TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s Public Service Commission (PSC) today set recovery charges beginning in January 2021 for Duke Energy Florida, LLC (DEF). Commissioners also decided that no further action be taken on DEF’s Bartow Unit 4 2017 outage until the appellate review process is concluded.

The PSC previously set recovery charges beginning in January 2021 for Florida’s other four investor-owned electric utilities: Florida Power & Light Company, Tampa Electric Company, Gulf Power Company, and Florida Public Utilities Company on November 3.  The PSC could not address DEF’s fuel and capacity cost factors because of the contested issue over the refund related to the Bartow Unit 4.

On December 1, 2020, the PSC voted to approve a stay of the PSC Order to refund the $16.1 million plus interest while DEF pursues its appeal of the decision related to Bartow Unit 4 to the Florida Supreme Court.

By Florida Statute and established Commission policy, electric utilities may recover certain expenses and capital investments from customers through cost recovery charges adjusted annually by the PSC.  Cost recovery is allowed on fuel and purchased power, capacity, conservation, environmental requirements, and storm protection plan costs. Utilities may not, however, earn a profit on fuel charges.

The majority of the charges approved today for DEF are related to fuel and are included in the fuel charge on customers’ bills.  All other approved charges are included in the energy charge, which also includes the utilities’ base rate charge. Including base rate changes, monthly bill charges in January 2021 for a DEF residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) are:

• DEF: The current monthly residential bill of $130.26 for 1,000 kWh usage will change to $126.63, a decrease of $3.63. DEF recovery amounts include:  fuel and purchased power $28.11, capacity $14.05, conservation $3.38, environmental $0.99, storm protection plan $0.31, asset securitization $2.51, and Gross Receipts Tax $3.17.

For information related to the other IOU’s cost recovery charges, please see November 4, 2020 PSC news release.

For additional information, visit www.floridapsc.com.

Follow the PSC on Twitter, @floridapsc.

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