TALLAHASSEE (News Service of Florida) -- After Florida Power & Light made a similar request last week, Tampa Electric Co. on Friday asked state regulators for a boost in customer bills in 2022 because of higher-than-expected natural gas costs.
Tampa Electric filed a proposal at the state Public Service Commission to collect about $273 million more starting in February to cover the costs of power-plant fuel. That would translate to a $15.43 increase in the monthly electric bills of residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month.
Florida utilities, which have become increasingly reliant on natural gas as they have moved away from dirtier-burning coal, are grappling with volatile gas prices. Fuel costs are generally passed through to customers.
“The drivers of this change are low natural storage levels, high demand for liquefied natural gas exports and static production,” Tampa Electric said in its filing, as it detailed projected costs that have increased for 2021 and 2022.
Tampa Electric said in a news release that its power-plant “fuel mix” in 2022 is expected to be about 82 percent natural gas, about 10 percent solar and about 8 percent coal. Under the proposal, fuel costs would make up about one-third of residential customer bills.
The filing said gas costs for 2021 are now estimated to be $83.3 million higher than expected, and the 2022 costs are now estimated to be $189.2 million higher than expected.
Tampa Electric has about 800,000 customers across most of Hillsborough County and parts of Polk, Pasco, and Pinellas counties.
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