On Feb. 28, 2025, Florida Power & Light Company submitted a comprehensive four-year request to the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) to set new rates once its current base rate agreement concludes at the end of this year.  

This is an edited transcript of a conversation between FPL Executive Director of Marketing and Communications Bryan Garner and FPL President and CEO Armando Pimentel. 

Bryan Garner: Armando, thanks for doing this. 

Armando Pimentel: Of course. Thank you for putting this together. 

Let’s jump right in. FPL is going through a rate case, which is a process every regulated utility must go through to set new electric rates. Let’s start at the beginning because a lot of people may not be familiar with this. Can you talk a little bit about how the process of setting prices for electricity differs from that of other products and services? 

Sure, and you’re right. It’s very different. The prices you pay for groceries at the market, or gas at the pump, or tools you buy at the hardware store are all prone to change on a daily basis with little to no notice. Just think about eggs – egg prices have essentially doubled in the last 12 months – and no one had to ask permission or provide justification.  

But investor-owned utilities who provide essential services like electricity or water must first ask permission, provide the rationale, the data and engage with stakeholders through a rigorous public hearing process before adjusting prices. That’s true whether a utility wants to increase or decrease rates. For example, FPL decreased rates twice last year. The Florida Public Service Commission, or PSC, regulates utilities for our state. It had to review and approve, in both cases, before we could move forward. 

What is the PSC and how does the rate-setting process work? 

The Public Service Commission includes five commissioners who are nominated by a special council, appointed by Florida’s governor and then confirmed by the state Senate. Their mission is to ensure Florida’s consumers receive essential services in a safe, reasonable and reliable manner and at a fair price. That means it’s the PSC’s job to thoroughly review a utility’s proposal whenever it requests new rates. 

The review process is long and robust. It takes the better part of a year. FPL formally submitted its rate proposal back in February. Now that our proposal and testimony have been filed, the PSC will host service hearings across the state where our customers are invited to comment on our proposal and on FPL’s service in general. 

After a public input period, the PSC holds technical hearings which look a lot like courtroom proceedings. Evidence is submitted and expert witnesses are cross-examined. The PSC then bases its final decision on the record it has developed. 

But if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that no one wants to pay more money for anything. Floridians are already grappling with inflation levels that we haven’t seen in decades. Why has FPL chosen this moment to request new rates?  

It’s a good question and I agree – no one wants to pay more for any product or service. A few things I want to say here … 

On timing – it’s important to remember that as a regulated utility, FPL routinely goes to the PSC to adjust our rates. Our current four-year rate agreement concludes at the end of 2025 and, as I mentioned before, the process of setting new rates takes about a year. So that’s why we started the process early this year. I also want to put this request in context because there are a couple of reasons why this is pressing. As everyone has certainly noticed, our state is growing rapidly. In fact, since 2021, we have added 275,000 new customers and we expect to add roughly 335,000 more between now and 2029. Powering all that growth requires new generation and an overall expansion of our grid. 

Lastly, we must maintain the right level of investment in our grid to ensure we can continue delivering the reliable service our current customers have come to expect.  

So that’s what this rate increase would pay for? 

Yes. It’s a four-year plan to ensure we can continue delivering reliable service for customers today and any new customers who move into our service area tomorrow. Just like with your car or home, it takes continued investment to ensure everything is operating smoothly. And with something as advanced as our electric grid, that also means adding technology to help it run efficiently – technology that can help us restore power faster when power outages occur or even avoid some outages entirely. Planning for the future and investing in the grid now actually reduces costs over time for everyone. 

And you’ve described the plan that FPL submitted as “balanced.” Can you explain that? 

That’s what I mean by “the right level of investment.” We understand Floridians have been dealing with soaring inflation – and, by the way, inflation has affected us, too. Two good examples are poles and transformers. Since we last requested a rate adjustment, the cost of poles has risen nearly 50% and the cost of transformers has nearly doubled.  

We’ve designed a plan that balances rising costs and rapid customer growth with our commitment to low bills and outstanding service. Our goal is always to deliver reliable electricity while keeping bills as low as possible. At the end of the day, even with this proposed increase, FPL bills are expected to remain well below the national average.  

This is being characterized as a $9 billion rate hike and “the largest rate hike request in U.S. history.” How do you respond? 

