Florida Electric Bills Head Lower in 2027 as Regulators Approve Duke Energy Cut, Reject Its Data Center Policy and FPL Adds an Isaias Surcharge

Most Floridians who buy power from the state's two largest investor-owned utilities are headed for slightly smaller electric bills in January 2027, though for Florida Power & Light customers the savings come bundled with a new hurricane charge. The Florida Public Service Commission on Nov. 3 approved Duke Energy Florida's request to lower its rates for 2027. On the same day, the five commissioners unanimously rejected Duke's proposed policy for serving data centers and other huge new electricity users. Days earlier, on Oct. 30, FPL asked regulators to approve a typical 2027 residential bill of $141.87 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours. That figure is lower than the utility had projected a year ago, even though it includes a temporary $3.48 monthly surcharge to pay for Hurricane Isaias.

The decisions and filings set the outlook for millions of households and businesses as 2026 ends. Electricity costs have been a running issue in Florida politics this year, and the Legislature passed a 2026 law meant to keep data center costs off ordinary customers' bills.

How the 2027 numbers compare

The table below summarizes where the major utilities stand for January 2027, based on company releases and filings with state regulators. The bill amounts assume a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month, the industry's standard benchmark.

Duke Energy Florida: a cut regulators have already approved

Duke Energy Florida, which serves about 2 million customers across a 13,000-square-mile territory that includes the Tampa Bay area and much of Central Florida, announced the commission's approval on Nov. 3. According to the company's release, a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month will pay $33 less in January 2027 than in January 2026. Compared with December 2026, the January bill drops by about $0.95.

The utility also applies a temporary seasonal reduction during the months when Floridians run air conditioning hardest. Starting in March 2027, residential customers get an additional $10 decrease per 1,000 kilowatt-hours, a credit the company says it applies every March through November.

Commercial and industrial customers will see decreases ranging from 0.9% to 3.8%, depending on their type of service and other factors, the company said.

Duke attributes part of the reduction to what it calls an innovative tax strategy that allowed it to avoid a base rate increase that had been scheduled for 2027. Earlier reporting on the September request, including coverage by WFTV, tied that strategy to the company's battery storage systems and noted that regulators had approved a 2% increase for 2027 back in 2024.

Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida's state president, said in the release that the company is "committed to delivering real, tangible value for the essential service we provide." She said Duke will keep working to strengthen its system and improve reliability, including continued investment in renewable energy and grid upgrades meant to reduce outages and speed restoration after storms.

Regulators reject Duke's data center policy

The rate cut was not the only Duke matter before the commission on Nov. 3. Commissioners voted 5-0 to deny the utility's proposed policy for large-load customers, the category that includes hyperscale data centers, according to the Florida Phoenix and other outlets that covered the vote.

Duke filed the petition in April under docket 20260064-EI. Rather than proposing a specific rate, it sought approval of a Large Load Customer Policy and Agreement that would govern how the company connects and serves very large new customers. Commission staff had recommended denial late last month, finding that the petition did not comply with SB 484, the data center law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed earlier this year.

That law sets requirements for utilities that serve large-load customers. It states that other ratepayers are not responsible for the added transmission and generation costs those customers create, and it requires utilities to set up a separate large-load tariff, a distinct rate class, for data centers. Duke's petition did not contain such a tariff. A company witness said Duke intends to file a large-load rate schedule in a future rate proceeding.

Consumer advocates welcomed the denial. Duke said it is confident it can build on its work to develop a tariff that meets the Legislature's requirements, according to coverage of the vote. The decision matters well beyond Duke's territory: data center proposals have drawn fights in Lake, DeSoto and Nassau counties this fall, and residents have repeatedly asked who will pay for the power plants and lines those facilities need.

FPL: lower base projection, new storm charge

FPL, the state's largest utility with about 6.13 million customer accounts in 41 counties, filed its 2027 proposals with the commission on Oct. 30. According to the company's release, a typical 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential bill would be $141.87 starting in January 2027. When regulators approved FPL's four-year rate agreement in 2025, the company had projected $143.05 for 2027, so the new figure is $1.18 a month lower.

That total already includes a proposed temporary surcharge of $3.48 a month for a typical 1,000-kilowatt-hour customer, running from January through December 2027. FPL says the surcharge would recover the cost of restoring power after Hurricane Isaias and partly refill its storm reserve, which the storm depleted.

Offsetting the surcharge is a proposed cut to the fuel charge. FPL told regulators that lower projected natural gas costs, operational efficiencies and other annual cost-recovery adjustments more than make up for the storm charge. Measured another way, the proposal is not a pure savings: WEAR-TV in Pensacola reported that the $3.48 surcharge paired with a roughly $3 fuel credit amounts to a net increase of about 48 cents a month on those two line items.

FPL President and CEO Scott Bores said in the release that the company's responsibility "is to deliver reliable power while keeping customer bills as low as possible." FPL says its bills remain the lowest among Florida's major utilities and well below the national average.

The Isaias bill

Isaias made landfall in Okaloosa County as a Category 2 hurricane on Oct. 9. About 435,000 FPL customers, roughly 84% of the company's Northwest Florida customers, lost power. FPL says it mobilized about 17,000 workers and restored essentially all of those customers within four days.

The utility says smart-grid equipment avoided about 138,000 outages, that underground neighborhood lines performed about 14 times better than overhead lines, and that a forensic review has not found a single hardened pole that failed during the storm. Those figures are FPL's own and will be part of what regulators weigh when they review how much of the restoration cost customers should cover.

Not every customer is persuaded. In the Pensacola area, one Cantonment resident told WEAR that she expected a company of FPL's size to have budgeted for storms like Isaias. An FPL spokesperson told the station the surcharge covers the extra crews and equipment brought in after the storm.

Tampa Electric's pending request

Tampa Electric, which serves the Tampa Bay region, asked the commission in September to approve another bill reduction beginning in January 2027, citing lower fuel costs. The company's rates page lists the proposed change as about $2.30, or 1.5%, bringing a typical 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential bill to $154.13. That request had not been reported as approved as of this week.

What's next

Duke's 2027 reductions are approved and will begin appearing on January bills, with the seasonal $10 credit starting in March. FPL's $141.87 projection and its Isaias surcharge remain subject to commission review and approval, as does Tampa Electric's requested cut. Actual savings for any household will depend on how much electricity it uses.

On data centers, the next step belongs to Duke, which has said it will return with a large-load rate schedule in a future rate case. Any such filing will be the first major test of how the commission applies SB 484, the law lawmakers wrote to make sure Florida households do not end up paying for power built to serve server farms.