TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa Electric says it filed a plan with the Florida Public Service Commission aimed at protecting customers from potential costs tied to future data centers and other large-load electric users.<\/p>\n
The filing, called a tariff, is required under a data centers law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in May. DeSantis said the law is meant to protect consumers from having to pay for one of those facilities.<\/p>\n
Tampa Electric spokesperson Cherie Jacobs said the tariff would require large-load customers, such as data centers, to pay for the electric infrastructure that powers them. Those facilities would also be responsible for some of the cost of maintaining and operating the broader electric system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing interest from large-load customers for potential opportunities in the future,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cRight now, Tampa Electric does not serve any large-load customers, but this plan does pave the way for the future to make sure that our customers remain protected and that reliable service is maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Electricity use has been a recurring topic at meetings about data centers across Tampa Bay. Residents have raised concerns about whether local electric grids can handle the power required by large facilities and whether their own utility bills could increase.<\/p>\n
According to Tampa Electric, requiring companies to help maintain the overall system could also help lower bills for existing customers. Jacobs said the plan still needs approval from the Public Service Commission, which could happen late this year or early next year.<\/p>\n
Duke Energy has also submitted a tariff to the Public Service Commission. A Duke spokesperson said the company was the first utility in Florida to present its plan.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Duke said it does not currently have a large-load client in Florida and was a signer of President Trump\u2019s Ratepayer Protection Pledge. The company also said it requested a rate cut for customers on Sept. 3 that could take effect in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa Electric says it filed a plan with the Florida Public Service Commission aimed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[276,115,2718,135,137,136,835],"class_list":["post-415421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-sarah-blazonis","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415421","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=415421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}