Duke Energy Wants To Pass On Hurricane Idalia Costs To Customers

TALLAHASSEE — After Hurricane Idalia devastated parts of its service area, Duke Energy Florida on Monday estimated storm-related costs would total $91.9 million.

Duke filed an application with the Florida Public Service Commission seeking approval to pass on Idalia costs to customers in 2024. To mitigate the impact on customers’ monthly bills, it also suggested spreading the costs it already collects from a number of previous storms, such as Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole.

“Hurricane Idalia impacted more than 200,000 customers in DEF’s (Duke Energy Florida) service area,” the filing states. “More than 5,000 road crews, tree professionals, damage assessors and support personnel have been strategically deployed across the state to respond and restore power to customers and communities as quickly and safely as possible.”

If the overall proposal is approved, Duke would recover $166.1 million in storm-related costs from customers in 2024.

The Public Service Commission has historically allowed utilities to recoup storm restoration costs from customers, and the issue was anticipated in a 2021 Duke rate settlement. According to the Public Service Commission’s website, other utilities had not submitted proposals to reimburse Idalia costs as of Monday afternoon.

The Category 3 Idalia made landfall in the Keaton Beach area of Taylor County on August 30 before passing through a largely rural region of northern Florida. It had traveled north through the Gulf of Mexico, causing damage in some coastal communities.

Duke began recovering an estimated $431.4 million in April for storm-related costs from Hurricanes Ian, Nicole, Elsa, Eta and Isaias and Tropical Storm Fred. These costs should be amortized over a period of one year until March 2024.

But under Monday’s proposal, remaining costs from those earlier storms would be spread throughout 2024, rather than just collected in the first three months. While the new Idalia costs would also be collected throughout 2024, apportionment of the previous costs would help mitigate the impact on monthly bills.

Electricity bills are made up of different types of fees, such as: B. Base tariffs, fuel costs, environmental costs and storm-related costs. As a benchmark, the energy supply industry often uses the bills of private customers who consume 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month.

While Duke customers could incur Idalia costs in 2024, the utility expects customers’ total monthly bills to decrease. In addition to spreading out previous storm-related costs, the reduction would also come from issues such as lower fuel costs.

Duke said residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt hours a month would see their bills rise from $183 in December to $171.71 in January.

“We will continue to look for ways to offer our customers the best possible value while delivering the safe, reliable energy our customers rely on – no matter the circumstances,” Duke Energy Florida State President Melissa Seixas said in a prepared statement.

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Duke has about 1.9 million customers in Florida.

By Jim Saunders, Florida News Service