Duke Energy says customers' bills will slightly drop in January

TAMPA, Fla. - Weeks after Hurricane Idalia made landfall north of the Tampa Bay Area, Duke Energy plans to pass down the costs of power repairs and restoration to their customers.

Hurricane Idalia took out power to more than 200,000 Duke Energy customers, and a spokesperson said the utility company filed with the Florida Public Service Commission to pass along nearly $92 million in Idalia-related costs to customers.

"If you remember back to Ian, we had a million outages, so we needed more resources to get all the lights back on," said Ana Gibbs, a Duke Energy spokesperson.

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Duke said it’s still collecting from previous storms like Hurricanes Ian, Nicole and others. But there’s a plan to soften the blow to wallets by spreading out the costs throughout 2024.

The cost of power repairs after storms will be passed down to customers, according to Duke Energy.

"By doing that and recording it over a longer period of time, that’s going to help reduce costs for customers and that’s specifically on the portion of our storm cost recovery," said Gibbs. "But I think the bottom line and the greatest news for customers is that their bill if approved by the commission will actually go down in January."

Gibbs said the bills should go down about $11 if customers use about 1,000 kilowatts of electricity a month. But not all customers believe they’ll see it.

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"They usually pass costs and it goes up. It never goes down. Never," said MJ Johnson, a Duke Energy customer.

And what you pay ultimately depends on how much electricity you use.

"It goes up and down honestly. They pro-rate it. I have it where it’s supposed to stay the same for the whole year, so it’s fluctuated by $10 or $20 up and down that’s about it," said Kimberly Jamieson, a Duke Energy customer.

Bills went up for many utility customers this year.

"Unfortunately, one of the greatest costs we’ve seen in the last 18 months to two years really has been the fuel costs," said Gibbs.

Now it will be up to regulators to decide if they agree with Duke’s proposed plan. Gibbs said they should hear from the Public Service Commission in November on whether Duke can move forward with its plan.

Duke Energy said customers should see a slight drop in their bill starting in January.