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TECO customers will pay less
By LOUIS HAU, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- Tampa Electric Co. customers can expect lower electric bills next year. The utility filed a proposal Friday with the state Public Service Commission to cut its electricity rates in 2003 to reflect lower-than-expected fuel costs and lower rates paid for power that it purchases from wholesale sources. Utilities are required by the state to pass on such cost savings to customers. If the PSC approves the rate reduction, the monthly bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity would fall from $93.94 to $89.67 in January. Actual bills in 2003 are expected to be slightly higher than the $89.67 due to Tampa Electric's request for permission to pass through to customers the costs of reducing pollution at its power plant in Polk County. But Tampa Electric spokesman Ross Bannister said the impact on monthly bills would be "pennies per customer." The cost of the project to reduce nitrous oxide emissions is expected to be $2.48-million, plus operating and maintenance expenses of $150,000 a year. The PSC staff has recommended that the PSC approve the plan at a meeting Oct. 1. Improving the Polk plant was part of an agreement Tampa Electric reached with the federal government in 1999. The utility agreed to pay a $3.5-million fine and spend about $1-billion to reduce emissions at its plants. Although Tampa Electric's rate cut will be good news for its customers, the utility will be charging more than its neighbor, Florida Power Corp. of St. Petersburg, which has proposed a rate of $80.58 for 1,000 kilowatt-hours. Until this year, Florida Power had long charged higher rates than the Tampa utility. The lower wholesale power rates that Tampa Electric plans to pass on to its customers have an ironic twist for the company. The stock price of its parent, TECO Energy Inc., has been pummelled recently by Wall Street concerns about the company's own wholesale power business. TECO plans to open new power plants next year in markets that are suffering from weak electricity prices that analysts attribute to a glut of generating capacity. TECO's stock fell again Friday as shares of power wholesalers came under pressure because Duke Energy Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., announced it would miss analysts' earnings estimates for this year. Duke's stock closed at $20.40, down $1.02, or 4.8 percent. TECO's shares sank Friday to an intraday low of $14.60, their lowest level, adjusting for stock splits, since falling to $14.57 on Oct. 17, 1990. The stock closed Friday at $15.08, down 15 cents. -- Louis Hau can be reached at hau@sptimes.com and (813) 226-3404.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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