Energy Planner Program

Energy Planner offers lower rates for electricity

Available to residential customers who subscribe to a broadband Internet service, Energy Planner offers lower rates for electricity most of the day and throughout the entire weekend. In fact, Energy Planner lets you take advantage of lower rates 87 percent of the time.

Rates

Lower rates

The rate you pay for electricity is determined by the Energy Planner level that is active at the time you're using electricity. The levels (Low, Medium, High and Critical) vary based on the time of day and the day of the week.

The Low and Medium rates are available 87 percent of the time and are lower than the average price of 9.188 cents* per kilowatt-hour (kWh) you currently pay under the standard residential rate. With lower rates available most of the time, you have the opportunity to save on overall electricity use.

The Critical rate can become active at any time and reflects the increased cost of providing electricity during times of extremely high demand. The critical rate cannot exceed 1.5 percent of the total hours in a year. You can maximize savings by programming your major appliances to automatically shut off if a Critical rate becomes active.

You will know when the levels are active based on the following timelines:

Energy Planner Weekend Holiday Time-of-day Rates

*The price of 9.188 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) is based on an average residential customer using 1,200 kWh per month on Tampa Electric's Residential Service (RS) two-tiered fuel and energy rate effective, Sept., 2018. For more details, view the Tariff on Tampa Electric's website.

Save

How you save

You can maximize savings when you avoid using electricity during the short period of time when the High level is active. The High level is never active on weekends and holidays*, and is active for no more than five hours each weekday throughout the entire year.

Making simple adjustments to when you use electricity, and shifting your usage to the time of day when the Low or Medium levels are active, will help reduce your electric bill.

*Holidays include: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

Web Portal

Web portal

Our secure Web portal makes it easy to program your thermostat, central heating and cooling system, water heater and pool pump. Whether you're at home, work or even away on vacation, you can log into your account to change any of your settings.

Are you arriving home earlier than expected? No problem! Simply log into the Web portal and adjust your heating or cooling to get your home to the comfort level you want.

The Web portal offers even more...

As an added benefit, the Web portal provides the following:

A line graph that displays actual heating and cooling system runtime.
Friendly reminder to change your air filter.
Access to download the programmable thermostat customer guide and Web portal user tips guide.

As part of the installation, Tampa Electric will install a free programmable thermostat that you can use to override settings and adjust your heating and cooling system. Our Energy Planner installer will show you how to program your appliances using both the Web portal and the thermostat.

Installation

Installing Energy Planner at your home is easy and takes about two hours. We will install:

Communications Gateway

This small communications device plugs into your existing broadband Internet router or modem* and transmits your electric usage data back to Tampa Electric to ensure accurate billing. The gateway must remain plugged into your router or modem.

Wi-Fi Control Device

A Wi-Fi control device will be installed near your water heater and pool pump. This device facilitates communication between the appliance and the Web portal. It is important that broadband Internet service is maintained once the control device is installed. If needed, the control device includes a button on the side that when pressed, offers a fast and convenient way to turn on your water heater and/or pool pump when the appliances are programmed to be off.

Programmable Thermostat

The Energy Planner programmable thermostat can be used to override settings and adjust your heating and cooling system.

*Energy Planner equipment requires connection to your Internet broadband router or modem. This allows communication between your appliances, the thermostat and Tampa Electric's Energy Planner computer equipment. It is necessary that broadband Internet service is maintained once Energy Planner is installed.