Floridians are feeling crushed by the rising cost of power in Florida.
While electricity rates and bills are increasing for all customers, it’s even more pronounced for residential customers of investor-owned utilities, like Tampa Electric Company (TECO), Duke Energy Florida and Florida Power & Light.
“TECO is just — they’re going up and up and up and up,” customer Thaddeus Williams said. “You know, it shouldn’t be this high for electricity.”
He’s a 75-year-old retired veteran who lives off of Social Security, and a single dad renting a two-bedroom house in Tampa with his 8-year-old daughter.
He said he pays around $300 a month for power.
To save on energy, he sometimes lives by candlelight with the glow of various patron saints illuminating his living room in lieu of the overhead light.
Despite efforts like these, Williams said his electric bill is still moving in the same direction.
“I'm thinking I'm using the same amount, you know, each month, and then I try to use less … and then it still be the same thing. At the end of the month, it’s more,” he said.
By the numbers
Williams is not alone in his frustration.
Four investor-owned utilities in Florida serve the majority of residential customers, at 8 million of roughly 12 million power accounts, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
“We paying for stuff on our bill that we have no idea what we paying for."Thaddeus Williams, TECO customer
In 2025, they also paid among the highest bills in the nation, according to a WUSF analysis of the data.
At $195, TECO had the eighth-highest typical bill in the U.S. last year. All four of the state’s investor-owned utilities ranked among the top 50 electricity bills nationwide, according to the analysis.
Over the past decade, typical residential bills from investor-owned utilities were also higher, on average, than those from municipal utilities and nonprofit electric cooperatives.
And they grew faster than inflation, according to an analysis of utility data reported annually to the state.
Since 2016, a typical Duke Energy Florida bill jumped from $108 to $185, an increase of about 70%, far outpacing inflation, according to the analysis. TECO residential customers are paying about 60% more. Florida Power & Light's typical bills grew by 46%.
Power is claiming a bigger portion of paychecks
Thaddeus Williams’ power bill is claiming a bigger chunk of his income than it used to.
“Man, I moved around money so many times in the last three months, it’s unreal,” he said.
Williams spends roughly 8% of his fixed income on his home energy bill, or about $300 a month.
A high energy burden is considered to be above 6%, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
In Tampa, one in five households has a high energy burden, which research shows is linked to health issues, greater financial stress and economic hardship.
Certain groups, including adults over 65, renters, people with low income, and Black households, are also more likely to face a high energy burden in Tampa, according to the report.
“Unfortunately, as is often the case, it's those who can afford it the least who are carrying the heaviest burden,” Food & Water Watch senior organizer Brooke Ward said.
A high household energy burden is not the result of residents being irresponsible with their consumption, she said.
“In fact, it’s people doing what they’ve always been doing, trying to cut corners, trying to save money where they can,” she said.
The bill breakdown: rates, pass-through costs and clauses
Since 2016, numerous factors, including consecutive rate hikes, pass-through costs and other surcharges, have pushed up electricity prices for Floridians faster than household incomes.
Residential customers of all energy providers pay higher rates than industrial and commercial customers. At 16 cents per kilowatt-hour, on average, residential customers of investor-owned utilities pay the highest electricity rate in the state, according to the latest EIA data.
“Rates is a term of art that is specifically how much you’re being charged for the unit of energy that is being used,” Ward said. “However, that is only a fraction of your bill.”
Then there are additional charges that help investor-owned utilities recover costs on everything from fuel prices to storm hardening and energy advancements.
Data shows Florida consumed the second-highest amount of energy in the nation, behind only Texas, in 2024 — a demand that utilities say requires constant maintenance to meet.
Andrew Sutton, a representative with Florida Power & Light, said that’s because customers don’t just pay for their energy usage; they pay for every part of the process.
“First is the cost of fuel to generate electricity at our power plants. Second is the cost of delivering that electricity to your home through poles, wires, and substations across the grid, and third is the ongoing work to maintain and strengthen that system,” he said.
Sitting at his kitchen table, Williams reads down the list of nine charges on a TECO bill from earlier this year.
The first couple — the daily basic service charge and energy charge — are familiar to him.
Then there’s a fuel charge, storm protection charge, clean energy transition mechanism charge, storm surcharge, plus other fees and taxes.
“We paying for stuff on our bill that we have no idea what we paying for,” Williams said. “They got all kind of surcharges and this kind of charge and that kind of charge.”
Pass-through costs
Some of the charges are known as pass-through costs.
Like it sounds, they directly pass on utilities’ expenses, like fuel prices and public service taxes, to customers without markup.
