Florida Power & Light and numerous groups and businesses have hammered out a proposed settlement that would increase base electric rates over the next four years — but not by as much as the utility originally sought.
The proposed settlement, filed Wednesday at the Florida Public Service Commission, would lead to increases of $945 million in 2026 and $766 million in 2027, according to the utility. FPL also would collect additional amounts in 2028 and 2029 for solar-energy and battery-storage projects.
FPL, which provides power to all of Flagler County, filed a proposal in February that sought increases of $1.545 billion in 2026 and $927 million in 2027, along with passing along costs in 2028 and 2029 for solar and battery projects. But on Aug. 8, three days before the Public Service Commission was scheduled to start a likely-contentious hearing on that proposal, FPL and other parties announced they had reached a “settlement in principle.”
That led the regulatory commission to pause the rate case as details of the proposed settlement were finalized.
But other parties in the case have not agreed to the proposed settlement, including the state Office of Public Counsel, which is designated by law to represent utility customers. The Public Service Commission is expected to hold a hearing this fall to determine if the proposal should be approved.
“This settlement agreement is a win for all FPL customers and a win for Florida,” FPL President and CEO Armando Pimentel said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “It supports our ongoing commitment to meet the resiliency and reliability needs of our fast-growing state, while keeping customer bills well below the national average.”
But attorneys for three parties that did not sign on to the proposed settlement — Florida Rising, the League of United Latin American Citizens of Florida and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida — quickly blasted the potential deal. The groups, in a filing at the commission, argued that the settlement was tilted toward large FPL customers at the expense of residential power users.
“To allow residential customers and small businesses to pay only their fair share of the costs would require Florida’s largest and most profitable businesses to pay their fair share of the costs, and this they most certainly do not want to do,” the groups’ attorneys, from the Earthjustice legal organization, wrote in the filing.
FPL reached the proposed settlement with the Florida Industrial Power Users Group; the Florida Retail Federation; the Florida Energy for Innovation Association; Americans for Affordable Clean Energy; the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy; Walmart Inc.; EVgo Services, LLC; Circle K Stores, Inc.; RaceTrac Inc.; Wawa, Inc.; Electrify America, LLC; Armstrong World Industries, Inc.; and federal government agencies.
Base rates make up a major part of customers’ monthly bills, along with costs such as power-plant fuel. Base-rate cases play out over months at the Public Service Commission and involve voluminous amounts of financial and other data.
As a benchmark, utilities cite bills for residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month. FPL in recent years also has had different bill amounts for customers in its traditional service area and Northwest Florida customers who were previously served by Gulf Power Co.
If the proposed settlement is approved, FPL said Wednesday that residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt hours a month in the traditional territory would see their bills go from the current $134.14 to $137.93 in January 2026; $143.05 in January 2027; $146.24 in January 2028; and $148.15 in December 2029.
Such customers in Northwest Florida would see their bills go from the current $143.60 to $142.66 in January 2026; $143.05 in January 2027; $146.24 in January 2028; and $148.15 in December 2029.
The Office of Public Counsel has said FPL’s February rate proposal would have led, cumulatively, to customers paying $9.819 billion during the next four years over their current rates. FPL said in a news release Wednesday that the proposed settlement would result in base-rate revenues that would be about $2.9 billion less than originally requested.
As the Public Service Commission considers the proposed settlement, it will face myriad issues, including how the details would affect FPL’s various types of customers.
Also, for example, a closely watched issue in base-rate cases is utilities’ allowed “return on equity,” a measure of profitability. The proposed settlement includes a 10.95 percent target for return on equity. The original proposal called for 11.9 percent.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
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