Public Power (Literally): Which Florida Cities Have a Publicly Owned Power Company?

There are 33 municipalities in Florida that have their own public power utility.

Pinellas County cities Clearwater and St. Petersburg began exploring what it would take to secede from Duke Energy and create municipal electric utilities (MEUs) in the last few years. The two cities’ contract with Duke is up for renewal, which gives each city a unique opportunity to change.

Clearwater ended up renewing their Duke contract for another 30 years. They did a feasiblity study showing costs would go down for residents significantly. The study though did not persuade the Clearwater City Council that the City had the money, bandwidth, or ability to deal with major storms if they switched to a MEU.

St. Pete is exploring the idea

Earlier this summer, the St. Pete City Council approved a study to see if it would benefit St. Pete to create a MEU. The Dump Duke campaign led to a new group, Public Power St, Pete. Public Power St, Pete is gathering signatures to have a ballot initiative in 2028 about keeping or booting Duke. They are seeking not only lower power bills, but also more local control, and the ability to diversify power sources for cleaner and chepaer energy. You can read the petition here.

Public Power St. Pete posits that the residents of St. Pete should make the decision, not the officials. Part of the concern is that neither of the two current mayoral candidates are likely to support the Duke divorce. Charlie Crist’s campaign takes donations from power-related lobbyists and PACs. He has stated that it is unlikely St. Pete could handle the switch.

Current mayor Ken Welch has left all options open – continuing the relationship with Duke and suggesting a short term contract with Duke while the feasibilty study is done. While he seems more open to a MEU, Dump Duke and other activists point out that he worked for Duke energy for years.

Has any city in Florida done this recently?

Winter Park switched from Progress Energy (Duke’s predecessor) in 2005. This was decided in a ballot initiative in 2003, after the City of Winter Park and others started exploring the possibility in 2000. As in Pinellas, the power company spent gobs of money fighting the switch. Winter Park had an option of right to purchase in their contract. Progress, like Duke, mounted a public relations campaign including inflated prices for purchasing equipment.

The fight to purchase ended up doubling the cost of switching from $20 M to $42 M, mainly because of legal bills. As with Duke, the power company fought hard to cast doubt on the ability of the City to run the utilities. Voters were told that their rates would rise, the city’s reliability and ability to deal with storms and just run the utility, was below par.

The promise to put power lines underground (undergrounding) was an important part of the deal. Voters passed the referendum 69 to 31%. By all measures, the switch to MEU has been successful for Winter Park.

Major Florida Cities with Public Power