TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida Public Service Commission staff on Friday recommended cutting by nearly half Tampa Electric Co.’s three-year, $445 million rate hike request.
Agency staff proposed reducing the ask to $228 million over the first two years, with no increase in the third year. The recommendation is the first of two that the PSC is scheduled to use in December to set rates.
In its 383-page memorandum, agency staff also proposed a return on equity of 10.3 percent for TECO rather than the 11.5 percent requested by the utility. The Office of Public Counsel and several groups challenging the request had argued for setting the return on equity at 9.5 percent.
And staff recommended denying TECO’s request to include in base rates $167.2 million for a backup power plant called the South Tampa Resiliency Project.
