Mar. 19--Florida Power & Light wants customers to pay an additional billion dollars a year in their base rates, starting Jan. 1 -- and then $247 million on top of that starting in 2011.

For the residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month, that means an increase of $12.40 in base rates in 2009. With an estimated decrease of $17.83 in 2010 fuel charges, the utility said the customer could see a $5 drop in their monthly bill.

"Wow," said Charlie Beck of the Office of Public Counsel, which represents utility customers, when he heard the numbers. "Wow. This is the biggest rate increase I have ever seen requested by a utility in Florida. This is really something."

FPL spokesman Mayco Villafana said the base rate is currently $39.31. If the request is granted, the base rate next year will be $51.71. That's a 31 percent increase.

The last bid for a rate change came in 2005. FPL, the state's largest power company, started its long-anticipated bid for a rate increase by filing 41 boxes of documents with the Public Service Commission on Wednesday. The PSC passed to The Miami Herald a 25-page document summarizing the billion-dollar request.

SAVINGS IN FUEL

In a press release, FPL estimated that customers will save about $5 a month overall starting Jan. 1, but that change included anticipated declines in fuel charges. The bill of a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month would drop on Jan. 1 from $109.55 to $104.63, according to that estimate.

In a follow-up e-mail, Villafana wrote that those numbers include an estimate from February that 2010 fuel prices will allow a bill reduction of $17.83 a month. "Actual 2010 fuel costs could vary from this projection."

Fuel costs are passed directly to customers, and they fluctuate widely. For months, the price of fuel has been declining for utilities. Progress Energy Florida, the state's second-largest electric company, recently asked for a fuel reduction of $6.90 a month for the average customer, and the PSC approved it Tuesday. FPL has not filed for a reduction in fuel costs this year.

"Give me a break," Beck said of the press release. "They're masking a rate increase with fuel charge estimates. That's funny. When fuel gets more expensive, they say they have no control of its costs. Now they're taking credit for a possible reduction. Who knows what fuel charges will be next year?"

In its PSC filing, the company said it was seeking a 12.5 percent return on shareholders' investment. Beck said the company is currently earning 10.8 percent, and the Public Counsel's staff thinks that rate is already too high.

Base rate changes generally occur only once every few years. But in its filing Wednesday, FPL asked for the possibility for intermittent increases, as when new power plants are added to the grid.

COMPANY PERSPECTIVE

In the press release, FPL President Armando Olivera said, "Our bills are among the lowest in the state and well below the national average, and we're working hard to keep them that way by making smart investments to benefit our customers."

At least one customer wasn't impressed. "Given the state of the economy, I think their timing isn't good," Fred Silverman of Pinecrest said in a phone interview.

In the press release, FPL cited studies from the Florida Municipal Electric Association and Edison Electric Institute that a typical bill is 18 percent lower than the average in Florida and 17 percent lower than the national average. "FPL's retail base rates are 17 percent lower now than they were in 1985 -- the last time a general base rate increase was sought and granted -- despite inflation of 99 percent in the same period."

FPL last sought an increase in 2005.

Those hearings ended in a compromise deal that kept base rates flat.

The new rate hearings are expected to last for months, with PSC hearings, workshops and document filings.

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