When Thaddeus Williams looks at his electric bill, he sometimes has a series of choices to make.
Should the 75-year-old retiree from South Seminole Heights in Tampa shut off his air conditioning to save a few dollars? Turn off the lights to make ends meet?
"Everybody I talk to talk about, oh, man, my electric bill is higher than it was last month," Williams said. "Now, I know people who just wouldn't even pay the bill. They just said, ‘Well, I ain't, I'm not gonna pay them,’ and they live in the house with candles."
When electricity bills like his start becoming unaffordable, the culprits can be numerous. Higher fuel prices. Higher demand. Extreme weather. Aging grids.
And, of course — profits.
"We got to struggle. We got to borrow, beg. But they sitting in a big office, you know, don't worry about unplugging nothing..."Thaddeus Williams, TECO customer
But who gets to decide whether your electric bill goes up?
That decision comes down to five people — all appointed by the governor.
They sit on the Florida Public Service Commission.
And they oversee businesses that are essentially monopolies, says Susan Glickman with the CLEO Institute, a nonprofit clean energy advocacy group.
"Florida is one of only four states where the law expressly prohibits you from buying energy from anyone other than your government-assigned monopoly utility," she said.
It’s not like that everywhere.
Florida’s system is different
About 18 states have deregulated their electricity markets to allow customers to choose their provider.
Legislators on both sides of the aisle in Florida have tried to reform the Public Service Commission. They’ve wanted to change the qualifications for who sits on the board, cap the profits utility companies make and force utilities to justify rate increases.
But those bills went nowhere.
Some politicians, including gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, think our system works better than other states.
"We've seen what's happened in unregulated states where you have these price jumps 20, 30% on a whim because you do not have a regulated center like we have here in Florida using the Public Service Commission," Donalds said during a recent campaign stop in Tampa.
Florida’s four major investor-owned utilities have spent over $80 million on lobbying and campaign contributions. Donalds’ campaign for governor had received nearly $2 million from the four companies, as of June.
Record profits
Last year, those four investor-owned utilities made more than $6 billion in profits.
Florida Power & Light recorded a net profit margin of more than 27% two years ago.
The Energy and Policy Institute says it was the highest profit margin of any investor-owned utility in the country that year.
FPL made a record profit of $5 billion last year.
Shelby Green says the national industry standard for profit margin is about 10%.
"Florida's top investor-owned utilities — Florida Power and Light, Duke Energy, Florida, TECO — they make more than that," she said.
So what power do you — as a consumer — have to provide input on what you pay for electricity?
You can attend the monthly public meetings — usually held in Tallahassee — and plead your case. Consumer groups have sued to challenge increases approved by the commission.
Or you can elect a new governor who can appoint new members.
Before 1979, voters elected commissioners in Florida.
Now the governor selects them.
Williams says that system isn’t fair.
"I think we, the people, should have some say-so into what we are paying and what we're doing, you know," he said. "They take freedom away from us."
Public service commissioners are elected by voters in 10 states. Some say that would make them more susceptible to influence from utilities with large campaign contributions. Others, like Glickman, say elections are a way to hold them more accountable for rate hikes, like what happened in Georgia.
"In the last election cycle, two Georgia public service commissioners were defeated by consumer-minded challengers," Glickman said. "And it was quite unusual, and I know that it got a lot of attention all over the country, because people are really fed up with these electric bills."
Serving on the commission
Gov. Ron DeSantis recently named six finalists interviewed for two upcoming openings on the five-member board.
PSC Commissioners Gary Clark and Gabriella Passidomo-Smith, whose terms expire in January, are seeking reappointment to their positions, which pay nearly $159,000 per year.
During a recent nominating committee meeting in Lakeland, Clark said the board has to weigh competing interests.
"The PSC often deals with complex cases involving billions of dollars," he told the committee. "Large customers have advocates. Utilities have advocates. Consumer groups have advocates. But ultimately the commission must weigh the evidence presented in the record, and they must make a decision based on Florida law in the public interest."
Board chair Passidomo-Smith also gave her reasons to be reappointed.
"Above all, I wanted to provide stability, preserve the institutional integrity of the commission, and reaffirm our commitment to the mission that the legislature has entrusted to us," she said. "Ensuring fair, just, and reasonable rates, promoting reliable utility service, and maintaining a regulatory framework that protects customers while supporting the long-term investments necessary to serve one of the fastest-growing states in the nation."
But that wasn't the sentiment for all the candidates. One, attorney Stacia Foster, said she would be an advocate to keep electric rates down.
"In Tallahassee, where I recently returned, most of the customers there are turning off their electricity just to survive because they claim it's too high," she told the nominating committee. "Now we have to care about what's going on with the everyday person."
One consumer advocate
In Florida, one person is appointed to represent residential customers in cases before the Public Service Commission.
That's Public Counsel Walt Trierweiler.
"We are advocates, we're educators," he told WUSF. "We try to bring the balanced perspective. I don't argue that the utilities aren't entitled to a rate increase."
Earlier this year, he formally opposed Duke’s proposal to establish new electricity rates for data centers. He says it could lead to unnecessary power plants being built and higher bills for customers.
Trierweiler and his staff of four attorneys are up against deep-pocketed corporations. He knows the odds are stacked against them.
"The resources arrayed against us are incredible," he said. "Doesn't bother me. But I recognize that, and so we give it everything we have; win or lose, we do an honest assessment, learn what we can, and then push on for the next one."
He believes people are getting fed up with the high cost of electricity — and power will swing back to them.
"I think things are going to change. I really do," he said. "I think that in the next 3 to 5 years, enough is going to be enough, and we will see dramatic changes. But I think it's going to be a tough row to hoe between here and there."
For customers like Tampa’s Thaddeus Williams, being at the mercy of decisions made by the Public Service Commission means it's tough right now.
"They ain't got to worry about their lights," he said. "You know, they got enough money to pay them, and here we are. We got to struggle. We got to borrow, beg. But they sitting in a big office, you know, don't worry about unplugging nothing, you know, nothing they have in their house."
