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Talk of the bay

Progress' Florida rate could dwarf its Carolinas rate

By LOUIS HAU
Published October 17, 2005

Here's a surefire way for Tampa Bay area customers of Progress Energy to pay far less for electricity: Pack up all your belongings and move to North Carolina or South Carolina.

Starting Jan. 1, Progress customers in Florida could pay up to 20 percent more for electricity than their counterparts in the Carolinas. That's what will happen if Florida utility regulators approve the company's request to pass through to customers its rising costs for the coal, natural gas and oil used to run its power plants.

Progress has asked the Florida Public Service Commission for permission to raise its residential rate by $10.53, or 11 percent, to $108.31 for the first 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity consumed.

That represents a far higher rate - and a far larger fuel-related rate hike - than what utility regulators in the Carolinas recently approved for Progress customers.

South Carolina regulators approved a rate hike that took effect July 1 that raises Progress' residential rate by $7.31, or 9 percent, to $91.49 per 1,000 kilowatt hours.

North Carolina regulators okayed a rate increase that took effect Oct. 1 that raises Progress' residential rate by $3.77, or 4 percent, to $90.43.

Why the discrepancies in rates? Progress spokesman Mike Hughes explained that Progress Florida was hit harder by last year's hurricanes than the Carolinas were, which led to the addition of a hurricane surcharge in August to customer rates in Florida but not in the Carolinas.

In addition, Progress Carolinas is less susceptible to increases in fuel costs. Compared with its sister company in Florida, the Carolinas subsidiary generates far more of its electricity via nuclear power, which isn't affected by fluctuations in fossil fuel costs, and relies less on natural gas and oil, which have been hit by particularly steep price increases.

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 18:06:02]