FPL Customer Fuel Charges Could Drop $379 Million, Utility Proposes

JUNO BEACH, FL — Florida Power & Light Co. filed a plan Wednesday to reduce fuel charges by $379 million to its 11 million Florida customers beginning in May to partially offset proposed bill increases to pay for last year's two hurricane restorations and high fuel costs.

The proposal filed with the Florida Public Service Commission would reduce the fuel charge on the typical 1,000-kilowat residential customer bill by $4.43 a month, including taxes and fees, from May through December, reflecting a second cut in projected natural gas costs for 2023 after last year's high levels.

FPL supplies electric service in most of the territory along the east coast of Florida (except the Jacksonville area and four other municipalities which have municipal electric systems), the agricultural area around southern and eastern Lake Okeechobee, the lower west coast area, and portions of central and north central Florida.

"This is good news for customers," said Armando Pimentel, president and CEO of FPL. "We recognize that sharp inflation is impacting our customers and that every dollar counts which is why we are pleased to provide relief to customers as fuel prices have moderated."

The commission is considering proposals FPL submitted in January to increase customer bills in April to recover $1.3 billion in incremental restoration costs from hurricanes Ian and Nicole and $2.1 billion to make up for higher-than-projected natural gas costs in 2022.

To partially offset these proposed increases, FPL's January filing also called for decreasing projected 2023 fuel charges by $1 billion due to an expected drop in natural gas prices below original projections. Wednesday's proposal to reduce fuel charges by $379 million is in addition to the earlier $1 billion proposed reduction.

Even with the increase in natural gas prices in recent years, natural gas remains far more cost-effective than fuel oil and coal to generate electricity, said Pimentel.

FPL's decision in the early 2000s to seek energy independence and modernize its generating fleet by moving away from foreign oil and constructing ultra fuel-efficient clean energy centers as well as America's largest solar expansion has saved cusomers more than $14 billion while dramatically reducing carbon emissions, he said.

Pimentel said FPL's solar fleet — the largest in America — doesn't use fuel at all to generate electricity, avoiding about $375 million in fuel costs in 2022 alone. FPL brought 13 solar energy centers online so far this year and will add three more solar plants in 2023 as part of plans to install 90,000 megawatts of solar energy in Florida and massively expand battery storage over the next two decades.

With the bill increase proposed to take effect in April, FPL is encouraging customers to take steps now to lower their bills by monitoring energy use and making their homes more energy efficient.

For example:

• Depending on the season, customers should cool their home at 78 degrees or warmer or heat their home at 68 degrees or cooler. Each degree customers lower or increase the temperature on their thermostat can reduce their bill by 5 percent a month for heating or cooling costs.
• Customers can clean the lint filter in their dryer before each load to minimize drying time.
• Turn off ceiling fans and lights in unoccupied rooms.
• View daily, weekly and monthly energy use by using the FPL Mobile App, which is available on the Apple App store, Google Play or by texting "App" to MyFPL (69375).
• Customers can activate the free FPL Energy Manager tool to monitor how their home is using energy and identify ways to save.
• For more helpful tips, customers can visit FPL.com/waystosave.

The country's largest electric utility, Florida Power & Light serves more than 5.8 million accounts.