Take action on minimum bills: Send a personal email to Gov. DeSantis
Florida’s monopoly utilities have found a new way to block your right to go solar. It’s called a “minimum bill.” Under a minimum bill, you’re required to pay a certain amount to your utility each month, even if you don’t use any electricity.
Minimum bills unfairly target customers who use little electricity each month. While this harms solar owners, it is unfair to people with energy-efficient homes, part-time residents, and residents trying to age in place.
Minimum bills now apply to customers who receive electricity from Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy.
Why minimum bills are a bad deal for solar
One way to think about going solar is that you’re paying for decades of electricity up front. You make back this investment over time because you’re paying little to nothing each month to your utility.
Minimum bills erode this investment by limiting how much you can save. Under a minimum bill, you’ll have to pay your utility more than you would owe based on how much electricity you used.
This penalizes you if you use less electricity or use credits from your solar energy system to reduce your electric bill. It does so by adding an additional fee.
For example, Duke Energy has a $30 minimum bill. In this example a solar customer’s bill would be less than $30. So the utility charges them extra so they meet the minimum.
Example: How minimum bills impact a solar customer
This table shows a breakdown of a sample bill for a Duke Energy customer under minimum billing. As you can see, their total bill comes out to $25.81. Under minimum billing, they’re forced to pay another $4.19 to meet the $30.
| 1000 kWh | Total electric usage |
| 900 kWh | Electricity generated from solar |
| 100 kWh | Net electricity used from the utility |
| $0.1286 | Price of electricity per kWh |
| $12.86 | Cost of electricity purchased (100 * $0.1286) |
| $12.95 | Monthly utility customer charge |
| $25.81 | Total bill before the minimum |
| $4.19 | Additional charge to meet the minimum |
| $30.00 | Final bill |
How did we get here
The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) approved rate cases in 2021 for Monopoly utilities like Duke and FPL must receive permission from the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) before making changes to customer billing. The PSC approved the utilities’ proposal to impose minimum bills in 2021. Groups are appealing FPL’s rates to the Florida Supreme Court. In January 2022, Duke Energy started charging ratepayers a $30 minimum bill. In July 2022, FPL started charging ratepayers a $25 minimum bill.
What can you do about it
Send a personal message to Governor DeSantis. Ask him to take action. We know that the Governor is paying attention. Your messages will be recorded and potentially filed by his office with the Public Service Commission. Use our templated email and instructions to get you started. Tweets are also provided below.
Send a personal message to the Governor
Click the button below to use our email template in your email program. Be informative, courteous and cordial.
If it doesn’t automatically open, you can select the TEXT below, COPY + PASTE the text into a new email. *IMPORTANT* Please PERSONALIZE your email by editing and removing all of the guidance included in all CAPITAL LETTERS and ADD a Subject line. The more your personalize, the better!
Template email message
To: GovernorRon.Desantis@eog.myflorida.com
BCC: advocacy@solarunitedneighbors.org
Subject: PERSONALIZE THIS
Example subject lines: Stop unfair minimum bills!, Take action to protect ratepayers from minimum bills, Stop FPL from Double Dipping in their billing, Minimum bills are unfair, I’m struggling under unfair bills, I’m paying $XX extra for electricity to FPL/Duke
Dear Governor DeSantis,
My name is INSERT NAME and I am reaching out to you from COUNTY/CITY/AREA OF STATE. Thank you for vetoing HB 741 and protecting Florida families from utility overreach, additional charges and our right to energy freedom. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only recent rate hike. I am being unfairly charged a minimum bill because SOLAR HOMEOWNER/OTHER/DESCRIBE YOUR SITUATION.
I believe this is unfair because I made this investment with my own money/pay the customer charge, taxes and fees just like everyone else/have made investments to reduce my usage on my own dime/PERSONALIZE.
As a solar homeowner, I went solar because (really impactful to talk about the economics of your investment here, how are you using the savings?).
FOR SOLAR HOMEOWNERS TO USE: Using my own earned credits/net metered bank to reduce my bill and then hitting me with a minimum bill is double-dipping and stealing from my investment.
Please advocate for these new fees to be reconsidered by the Public Service Commission. Thank you for your leadership for Floridians like me/insert personalized thank you.
Sincerely,
Name and City of Residence in Florida [Ex: Joe of Sunrise]
Tweeting at the Governor
Twitter handles you could tag in your post:
@GovRonDeSantis
@insideFPL
@DukeEnergy
Be creative & personalize your tweets! Here are some example tweets:
@GovRonDeSantis stop @insidefpl from #DoubleDipping with unfair #minimumbills https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-15-dollar-a-month-fpl-bill-20220626-m3gy47gifvbqxkolzr2lkrleoe-story.html
Rising inflation & now #minimumbills are hitting Florida electric ratepayers hard. @DukeEnergy is #DoubleDipping with the $30 minimum monthly bill. We need @GovRonDeSantis to take action to protect ratepayers! https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-15-dollar-a-month-fpl-bill-20220626-m3gy47gifvbqxkolzr2lkrleoe-story.html
@insideFPL is stealing my energy credits & #DoubleDipping with new $25 #minimumbill. @GovRonDeSantis needs to take action!
@DukeEnergy is stealing my energy credits & #DoubleDipping with new $30 #minimumbill. @GovRonDeSantis needs to take action!
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