Tampa Electric Co. customers paid, on average, the highest energy bills in Florida for June, and the second highest in the nation compared to other major utilities which reported their data to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The utility had just under 769,000 users who paid an average of $242.05 for electricity in June.
Looking at other major utilities in the state: Duke Energy Florida customers paid the second highest average for June at $228.21 and Florida Power and Light customers were third at $195.53.
The Imperial Irrigation District in California’s Central Valley was the only major utility in the nation to top TECO’s June bills with an average of $297.48. It serves significantly fewer people, though, with about 144,000 residential customers.
Why are Tampa area energy bills so high?
Bradley Marshall is an attorney with Earthjustice, representing consumer advocates.
He argues TECO’s residential bills are higher because of the way the company assigns costs of the grid system to the various customer classes: residential, commercial and industrial.
It analyzes energy usage peaks, Marshall said, typically when residential customers put more demand on the grid in the summer and winter months.
“Costs are shifted disproportionately onto residential customers as compared to other cost of service methodologies,” he said.
He listed some other factors, too:
“They’ve been expanding rate base quite a bit, so they're making a lot of investments with a high return on equity. And so that comes at a high cost to customers. There's also storm costs on there too,” he said.
Tampa Electric spokesperson Cherie Jacobs mentioned last year’s hurricane season in an email, as well.
“We are also recovering costs from recent storms, including Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024, with Milton being the strongest storm our region has faced in a century,” she said.
“Utilities cannot insure electrical infrastructure, so state rules allow these costs to be covered through a temporary storm surcharge. The charge is based on energy use, so higher usage means a higher surcharge. It will come off bills after August 2026.”
Marshall used Duke Energy as an example of lowering rates by considering how much solar energy is being added to the grid.
Basically, the solar generation in Florida is not helping with the peak demand of energy use, but it does help to offset the use of fossil fuels to produce the electricity.
And Duke Energy brings down rates by assigning 75% of the cost to the different classes (i.e. residential, commercial, or industrial) through analyzing peak usage every month of the year — not just the months residential customers put more demand on the grid — and the remaining 25% of cost reflects the energy uses coming from solar to displace the use of fossil fuels.
TECO’s representative said for the 12 month period ending in June, 11% of Tampa Electric’s power came from solar and 89% came from natural gas, which helped reduce customers’ fuel costs “by hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Present and future rate increases
Tampa Electric received approval from its regulator, the Florida Public Service Commission, in 2024 to increase its general base rate by just under $185 million for 2025, and was greenlighted for subsequent year adjustments.
A petition filed by TECO shows it expects to adjust its rate for 2026, costing customers an additional $87.7 million — that's a 5.5% increase.
The 2024 PSC order paving the way for these base rate increases is being appealed at the Florida Supreme Court, although briefing hasn’t started yet.
Marshall, the Earthjustice attorney, said these yearly surges are becoming a trend in Florida.
"The investor-owned utilities expect some kind of base rate increase every year. It certainly didn't used to be that way. It used to be that you would look at your earnings, if you were falling out of your range, for example, then you would come in for a base rate increase," he said.
Cherie Jacobs, with TECO, said the adjustments are meant to fund more solar plants and “invest in efficiency-enhancing technology.”
“The January 2026 adjustment covers three energy storage facilities, improvements to increase resiliency and two solar plants, which reduce fuel expenses significantly over time,” she said.
Marshall said he expects the utility will raise rates again for 2027.
What residents are experiencing
Walter L. Smith II, with the environmental organization Sierra Club, brought together about 20 Hillsborough County residents to talk about rising energy costs at a community meeting in downtown Tampa.
“For too long, we've had to deal with issues of people who have to make choices between getting medicine and paying utility bills. People who have to deal with eviction because they can't pay a utility bill," Smith said.
Hector Bourdon, 82, said he's on a fixed income and asked TECO to move his due date to when he gets paid at the beginning of the month, but he said the company refused.
"So, they're charging me a $600 deposit because I'm late in my bills … they broke it down like $200 for three different months, but it's putting me in a jam," he said.
TECO’s Cherie Jacobs offered, via email, some ways to help Bourdon, like the Due Date Plus program, which allows customers to align their bill due date with the timing of Social Security or similar payments.
“Additionally, we’d be glad to connect with Mr. Bourdon to see if he qualifies for Share, our assistance program. We’re committed to working with customers to find the best solutions for their individual needs,” she said.
Tampa Electric said it’s contributing $2 million to the Share program to assist customers who are struggling, Jacobs said. And the money comes from shareholder funds so she said it will not affect customer bills.
Another resident, André Detrick said when he moved into a new rental property, he was charged over $500 for a deposit due to the property’s previous tenants.
“I had to pay a big deposit because of the history of the house, not the history of me. And you know, when you come here and you find that out, it slaps you in the face,” he said.
“Why should I have to be penalized for somebody else's mistake when I just want to rent the house and put my family in it and live happily ever after?”
Jacobs, with TECO, said in many cases, deposits can be waived altogether.
“Customers like Mr. Detrick can request a credit check to determine if a deposit is necessary. In addition, if someone has had good payment history with Tampa Electric in the past—such as 24 months of service with no late payments—they may also qualify for a deposit waiver,” she said.
Is solar the solution?
Much of Florida’s energy is produced using natural gas, which is composed largely of methane, although it does contain some other gases, like ethane, propane, butane, and pentane.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and climate change, while impacting air quality by forming ground-level ozone.
In 2021, Tampa committed to 100% clean renewable energy for the city by 2035, although the state tied the city’s hands with preemptive legislation only allowing the clean energy practices to be implemented within city-owned properties.
City council member Lynn Hurtak attended the recent community meeting on high energy bills.
When Walter L. Smith II asked where she stands on moving local energy production away from fossil fuels, Hurtak said solar could be the best return on investment.
“Being able to put more solar, and … I would assume wind would work here, too … to try to bring those costs down for the people, I think that is absolutely something that we could encourage and hope that TECO can do,” she said.
One resident said his energy bill went down the past year using solar panels he added himself through a permitting process five years ago.
