{"id":317105,"date":"2026-06-23T18:13:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/317105\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T18:13:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:13:37","slug":"clearwater-considers-replacing-duke-energy-with-city-owned-electric-utility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/317105\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearwater considers replacing Duke Energy with city-owned electric utility"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Duke \"Duke Duke Energy takeover proposal<\/a> <\/p>\n

A debate over who should provide electricity in Clearwater is taking shape as city leaders explore the possibility of replacing Duke Energy. FOX 13’s Blake DeVine reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CLEARWATER, Fla. – A debate over who should provide electricity in Clearwater <\/a>is taking shape as city leaders explore the possibility of replacing Duke Energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clearwater electric grid debate <\/p>\n

By the numbers:<\/p>\n

The 30-year franchise agreement between Clearwater and Duke Energy expired in December 2025. A city-commissioned appraisal recently valued Duke Energy’s local power assets at approximately $265 million.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Inside his Clearwater warehouse, Mike Mastruserio, founder of Proforma, a printing company, says he\u2019s satisfied with Duke Energy.<\/p>\n

City-owned electric proposal <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“They do a great job and whenever there’s an outage, they tell me about it,” Mastruserio said. “They tell me how long it’s going to be out. That’s good communication.”<\/p>\n

Mastruserio is skeptical of the city’s effort to take over electric service.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think Clearwater should be meddling with something they don’t do regularly,” Mastruserio said.<\/p>\n

Mastruserio also questions whether the city has the staffing needed to operate its own electric utility.<\/p>\n

“They don’t have the manpower. Their staffing levels are down now,” Mastruserio said. “For them to bring on a whole new electrical department in order to do that, that’s going to be a big task\u2026 and I don’t think they’re up for it.”<\/p>\n

Lower-cost resident options <\/p>\n

The other side:<\/p>\n

Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector says city leaders are exploring ways to lower costs for residents.<\/p>\n

“We’re just trying to do the best we can for our customers in Clearwater,” Rector said. “We want the best value for them, the lowest cost possible.”<\/p>\n

Duke Energy disputes the city’s appraisal and says a government takeover would be far more expensive than the city’s estimates.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Duke Energy spokeswoman Ana Gibbs said a report prepared by Concentric concluded that taking over Clearwater’s electric grid would cost about $1 billion.<\/p>\n

“Separating Clearwater from the electric grid is complex, risky and would take years,” Gibbs said.<\/p>\n

Duke Energy also added that a renewed franchise agreement would best serve Clearwater and its residents.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Rector disagreed, pointing to Clearwater’s city-owned gas utility, which has operated for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n

“They make it sound like we’re incapable of operating an energy utility,” Rector said. “We’ve shown over 100 years we are capable of doing that.”<\/p>\n

Upcoming city council meeting <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Clearwater City Council is expected to discuss the appraisal and possible next steps during its meeting on July 16.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this story came from statements from Duke Energy, interviews with the Clearwater mayor and a Clearwater business owner, and previous reporting by FOX 13 News.<\/p>\n

Clearwater<\/a>Duke Energy<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Duke Energy takeover proposal A debate over who should provide electricity in Clearwater is taking shape as city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1339,3401,47,115,1536,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-317105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-clearwater","tag-duke-energy","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-organization","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317105","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=317105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}