Lakeland Electric customers may notice a slight decrease in their bills starting next month. The City Commission voted 6-0 on Monday to lower the fuel rate that the utility passes along to customers. Mayor Bill Mutz was absent.
The fuel rate is adjusted quarterly, so the change will take effect for the months of April, May and June.
During a presentation to commissioners on Friday, Fuels Manager Sandra Ruede recommended lowering the rate from 3.8 cents to 3.6 cents per kilowatt hour. She said the decrease is possible because of lower natural gas prices, temperate winter weather and the utility’s healthy fuel reserve balance.
For a home that uses 1,000 kWh per month, that will be a savings of $2 with the fuel charge dropping from $38 to $36 per month. The overall bill, which also includes the customer charge and base rate, will decrease from $105.50 to $103.50.
It’s a smaller change than the roughly $20 decrease from $75 to $55 per 1,000 kWh that was approved around this time last year. But that’s because energy prices overall have stabilized after soaring in 2022 due to an exceptionally hot summer, the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions.
For a customer using 1,157 kWh per month — the average among Lakeland Electric’s 114,440 residential customers — the fuel charge will drop by $2.32 from $43.97 to $41.65. The overall bill will decrease from $119.63 to $117.63.
That total might look low to some customers living in Lakeland’s city limits because electricity is only one component of their monthly utility bill. The invoices — which have the city’s logo at the top instead of Lakeland Electric’s logo — also include water, solid waste, wastewater, stormwater and a $2 recycling charge.
Spokeswoman Cathryn Lacy said Lakeland Electric continues to have some of the lowest electric rates in the state.
A chart presented to commissioners on Friday showed that for the past year Lakeland Electric’s rates have consistently been $5 to $80 a month lower than other municipal utilities including the Orlando Utility Commission (OUC), Tallahassee Electric Utility (TAL), Jacksonville Energy Authority (JEA) and Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU), as well as investor-owned utilities including Florida Power & Light (FP&L), Tampa Electric Company (TECO) and Duke Energy (DUKE).
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I can’t believe it, LE is reducing bills by $2 a month, now that’s news. Good work LE. On my way to Walmart to see what I can by for $2. But wait, maybe I should reconsider, maybe the $1.25 store.
Hello. I”m always glad to save money especially on utilities. My interest right now concerns an article that I think I read on Lakeland Patch just a week or so ago. It mentioned the rate decrease other information about average electric bills from Lakeland City Utilities . If you know where I can find this again, I would really appreciate you letting me know.
Thank you for contacting us. I’m not sure about Patch, but there is a breakdown of the bills in the article above.