NextEra's (NEE) Subsidiary FPL Gets Rate Deduction Approval

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NextEra Energy Inc.’s NEE subsidiary, Florida Power and Light Company (“FPL”), recently received state regulators’ approval to decrease electricity rates, beginning in July. The Florida Public Service Commission approved FPL's appeal to reduce their projected 2023 fuel costs by $256 million. This approval marks the company’s third reduction in the fuel portion for 2023.

Based on FPL's forecasted fuel costs for its generating plants, the Public Service Commission approves a fuel charge on consumer bills. FPL works hard to run its power plants as fuel-efficiently as possible while not making a return on fuel. Natural gas prices have declined since FPL predicted its fuel costs for 2023 last year. For the fuel charges in 2023, FPL has already made downward adjustments totaling almost $1.4 billion, which went into effect in April and May.

FPL’s Customer Initiatives

Customers of FPL will start to notice some relief on their monthly electricity bills just as the summer heat increases electricity usage. After the recent approval, an average 1,000 kWh residential customer bill will now be more than $8 less in July than in April. A 1,000 kWh home bill in Northwest Florida will cost less in July 2023 than last year. Depending on the rate class, business client bills will fall 2-5% in July from the present rates.

In order to further reduce customer bills, FPL advises their customers to utilize the free tools provided by them. Customers can also activate the free FPL Energy Manager tool to monitor how their home is using energy and identify ways to save the same.

Since the utilities do not make any profits on fuel prices, the downward revision in fuel prices is completely passed on to customers. The rate reduction is a welcome break for customers during the summer season when demand generally increases the monthly utility bills.

Price Performance

Over the past year, shares of NEE have gained 0.2% against the industry’s 7.4% decline.

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Zacks Rank & Key Picks

NextEra currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some better-ranked utilities in the same industry are Consolidated Edison Inc. ED, Avista Corp. AVA and NiSource Inc. NI, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present.

Consolidated Edison’s long-term (three- to five-year) earnings growth rate is pegged at 2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings per share indicates an increase of 6.6%.

Avista’s long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 6.3%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings per share indicates an increase of 9.4%.

NiSource’s long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 6.9%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings per share indicates an increase of 6.8%.

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NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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