and total LIE. It’s an easy Google…unless you meant to be sarcastic.
Land of no turn signals says says
Hurricane restoration is not a form of there charity,they are recouped in the form of rate increases to pay themselves back.
celia says
TY Sherry! My daughter lives between CA and AZ and she never cares in CA for her power bill as she earns such a good income there, that her only concern is that in any often free time, to travel and see the world. I am so happy for her. Yet I am not concerned about FPL bill here as our water utility has become really high in comparison.
DaleL says
I really cannot complain about FPL (Nextera Energy Inc.). According to my last electric bill, I paid 13.85 cents per kilowatt. ($170.73 for 1233 kWh) The national average is 18.05 cents per kWh.
https://www.electricchoice.com/electricity-prices-by-state/
Except for Hurricane Matthew, my home on the barrier island has not lost power for more than several hours. I drive an electric car which I charge at home, except for long trips. My cost for 50 kWh to drive my car 200 miles is $6.93. The fuel cost for my wife’s Acura to drive the same 200 miles is closer to $28 right now with $3.75 per gallon gasoline.
The dividend yield for Nextera Energy Inc. is 2.69%, which is pretty good, but not outrageous. This is a much better return than a savings account. Because FPL and other utilities owned by Nextera use natural gas, solar, and nuclear power, our electricity rate is not dependent on oil prices. It also means that Nextera’s stock price has not been affected by the war against Iran.
Sherry says
Oh Yes. . . I forgot about the difference in water. The water here is sparkling clean and really delicious, straight from the tap. Our water/sewer/refuse bills are about 1/2 of what we paid in Florida, and we no longer need to deal with the inconvenience and cost of expensive water filters. Brita just didn’t work for us in Flagler Beach.
Al says
Why the profit? Companies exist to make a profit otherwise why would they consider the investment. The left thinks companies exist as charities to prop up all the hairbrained ideas they have. The right sees them as investments in the countries future. I’m not going to invest my money in a company that doesn’t turn a decent profit. There are ways to cut your electricity usage if the bill is too high.