CLEARWATER, Fla. — Clearwater leaders are considering something that hasn't been done in Florida in 20 years — ditching Duke Energy as the power provider and starting their own electric utility.
Thursday night, the city council unanimously approved a study to look into a possible switch and heard objections from the head of Duke Energy for Florida.
“It is nice to see Duke representatives here to discuss the issue but it makes me believe we're doing the right thing in doing a study,” council member Ryan Cotton said.
The study, estimated to cost half a million dollars, will explore the technical and financial feasibility of the city running its own utility company. With the current contract with Duke Energy expiring in December 2025, the city is looking at all options.
Mayor Bruce Rector says residents are frustrated seeing their utility bills spike and seeing dozens of trees cut down on private property.
“Information is power and we really need to prepare ourselves and equip ourselves for these very important talks we're about to enter into,” he said at the council meeting.
Rector says this study is an investment that will shine a light on two major things — would it be practical to do and would it be cheaper than sticking with Duke Energy?
“We hear citizens often want power lines buried because of our storm risk here, especially during hurricanes and then the rates, the rate increase is something that concerns folks, so I think our citizens here are in favor of at least looking at it,” Rector said.
Duke Energy says they have an army of resources that can assist with outages after a major storm or hurricane. They hope their relationship with the city of Clearwater continues for decades to come but only learned of the study idea this past Monday.
“No one proactively reached out to us to talk to us about it,” Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy’s state president in Florida said. “And much like the city attorney said that he and his team met with a potential consultant, we would have welcomed the opportunity to sit down and have the same discussion.”
The last time a municipality dropped its utility company to go it alone was in 2005, but Duke says Clearwater would have to buy their assets to make it work.
“They don't have a purchase option and Duke Energy's system is not for sale,” she said.
Clearwater already manages its own gas supply, and officials are optimistic about the potential savings for electric customers. The study will take approximately nine months to complete, setting up a showdown next year between Clearwater and Duke on who will keep the lights on.