{"id":296790,"date":"2026-06-05T04:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/296790\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T04:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:57:09","slug":"st-pete-advances-feasibility-study-on-leaving-duke-energy-for-city-owned-utility-no-final-decision-made-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/296790\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete advances feasibility study on leaving Duke Energy for city-owned utility, no final decision made"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg City Council voted to spend up to $590,000 on a feasibility study to evaluate whether the city should leave Duke Energy and create a municipal utility, though no immediate change is planned.<\/p>\n

The study will assess potential costs, infrastructure needs and possible customer savings, while the current Duke Energy franchise agreement remains in place until it expires in August.<\/p>\n

The move comes amid rising electricity cost concerns and ongoing debate, with Duke Energy defending its service and a final report expected in about eight to nine months.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – St. Petersburg<\/a> City Council has officially voted to move forward with a feasibility study that will examine whether the city could leave Duke Energy and establish a municipally owned utility<\/a> \u2014 but leaders stressed the decision does not signal an immediate breakup with the utility company.<\/p>\n

St. Pete explores feasibility study<\/p>\n

What we know<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the council agreed to spend up to $590,000 to hire a consulting firm to analyze whether a city-run power system could lower costs for residents and how such a transition would work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Officials emphasized that the current agreement with Duke Energy<\/a> remains in place, and the city is not ending its partnership at this time.<\/p>\n

Duke Energy contract still in effect<\/p>\n

Dig deeper<\/p>\n

The city’s 30-year franchise agreement with Duke Energy is set to expire in August. Until the feasibility study is completed, Duke will continue to provide electric service under the existing contract.<\/p>\n

City leaders said the study process is expected to take about eight months.<\/p>\n

Transition infrastructure cost projections<\/p>\n

What we don’t know<\/p>\n

Municipal administrators have not yet confirmed the projected capital costs required to purchase Duke Energy’s regional assets or construct a standalone public grid from scratch. It also remains undetermined what specific savings percentages local households would actually see on their monthly statements if a municipal utility is eventually established after the data is returned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rising energy costs concerns<\/p>\n

The backstory<\/p>\n

The push for the study comes amid ongoing concerns from residents about rising electricity bills across the region. Supporters of the review say it is intended to explore whether a municipal utility could offer long-term savings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Council members supporting the study pointed to affordability concerns and comparisons to other Florida <\/a>cities that operate their own utilities.<\/p>\n

Duke Energy responds to potential change<\/p>\n

The other side<\/p>\n

Duke Energy has responded to the city’s decision, saying that renewing the franchise agreement would provide “immediate benefits” and ensure continued safe and reliable service for customers.<\/p>\n

Community advocacy and debate continue<\/p>\n

What’s next<\/p>\n

St. Pete residents advocating for a review of alternative energy options have urged city leaders to consider long-term control, pricing and infrastructure resilience, especially during severe weather events.<\/p>\n

If the study moves forward as planned, consultants will begin gathering data immediately. A final report is expected to be presented to city leaders in roughly eight to nine months.<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

The information in this story was gathered from St. Petersburg City Council, formal corporate statements released by Duke Energy and previous FOX 13 News reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief St. Petersburg City Council voted to spend up to $590,000 on a feasibility study to evaluate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2470,3401,80196,123748,125029,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-296790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-city-leaders","tag-duke-energy","tag-feasibility-study","tag-franchise-agreement","tag-municipal-utility","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}