Gulf Power Announces Rate Changes
As you know, Gulf Power and Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) recently merged into a single company serving more than 5.6 million customer accounts across more than half of Florida – from Pensacola to Miami. On Friday, FPL filed a comprehensive four-year rate plan with the Florida Public Service Commission. FPL’s proposed plan includes unified rates and tariffs with Gulf Power that would be phased in beginning in January 2022. This plan, along with many other major investments, are all part of the strategy to provide cleaner, more reliable and lower-cost energy for customers.
Today, FPL’s overall rates are considerably lower than Gulf Power’s, and the goal is to align them over the next five years. After a slight increase next year, a typical residential bill for customers in Northwest Florida is projected to decrease each year from 2023 to 2025. As a result, a typical residential customer bill in Northwest Florida will be well below the national average in 2025.
For business customers, the alignment of rates with FPL means that some will experience rate class changes. The proposed base rate adjustments vary depending on rate class and usage. While the costs of other essential products and services, including groceries, medical care, health insurance and housing, have increased 25%-75% from 2006 to 2020, typical small business customer bills will decrease and typical medium and large business customer bills will grow at an average annual rate of approximately 2%-2.5% from January 2021 through 2025, roughly in line with inflation.
