Consumer activists said Tuesday that the proposed $9.8 billion rate hike that Florida Power & Light (FPL) is asking for is excessive and should be rejected by state regulators.
In February, FPL, the state’s largest public utility servicing approximately 12 million people, submitted a four-year request for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to set new rates once its current base rate agreement expires at the end of this year.
“Floridians are facing a full-blown affordability crisis,” said Brooke Ward, senior Florida organizer with Food & Water Watch. “Yet FPL wants to raise rates by almost $10 billion over the next 4 years. Let’s be honest, this is not about reliability or infrastructure, it’s about boosting profits.”
In June, the state Office of Public Counsel told the PSC that FPL would be overcharging customers were the proposed rate hike approved and said it should receive only around $105 million of the nearly $10 billion it is asking for.
Among the organizations that have been rallying their members to contact the PSC to tell them to oppose FPL’s proposed rate increase is the AARP. The senior-rights group created an online petition months ago asking its nearly 3 million Florida members who are also FPL consumers to ask the PSC not to approve the rate increase
“FPL is proposing a sharp increase on monthly electric bills, and older residents living on fixed incomes will be hit the hardest,” said Zayne Smith, senior director for advocacy with AARP Florida. “FPL is also seeking the highest return on investment in the country. This is not about serving customers. It’s about corporate greed and the customers who will pay the price.”
In its petition to the PSC, FPL says if its proposed rate increases are approved it will earn a return on equity of 11.9%. That’s the percentage of profit a utility company generates relative to the amount of money invested by shareholders. The national average is 9.5%.
Residential customers can calculate how the proposal would affect their individual bills by using the calculator feature at FPL.com/answers, according to a news release. By 2029, the “typical” FPL customer in Florida would pay $151.99 per month compared with the $134.14 a month average customers in peninsular Florida now pay and the $143.60 a month average that Panhandle customers now pay, according to FPL.
The difference between “rates” and “bills”
Residential rates would be raised by about 2.5%, FPL officials say, which would keep bills well below the national average and below many other Florida electric utilities.
But opponents counter that claim. Ward says there’s a difference between “rates” and “bills.”
“At the end of the day, FPL customers will be paying higher bills. And what do Florida families care about? The amount that they put in their bill,” she said, adding that utilities in Florida can collect additional funds from items like storm recovery costs that came last year in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
And in May of this year, the PSC approved Storm Protection Plan agreements for FPL, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric Co., and Florida Public Utilities Co. designed to strengthen long-term storm protection measures and improve grid resilience.
How much is “public” about the Public Service Commission?
Tampa Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, criticized the Public Service Commission, saying it should be renamed the “Utility Service Commission” because “more often than not, they are in service to the electric utilities, rather than the public.”
Displeasure with the PSC isn’t limited to Democratic lawmakers.
Florida Supreme Court Justice Carlos Muñiz late last year basted the PSC for not providing enough information to justify a public utility rate increase. He made those remarks after the Supreme Court in September 2023 ruled that the PSC did not adequately justify approval of a settlement that increased base electric rates for FPL and ordered a new explanation, the News Service of Florida reported.
Panhandle Republican state Sen. Don Gaetz filed a bill (SB 354) during the 2025 legislative session that would have required the PSC to become much more transparent in its actions.
Its provisions included that the agency provide adequate support for its conclusions when issuing orders; keep the return on equity for public utilities as close as possible to the risk-free rate of return; and submit an annual report of public utility rates that includes benchmarking and analysis on economics, cost impacts, return on equity, and executive compensation.
The bill passed in one committee in the Senate before failing to advance. Gaetz said the measure was killed by the public utilities, according to Politico.
Public hearings for the PSC to consider the rate hike will begin on Aug. 11. The final decision is expected in the fall.
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This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
