ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Duke Energy customers will be seeing a spike in their bills starting in March this year.
Commercial and industrial customers will see an increase between 2.6-percent and 7.7-percent.
Duke Energy officials said the $5.34 per 1,000 kWh of electricity on a typical monthly bill is to help recover costs the power company racked up responding to Hurricane Dorian and Tropical Storm Nestor.
Storm costs were $171 million for Hurricane Dorian and $400,000 for Tropical Storm Nestor, according to Duke Energy Florida.
The costs come from crews mobilizing and positioning themselves across the state in areas that could be severely impacted by the storms.
The Florida Public Service Commission will review the costs next year and determine the final amount the company can recover from customers.
“We’ve seen an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events,” said Catherine Stempien, Duke Energy Florida state president. “We’re working hard to strengthen our electric grid while minimizing impacts to customer bills.”
Hurricane Dorian cut power to about 24,000 Duke Energy Florida customers, most of them in Central Florida, according to Duke Energy officials.
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