What's Raising Your Power Bill?
Many factors can raise your electric bills. They include rate changes, seasonal weather, storms, and energy consumption and efficiency. As your bills are likely higher this year, we want you to know what's contributing to the increase and provide resources that can help.
Recovering from Hurricane Impacts
The 2024 hurricane season is the biggest driver of this year’s bill increases. It brought unprecedented damage to West Central Florida and required the largest restoration effort we've ever undertaken. Unfortunately, cost-effective insurance is not available in Florida to cover the cost of poles and wires most vulnerable to severe weather, and utility rates do not include the cost of restoring power after storms. Instead, Florida utilities can request a temporary surcharge to cover actual restoration costs. To cover $464 million in storm recovery costs, we implemented a temporary Storm Surcharge that will end in August 2026.
Strengthening Reliability, Resilience and Performance
We're committed to delivering 99.98% service reliability by making smart, long-term investments that enhance resilience, improve efficiency and address growing energy demands while keeping bills as low as possible. This includes advancing technology to detect and restore outages faster, upgrading energy management systems and protecting critical facilities against flooding and cyber threats.
We’re also improving performance and reducing fuel use at our power plants to generate power more efficiently and cost-effectively, delivering value to you every day.
Your Energy Use
Florida’s weather, your property’s energy efficiency and your energy habits play a significant role in your electric bill. How you run your air conditioner, do laundry and use electronics all make a difference. Your air conditioner alone can account for more than 50% of your utility bill. Higher temperatures strain cooling systems, leading to higher energy usage and higher bills. Even small changes like adjusting your thermostat, turning off lights and using energy-efficient appliances can help you save energy and money. Review our resources below to explore home-energy efficiency tips, ways to manage your summer bill and our nearly 30 energy- and money-saving programs.
Hear from Karen Sparkman, vice president of customer experience.
Ways to Save Energy and Money
Higher temperatures, especially July through September, strain your A/C, leading to higher energy usage and bills than other times of the year. Even small adjustments can help you save.
- For every degree you set your AC above 78 in summer, you can lower your energy use by about 7%.
- Repairing or replacing drafty windows and doors and leaky air ducts can also reduce energy use by about 20%.
To help you stay comfortable and reduce your costs, we offer nearly 30 energy-saving programs, like Energy Planner, Prime Time Plus and rebates on select energy-efficient products. We also offer free online and in-person residential energy audits to help pinpoint areas where you can save the most.
Example of how bills can fluctuate throughout the year.
Home Efficiency Tips
Stay comfortable while efficiently managing energy costs all season long.
Summer Savings Tips
Get tips and discover ways to save on cooling, which can account for about half of your bill.
Energy-Saving Programs
Choose from nearly 30 free energy-saving programs to help lower your bill.
Even Out Your Payments
Enroll in Budget Billing for more predictable payments, regardless of the season.
Monitor Your Energy Use
Manage your energy use with insights from our interactive bills.
Free Energy Audit
Identify simple changes you can make to save on your annual energy costs.
How Tampa Electric Can Help
We understand that higher electric bills can be a hardship for some customers. To help support you, we offer a variety of options to assist with bill payments. Additionally, we’ve partnered with compassionate organizations that may be able to offer further support with utility bills and other services.
Payment Assistance
Review our payment assistance programs and resources and reach out for help if you need it.
Share
Participate in our Share program to help qualifying customers pay their utility bills or get help for yourself if you need it.