  Well first, it’s not true that it’s the largest. The $9 billion figure is roughly correct. But remember, that’s over four years and we serve more than 6 million customer accounts or roughly 12 million people – that’s more than half the state’s population. So, I’m not sure how helpful it is to focus on the cumulative figure. I think customers ultimately care how this will affect their individual bills and, again, FPL bills are expected to remain well below the national average.   

Actually, typical bills will even be below what customers were paying 20 years ago when adjusted for inflation. I’m not sure there are many products or services that can say that they cost less today than they did two decades ago. To me, that’s simply proof that our investments work to drive down costs over the long term.  

 When we speak with our customers, which we do all the time, they tell us what they really want is reliable electricity at a cost that’s as low as possible. Our reliability is 59% better than the national average and our bills have been well below the national average for more than a decade. When you compare us to the rest of the nation, FPL customers are getting an incredible value. Our mission is to continue providing them with a great value, which is why we’ve proposed this plan.  

Can you share more about driving down costs? 

Yes. We have a couple examples that illustrate this perfectly. If you look back to two decades ago, FPL’s fleet was made up of a bunch of old 1960s-era power plants. They were getting old, inefficient and extremely expensive to run. Starting in 2001, we began replacing them with ultra-efficient natural gas plants that essentially get more miles to the gallon. The modernization of our power plant fleet has saved customers more than $16 billion in fuel we simply didn’t have to buy to generate electricity for them.  Another way we save customers money is by running the most efficient utility in the nation. There are all sorts of costs we can’t control. We can’t control inflation. We can’t control the cost of our equipment. We can’t control the price of fuel. But we can control how we operate. Our relentless focus on efficiency saves customers more than $2.9 billion every single year. Or to put it another way, if we were to perform as efficiently as the average utility, the typical customer would pay $24 more for electricity every single month. 

Another element of this plan is the continued diversification of FPL’s energy mix. What does that mean? 

Right now, it means more low-cost solar paired with battery storage. Solar continues to benefit customers for a few reasons. Adding solar makes our system more resilient by adding another source of electricity we can depend on. It’s also quicker to market than any other form of generation right now. With solar, we’re able to add electrons onto the grid more rapidly than if we were to build a new natural gas plant, for instance – so solar is helping us meet Florida’s growing demand for power quickly. Finally, at this moment, solar is also the most cost-effective form of generation for customers. In fact, our solar investments have saved customers more than $1 billion in fuel we did not have to purchase because solar doesn’t require fuel.  

You mentioned resilience. When I hear that word, I mainly think of resilience in the face of hurricanes. Can you talk about how system resiliency has helped customers in hurricanes? 

Sure, and let’s start with examples from this most recent season. In 2024, we were hit by back-to-back powerful hurricanes. Helene and Milton rolled through within two weeks of each other. After Helene, FPL was able to restore service to roughly 95% of the 680,000 customers impacted after just two full days of restoration. Milton affected many more customers. About 2 million. And we were able to restore 95% of them after four full days of restoration. So, I believe FPL’s hurricane prep and response is second to none and customers have benefitted enormously from our approach to storm hardening and system resiliency. 

The policies of our governor, legislature and regulators also deserve a lot of credit here. They have put a system in place that allows us to invest in our grid to get better over time. And that is certainly our expectation – that because of the experience we have and because of the investments we have made, customers can expect us to keep improving. While any individual storm may be a little better or worse for reliability, over time we’ll improve. And so far, the results reflect that.  

Are there parts of this plan that will make FPL’s system more reliable?  

Yes, there are. In our state, where we experience some of the most severe weather in America, even an afternoon thunderstorm – much less a hurricane – can be very disruptive to people’s lives and to our economy. We have to be able to respond to and quickly recover from severe weather so our customers can bounce back, too. As I mentioned before, FPL offers a service that’s 59% more reliable than the national average. This plan will enable us to continue making the same types of investments that have led us to be as reliable as we are, in good weather and bad. That includes investments like smart grid technology, which helped avoid 2.7 million customer outages in 2024 alone.   

Anything else you would like to add? 

At FPL, we put our customers at the center of every decision we make. And I would like for our customers to know that no other utility in the U.S. provides a better combination of high reliability, resiliency and low bills than FPL. We want to continue to offer that same value to customers today and in the future as our state grows. Doing so means we must continue to make smart, long-term investments. This plan will support investments for reliable service and the continued diversification of our power plant fleet while keeping bills as low as possible.   

Armando, thank you very much. 

Thank you, Bryan.