UPDATE: Florida Power & Light Company Files Request For Base Rate Increase

Florida Power & Light Company today filed its formal request for a base rate increase with the Florida Public Service Commission. The requested increase would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2013.Today's filing was consistent with the company's notice to the PSC in January that an adjustment would be necessary because the company's existing rate agreement, which effectively froze base rates for three years, expires at the end of 2012.FPL expects that, even with the change, its customer bills will still be the lowest in the state and well below the national average.The company is requesting a base rate increase of $6.97 a month, or about 23 cents a day, on the base portion of a typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill offset in part by an estimated $4.49 a month net decrease in other components of a typical bill, including lower fuel usage, lower fuel prices and other adjustments. As a result, the typical residential customer bill would increase about $2.48 a month, or about 8 cents a day – a 2.6 percent increase.