Rising fuel prices are driving up costs to provide service to Duke Energy Florida customers in January 2023.
“We understand our customers continue facing increased financial demands in all parts of their lives,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “We’re connecting customers to available assistance and providing energy-saving tools and programs to help manage their bills and lessen the impact. Please reach out to us. We’re here to help.”
The company works diligently to reduce costs while ensuring safe, reliable, cleaner energy 24/7 to meet our customers’ growing needs. Through cost management and careful planning, Duke Energy Florida has made thoughtful investments to significantly enhance service reliability and reduce emissions while lowering rates for our customers. Our goal is to provide the best possible price for our customers.
Duke Energy Florida does not profit from these increased fuel costs, and the company proactively takes measures to insulate customers from volatility. Through past efforts such as 2021’s Rate Mitigation Plan, Duke Energy Florida sought to lessen the impact to customers from the fuel price increases. These costs are market-driven and passed through to customers with no markup.
Since the beginning of the year, natural gas prices have more than doubled, driven by increased domestic demand, flat natural gas production, strong LNG exports to Europe and Asia, and low natural gas storage inventories. The natural gas market has not stabilized and continues to be extremely volatile.
Today’s filing is the result of unprecedented fuel cost increases. Due to the historic rise in the cost of fuel, the company is projecting higher fuel costs in 2023 and is under-recovered in 2022. Under-recovery means the actual cost of fuel is higher than the cost customers are paying.
Under these extraordinary circumstances, at this time Duke Energy Florida proposes to delay filing for the 2022 under-recovered fuel costs in the 2023 rates in the event the market will stabilize as the year progresses. The company will continue to monitor the market and its impact to determine the appropriate time to file the under-recovered fuel costs.
Beginning January 2023, a typical residential customer monthly bill using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) will see an approximate 13% increase. This rate change includes the projected fuel prices for 2023, but excludes the under-recovered fuel costs from 2022.