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How the Progress request compares

By LOUIS HAU
Published April 30, 2005

Progress Energy Florida is seeking a base-rate hike that would increase residential customer bills by $3.79 per 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity consumed per month. A typical household uses 1,200 to 1,400 kilowatt hours a month.

Progress Energy Florida charges customers $94.43 for the first 1,000 kilowatt hours. (The company charges a penny more for each kilowatt hour above 1,000.)

Progress' base rate - the portion of a customer's bill that covers a utility's cost of doing business, excluding fuel and environmental-compliance costs - is $41.18 for the first 1,000 kilowatt hours consumed. The base rate appears on a Progress bill as the sum of two items listed as "customer charge" and "energy charge."

Progress has asked the PSC for permission to raise its base rate by $4.59 - a $3.79 rate increase plus 80 cents that customers already are paying to cover the cost of construction of a natural-gas-fired generating unit at the company's Hines Energy Complex in Polk County. The 80 cents would be shifted from being part of a customer's fuel charge to the base rate.

Progress is also seeking PSC approval for a two-year surcharge to cover the costs it incurred restoring power and making repairs in the wake of last year's hurricanes. The company is seeking a storm-cost surcharge of $3.81 per 1,000 kilowatt hours in the first year and $3.59 in the second year.

Progress' base rate and total monthly rate place it in the middle of the pack among Florida investor-owned utilities. How others stack up:

TAMPA ELECTRIC: It charges the highest monthly rates of any Florida investor-owned utility, with a base rate of $51.92 and a total monthly rate of $98.07.

FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT: The Juno Beach company, the state's largest electric utility, charges a base rate of $40.22 and a total monthly rate of $92.01, which includes a hurricane-recovery surcharge of about $2. FPL filed a request with the PSC in January for permission to raise its base rate by $2.75.

GULF POWER CO.: The Pensacola company charges a relatively high base rate of $49.30 but keeps its total monthly rate to $87.91 per 1,000 kilowatt hours because of a fuel mix that is weighted heavily toward coal, which costs less than oil or natural gas.

FLORIDA PUBLIC UTILITIES CO.: The small, West Palm Beach company that provides electricity to about 25,000 customers in parts of Jackson, Liberty, Calhoun and Nassau counties charges a base rate of $23.73 and a total monthly rate ranging from $62.22 to $69.56.

[Last modified April 30, 2005, 00:50:14]