For instance, over the last decade, TECO has increased fuel charges four times and decreased them once, according to spokesperson Cherie Jacobs.
These changes, known as mid-year true-ups, are in addition to regular fuel cost adjustments that utilities are entitled to annually.
“We're paying for the fuel on the front end to be burned, and then we're also paying for the energy that we're using on the back end, and all of those fluctuations of fuel prices we are paying for,” affordable energy advocate Brooke Ward said.
Cost recovery clauses
Then there are clauses on bills that help utilities recover costs for particular programs or initiatives.
Walt Trierweiler, who leads the Office of Public Counsel, which represents energy consumers’ interests, said this list of surcharges on energy bills is growing.
“In many cases these clauses now account for up to 50% of the bill – so it’s no longer just paying the normal bill to keep the lights on,” he said.
On a typical bill, customers like Williams pay for tree trimming, raising equipment and undergrounding power lines under a “storm protection” clause.
Under the “clean energy transition mechanism charge,” TECO customers are paying for the cost of retiring two old coal-fired units while modernizing another, known as Big Bend Unit One, as well as replacing household meters with smart meters, said spokesperson Cherie Jacobs.
Duke Energy Florida customers pay for similar capital expenditures under an “asset securitization charge" that includes the cost of closing the Crystal River nuclear plant in Citrus County that’s still appearing on all residential customers’ bills.
"It's like a waiter in a restaurant that gets a guaranteed tip. The waiter wants you to get dessert and the bottle of wine, because the more that's spent, the more they make. So that's a very similar dynamic of our utility regulation.”Susan Glickman, CLEO Institute vice president
In response to frustration from some customers over the 20-year charge, Duke spokesperson Ana Gibbs said the power plant operated for more than 30 years before it was retired, ultimately saving customers money by making energy production more efficient.
“I just want to assure our customers that for every cost that we put on our bill, we look for every possibility to save them every cent that we can,” she said.
Florida utilities can also recoup losses from storms by temporarily adding storm recovery surcharges to residents’ bills, like many customers saw in the months following hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton.
ALSO READ: Why TECO's June bills averaged the highest in Florida and second highest in U.S.
Trierweiler, who represents consumers’ interests, said he doesn’t argue utilities aren’t entitled to a rate increase.
“I'm trying to establish what's fair, you know,” he said. “Let's transparently look at what they have, what they need, and why customers should be asked to pay for it.”
Profit over affordability
Investor-owned utilities in the state have more incentive to turn a profit and pass cost on to customers than to keep energy bills affordable, Trierweiler said.
“Investor-owned utilities owe their fiduciary responsibilities and allegiance to their shareholders, the people who own company stock. They're answerable to them, not to customers,” he said.
Last year, investor-owned utilities made more revenue off residents in Florida – more than $6 billion – than any other state despite having fewer customers and lower base rates than other places like California and New York.
Susan Glickman, vice president of the climate nonprofit CLEO Institute, said Florida’s regulatory system incentivizes utilities to keep building, pass on costs and pocket “a guaranteed rate of return.”
“That’s how they make money,” she said. “It's like a waiter in a restaurant that gets a guaranteed tip. The waiter wants you to get dessert and the bottle of wine, because the more that's spent, the more they make. So that's a very similar, you know, dynamic of our utility regulation.”
Still, utility officials said they share residents’ concerns about the rising cost of power, especially in a hot climate where using less energy can be difficult.
“Affordability is a real concern, and especially in Florida, where the summer months can be so challenging for power bills because of our air conditioning use,” TECO spokeswoman Jacobs said. “We know that puts extra strain on folks, and we are committed to helping.”
“Unfortunately, as is often the case, it's those who can afford it the least who are carrying the heaviest burden."Food & Water Watch senior organizer Brooke Ward
Energy advocates, like Ward in Hillsborough County, push back on this status quo.
“There are solutions, and the solution is not to turn off your AC,” Ward said. “The solution is not to go without electricity. The problem is being caused by the system.”
Energy advocates are calling for reforms like capping investor-owned utilities’ profits in the state and increasing scrutiny to the state board regulating utilities, known as the Public Service Commission.
In the meantime, energy customers like Thaddeus Williams are left with few good options.
He joined his utility-provided payment program. But as a renter, he can’t qualify for weatherization help or put solar panels on the house without landlord approval. And he’s already cut back on energy use as much as he can.
As he sat with his daughter in his candlelit living room on a recent afternoon, Williams said, for now, he’s relying on his faith to get him through.
“I've been praying,” Williams said. “And my little prayer warrior here, when she can see me going through it, she says, ‘Daddy, take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. Let's pray,’ and we pray.”
