The Office of Public Counsel, which serves as the voice for consumers in utility matters, has initiated an appeal against the recently approved Tampa Electric Co. rate increases, taking their challenge to the Florida Supreme Court.
According to documents that appeared on the Supreme Court website Wednesday, the Office of Public Counsel submitted its appeal notice on Monday. Joining in the legal challenge are advocacy organizations Florida Rising Inc. and LULAC Florida Inc. (also known as the League of United Latin American Citizens of Florida), which filed their own appeal notice the same day.
The appeal notices, as is typical in such filings, do not elaborate on specific arguments against the rate approval.
The Florida Public Service Commission had authorized a substantial base-rate increase for Tampa Electric through a December vote, formalized in a February 3 final order. The approved plan permits Tampa Electric to implement nearly $185 million in base-rate increases during 2025, with additional increases of $86.6 million scheduled for 2026 and $9.1 million for 2027. Customers began seeing the initial increases on their January bills.
Last month, the Office of Public Counsel requested the commission reconsider its decision, arguing that reconsideration is “necessary to provide the commission a fair opportunity to address facts and law that the commission overlooked or failed to consider which first appeared in the final order.”
While the commission has yet to rule on this reconsideration request, Tampa Electric has already filed opposition, arguing last week that the motion should be dismissed.