VERO BEACH — Instead of raising electric rates by about 2.5 percent in early 2012 as previously expected, Florida Power and Light has submitted a 2 percent decrease in rates to the Florida Public Service Commission for approval.
FPL said Monday in a press release that the decrease is due to falling natural gas prices and FPL benefitting from those market factors due to its mix of fuel used in producting power.
“This reduction in the fuel charge, in combination with adjustments to othercomponents of the bill, will produce a net decrease on a typical FPL customer’s monthly bill of about $2.00, from $96.54 in December 2011 to $94.62 beginning in January 2012,” the release states.
For the average 2,500 kilowatt customer in the Vero Beach area, that would be a savings of about $5 per month.
“For 2012, oil prices are still high, but our investments in recent years to modernize our power plant fleet – phasing out older, oil-fired units with cleaner, more efficient natural gas-fired generating capacity – are helping protect our customers from higher fuel charges. At the same time, market prices of natural gas for 2012 are trending even lower than previously expected, and this is driving a significant reduction in our projected fuel costs for the coming year,” said FPL President and CEO Armando J. Olivera.
“The lowest bill in the state is getting even lower, and that’s good news for our customers,”he said.
By contrast, Vero Beach Electric announced over the summer that it will be increasing rates by roughly 6 percent in January. With the anticipated FPL decrease and the announced Vero increase, that will make Vero approximately 33 percent higher than FPL for the same amount of electricity.
