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Expect a chill from your utility bill
By STEVE HUETTEL © St. Petersburg Times, published January 11, 2001 The bill for staying toasty over the holidays is due. And it's a whopper. Florida Power customers who cranked up the heat to fight record low temperatures that began in December are now opening bills that are 45 percent to 100 percent higher than the same period last year, the company said Wednesday. Tampa Electric ratepayers also face sharply higher bills, said spokeswoman Laura Plumb, although officials hadn't figured out how much higher. "There will definitely be an element of sticker shock," she said. Floridians are getting a sample of the painfully high utility bills that are plaguing consumers in the ice-bound Northeast, where natural-gas costs have shot up, and California, where wholesale electric prices have gone haywire. Tampa Bay area utilities expect the high bills to ease after next month. But that doesn't help seniors on fixed incomes and others who didn't budget for the big increases, said Virginia Littrell, executive director of the Florida Consumer Action Network. "Between the rising cost of prescription drugs and the increasing cost of utilities, how much more of a squeeze can they take?" she said. Florida Power's 1.4-million customers already pay the highest utility bills in Florida: $89.70 per month for a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours. That includes a 3.5 percent rate increase that kicked in this month to cover the utility's escalating costs of natural gas and oil used to generate about a third of its power. But the main reason for the big bills now arriving was customers trying to fight off the winter chill, utility officials said. They did not say what a typical bill will total for December and January. In December, Central Florida had four days with lows in the 30s and eight days with lows in the 40s. Consumers usually run up a high power bill in December, with Christmas lights burning and people spending more time at home over the holidays. Florida typically has its highest power demand in the winter because of an influx of seasonal residents and because electric heaters eat up power even faster than air conditioners, said Mary Estes, a Florida Power spokeswoman. But last month's cold had people pushing up the thermostat more often than usual. In December, Florida Power customers used 19 percent more electricity than during the same month last year. Consumption jumped 72 percent last week over last year as temperatures hit the freezing mark. Both Florida Power and Tampa Electric hit record peak demands early last Friday morning. The increase in residential use was much higher because the overall consumption numbers include business and industrial customers who don't use as much of their power for heating, said Keith Poston, a spokesman for Florida Power's parent, Progress Energy. The company had to add customer service operators to handle a flood of calls as people began receiving the higher bills in recent days. To inquire about a bill, Florida Power customers can call (800) 700-8744. Florida Power urged customers to enroll in a program that lets them pay an average monthly bill amount over 12 months to spread the expense of high months throughout the year. Consumer advocates, however, are pushing for more long-term relief. When Carolina Power & Light announced plans to buy Florida Progress, the former parent of Florida Power, executives said the combination would save $100-million in expenses annually. The North Carolina Utilities Commission approved the sale last year after CP&L agreed to give home-state ratepayers $29.5-million over four years as their share of the savings. The Florida Public Service Commission said it had no authority to block or put conditions on the $5.3-billion deal completed in November. But the panel and the state Office of Public Counsel, which represents Florida ratepayers, are now reviewing the sale and talking with Florida Power. "We think there should be a rate reduction," Public Counsel Jack Shreve said Wednesday. Florida Power's current rates run through July. "We're in discussions with the PSC and other stakeholder groups in Florida . . . and we hope to announce something before July," said Poston, the Progress Energy spokesman. For customers like Bob Wyne, a hot dog vendor in downtown St. Petersburg, relief can't come soon enough. "How can you do that in one month without letting people know?" said Wyne, who plied his trade outside the Utility Accounts Collections Building on Central Avenue on Wednesday. "That's ridiculous. You're going to have a lot of upset people out there." -- Times staff writer Michael Braga contributed to this report.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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