Duke Energy outlines February bill reductions, defends statewide cost allocation and demand-response appeals

Galen Holloway, government and community relations manager for Duke Energy Florida, updated the Brooksville City Council on recent rate changes and customer programs, saying storm-recovery charges tied to the 2024 storm season are being removed beginning in February and March 2026 and that residential customers should see an average monthly decrease of roughly $11.

Holloway told the council that storm-recovery fees are authorized and structured by the Florida Public Service Commission and applied across Duke’s Florida service territory so customers in areas less affected by storms may nonetheless see charges tied to statewide recovery decisions. “Those are the fees that are coming off of our bills,” Holloway said, adding that the commission governs how storm costs are recovered.

Mike Mangan, Duke Energy account executive for the City of Brooksville, said the company completed an annual rate-review for the city’s accounts and adjusted nine municipal accounts to lower-cost rate plans, yielding about $15,000 in annual savings for the city. Mangan described a suite of customer programs—residential demand-response (which can temporarily control pool pumps or water heaters with consent), standby generation from large commercial customers, and curtailable/interruptible programs for large industrial accounts—to reduce peak demand and avoid rotating outages.

Council members and residents raised concerns about local residential bills that appeared substantially higher than nearby accounts and asked why Brooksville customers were not seeing larger cost reductions. One speaker presented specific account comparisons showing higher bills inside the city limits. Holloway and Mangan responded that differences can reflect rate structure, chosen payment plans, and the obligation of regulated utilities to serve sparsely populated rural circuits, which spreads certain costs across all customers.

Mangan offered to return to a future meeting with a bill breakdown and to walk council members and staff through the specifics of charges on individual bills. Holloway said Duke would provide a one-pager and offered to brief staff or convene a more detailed session to explain how the public-service-commission-determined rates and program adjustments operate.

The council thanked the presenters and asked staff to collect follow-up questions. Duke committed to leave contact information and supporting materials for further local review.