Switching from Gulf Power to Florida Power & Light was a heated topic earlier this year, as it changed more than just a logo. Many residents say they saw a steep hike in prices. Now looking into the new year, there is another thing coming that no one wants to hear. All FPL customers’ power bills will be going up.

“The bills are expected to go up mainly due to increased fuel costs, as we’ve seen in so many things at the gas pump, and even in food prices, costs are rising. And we’re not immune to that either, unfortunately,” Sarah Gatewood, a spokesperson for Florida Power & Light, said. “And so the cost of natural gas that is used to generate power in all of our power plants and for a big portion of the energy that we produce, those costs have skyrocketed in the last year due to a number of things.”

FPL customers across Northwest Florida will see price hikes starting in February.

“Keep in mind that customers use different amounts of energy. so that will look different depending upon how much energy you use. and then also for our customers in Northwest Florida, we do have a tiered rate structure now where you pay a higher amount for all the energy that you use over 1,000 kilowatts hours,” Gatewood said.

Those who use 1,000 kilowatts or less per month will see a $5 increase.

“There’s that change and there are other changes coming as well and so the biggest thing that customers can do is look at your energy usage now, how and where you’re using energy, find some of those ways that you can either make changes in habits or changes in your home to become more energy efficient,” Gatewood said.

The next rate change will be just two months later, offsetting fuel costs FPL spent to run its power plants this year.

“The rates that customers were paying for 2022 fuel actually ended up being a lot less than what fuel actually costs,” Gatewood said. “In April is when we expect to possibly begin recovering those other fuel costs and other things, but we don’t know what that impacts the bill looks like yet.”

NewsChannel reached out to Florida’s Public Service Commission to see what that number may look like. A spokesperson said they say they won’t know until after Tuesday’s meeting, where the PSC will vote on FPL’s fuel cost changes. It looks at how much the actual fuel cost was in 2022 compared to what they originally expected. That difference is made up on customers’ bills.

From: https://www.wjhg.com/2022/12/06/florida-power-light-customers-see-price-hikes-2023/