Down with Progress Energy-Up with Solar

Please, please help me revert every house in Florida to solar power. We are the SUNSHINE state. Yes we can! The least, we can supply the country with the excess electric we don't need. In October 2008 Public Service Commission voted in favor of the new nuclear plant. The decision paved the way for Progress Energy to add $11.42 per 1,000 kilowatt hours to customers' bills. The average household uses about 1,200 kilowatt hours a month.

In a December 2008 a story at The Tampa Bay.com blog reported Progress-Energy's continue efforts to increase rates to Florida households. State Sen. Charlie Justice joined the chorus calling on Gov. Charlie Crist to freeze Progress Energy's nuclear rate increase, which is due to hit bills this January 2009. Progress Energy has been working on increasing rates since May 2008 or earlier. According to the May 2008 story in the St. Petersburg Times, the utilities are not allowed to profit from fuel fluctuations. It's a direct pass-through to consumers. Each year, the utilities predict their fuel costs and ask the Florida Public Service Commission to approve the monthly cost to customers. For 2008 the power plants were estimated to pay 54 percent more for fuel oil, 33 percent more for natural gas and 6 percent more for coal, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department. In October 2008, a decision for Florida's bid to lead the country's nuclear renaissance, state regulators gave Progress Energy the go ahead to charge customers for its $17-billion nuclear project years before it starts producing electricity. The nuclear charge is part of a 25 percent increase that Progress Energy customers will see in January 2009. The plant is not expected to produce until 2016, another seven year wait.

So we get the increase in the electric bill. It's too much for you to pay. It can happen to anyone, falling on hard financial times. For people in those situations, being able to pay a utility bill isn't easy. While there are some places in the area that help. Some say they're also facing a crisis. Once your service is turned off, you must pay the balance in full to have it restored. I wrote Progress Energy and asked. I received the following email:

Dear Progress Energy Customer,

Thank you for contacting Progress Energy Florida.

Please note that Progress Energy's credit and deposit guidelines fully comply with all Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) regulations. Please know that we may ask for a deposit (equal to twice your average monthly bill) if, at any time, you accumulate an excessive number of reminder notices (how many is that?), your service is disconnected for non-payment of a bill or if there is a returned item (i.e., returned check) (Found in the Electric and Gas Bill of Rights ). As the average would be calculated on your electric usage for the past 12 months (estimated $200), we can asked to collect a deposit of as much as $400.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please reply to my e-mail or you may also call Customer Service Monday through Friday from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm, toll-free at 1-800-700-8744.

Thank you for using Progress Energy's online services.

Tiffany
Customer Relations

**Please note: For your convenience, all e-mails are assigned a ticket number. Please do not maintain or remove this number from the subject line as this may delay a response to your request. Thank you.**

If your outstanding bill is $200.00, Progress Energy can require an additional $400.00+taxes and surcharge. Before you can get your electric turned on, you'll have to pay close to $650.00. With the increase in the billing due to the Energy Surcharge, the deposit amounts have increased significantly. The utility includes the surcharge in the calculation of the deposit. In the private sector, with the increase in energy bills caused by the surcharges, a consumer often cannot afford to pay the deposit amount in addition to the current charges. In this economic stress filled time, this action is unacceptable. If too many consumers get their electric disconnected, is a surcharge passed on to the rest of us paying our bill, to make up the loss of revenue for Progress Energy?

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Florida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Most of Florida has a humid subtropical climate. Humid subtropical is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and chilly to mild winters. According to NOAA the arid part of the western United States has many more hours of sunshine during the year than Florida. During the winter, however, Florida has approximately double the amount of hours of sunlight than the states in the northeastern quadrant of the nation, and far milder temperatures.

So there you have it. We have all this sunshine to make solar energy. Our electric meters should be going in the opposite direction. We should be selling electric to Progress Energy. No one in this state should have their electric disconnected. We can make the electric company dependent on us the consumer, yes we can!

Work Cited:
http://blogs.tampabay.com/energy/files/progress_energy_letter.pdf
http://blogs.tampabay.com/energy/files/CharlieJusticeletter.pdf
http://floridapsc.org/publications/electricgas/psc_electric_gas.aspx
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/article529644.ece
http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim60/states/Clim_FL_01.pdf