(Source: Business Wire)
Today, Tampa Electric made its annual fuel filing with the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC). Due to lower fuel and purchased power costs for the first six months of 2009 and projections for the remainder of 2009 and 2010, the fuel portion of all customer bills will be lower beginning in January 2010. For a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, the fuel charge will decrease by $6.32 upon approval by the FPSC. This requested decrease in customer bills will more than offset the scheduled January 2010 incremental increase to the base rate portion of the bill approved by the FPSC in March 2009. As a result, a 1,000 kilowatt-hour monthly residential bill will be $113.21, a $1.46 overall reduction, effective January 2010. Additionally, commercial and industrial customers also will see reductions of approximately 3 percent on their total bills.
Tampa Electric President Gordon Gillette said, "We are pleased with this overall reduction in customer bills. This represents the second reduction in fuel costs in the last eight months and our team has done an excellent job of securing these lower fuel prices for our customers."
Due to projected fuel costs, the company estimates that by year-end 2009 it will be over-recovered by an additional $45 million, even after reducing the fuel charges on customer bills this past May by $16.17 per month on a 1,000 kilowatt-hour residential bill. While the company cannot control the price of fuel, Tampa Electric maximizes the use of existing generating assets, including the recently approved combustion turbines, to mitigate costs and pass those savings back to customers.
Tampa Electric's fuel mix is primarily made up of coal and natural gas. The cost of fuel is a substantial portion of an electric bill, currently approaching 40 percent. Fuel costs are collected from customers by the utility at cost and used to pay fuel suppliers, typically the large oil and coal companies, without any mark-up by the utility.
In June 2009, Tampa Electric filed with the FPSC the company's proposed energy-efficiency and conservation goal of a reduction in customer energy use of 200 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) for the next 10 years -- an increase of 70 percent over the company's current goal. To achieve this aggressive goal, the company plans to enhance several of its 27 customer energy conservation programs and explore new program opportunities for all customer sectors: residential, commercial and industrial.
Tampa Electric began promoting energy efficiency in the late 1970s -- before any state legislation required electric utilities to engage in conservation activities.
