Florida Power & Light Company issued bonds to finance the cost of restoring power during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, which have been paid for through a storm charge on the bill. This charge, a separate line item on the bill, has been adjusted up and down periodically, subject to approval from the Florida Public Service Commission.

The storm bonds were fully paid on Aug. 1, 2019. As a result, the storm charge was removed from customer bills. The Florida Public Service Commission has approved a true-up that will result in a one-time refund on customers’ bills in November. 

For a 1,000-kWh residential customer bill, the one-time refund is expected to be approximately $0.90.

 

Did the storm charge pay for Hurricanes Matthew and Irma?

No. The “storm charge” only accounts for the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons.

It was not used to pay for Hurricane Irma. FPL used federal tax savings to pay off the $1.3 billion cost of responding to that massive storm, avoiding a rate increase for customers.

The cost of responding to Hurricane Matthew (2016) was paid for through a separate temporary, 12-month surcharge on customer bills, and not through the “storm charge.”

What is a true-up and what does that mean for my bill?

The storm charge is based directly on a customer’s monthly electric usage. In other words, if a customer uses more electricity in a given month, the storm charge is higher and vice versa.

A true-up reflects the difference between the amount of money FPL projects to collect from customers, and the amount the company actually collects. In this case, the final storm charge true-up reflects the variance from June 1 to July 31.