{"id":365953,"date":"2026-08-08T05:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365953\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:04:11","slug":"duke-energy-warns-st-pete-that-23m-a-year-in-franchise-fees-is-now-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365953\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke Energy warns St. Pete that $23M a year in franchise fees is now \u2018uncertain\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg\u2019s debate over whether to break away from Duke Energy<\/a> now has a more immediate complication: The city\u2019s 30-year franchise agreement has expired, and Duke is questioning the legal footing for more than $24 million in revenue expected next year.<\/p>\n

The agreement formally expired July 31, but electric service will continue uninterrupted while St. Petersburg and Duke negotiate a new contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Duke is calling the city back to the negotiating table. In a letter sent to Mayor Ken Welch<\/a>, Duke Energy Florida Associate General Counsel Matthew Bernier<\/a> urged St. Petersburg to begin negotiations on a new franchise agreement \u201cas soon as practicable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an effort to address rising electrical costs, St. Petersburg is currently spending as much as $590,000 to study<\/a> whether the city could buy Duke\u2019s local electric distribution system and establish a public municipal utility. However, Bernier said no talks are currently scheduled and that the lapse has left basic parts of the city\u2019s agreements with Duke unsettled.<\/p>\n

Duke said the expired agreement does more than formalize who provides the city\u2019s power. It governs Duke\u2019s use of public rights-of-way, establishes liability protections, and authorizes the utility to collect and send franchise fees to City Hall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Duke is now questioning whether it can continue collecting the fee from customers without an active franchise agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the former agreement, Duke paid St. Petersburg a monthly franchise fee equal to 6% of its base revenues from customers within the city. Welch\u2019s proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget counts on $24.2 million from those franchise fees, according to Duke\u2019s letter. Duke asked the city to formally identify the legal authority it believes permits the payments to continue.<\/p>\n

The Friday letter comes a day after Duke resolved a similar politically charged contract negotiation in Clearwater, resulting in a renewed 30-year deal after the company agreed to some concessions.<\/p>\n

The Clearwater City Council voted unanimously<\/a> Thursday to approve a new 30-year franchise agreement with Duke, ending its own examination of a city-run electric utility. Clearwater preserved the same 6% franchise fee while securing at least $1.75 million in community, resiliency and economic-development commitments from Duke.<\/p>\n

Those commitments include $600,000 over six years for infrastructure resilience projects and plans to negotiate a 20-year naming-rights sponsorship valued at another $600,000 for improvements at Coachman Park. Duke also agreed to support downtown retail development, beautification, broader economic-development efforts and projects in the North Greenwood Community Redevelopment Area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Duke\u2019s letter indicates similar options could be in play in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

Bernier argued that renewing the franchise agreement would restore certainty over fees, liability and use of city property while still allowing both sides to discuss shared priorities.<\/p>\n

While Duke pressed for an agreement with the city, the company cautioned that a push for a public utility could require years of regulatory review, valuations and litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg\u2019s debate over whether to break away from Duke Energy now has a more immediate complication: The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1339,3403,3401,5591,2346,148488,148489,125029,89645,202,204,203,199,1640,201,200],"class_list":["post-365953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-clearwater","tag-clearwater-city-council","tag-duke-energy","tag-duke-energy-florida","tag-ken-welch","tag-matthew-bernier","tag-municipal-power","tag-municipal-utility","tag-public-power","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-city-council","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365953","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=365953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}