The August 25 hearing
The Florida Public Service Commission, the state agency that decides what electric utilities in Florida may charge, held a hearing on August 25, 2026 at 9:30 AM in Room E 148 in Tallahassee. The hearing covered Duke Energy Florida’s petition for a limited proceeding to approve a large load tariff, and all commissioners were assigned to it. Florida Public Service Commission The request is on file as case number 20260064, and it asks the commission to approve a large load tariff. A tariff is a utility’s filed price list plus the fine print that comes with it, so whatever is in it binds every customer that takes service on that rate. The commission’s authority over what Duke may charge sits in chapter 366 of the Florida Statutes. That is the chapter Florida Rising invoked to get into this case, alongside sections 120.569 and 120.57 of the state’s administrative procedure act. Florida Rising petition to intervene Earlier steps in this case, on August 5 and August 17, went before a single commissioner, Clark. Florida Public Service Commission
Florida Rising is a membership based organization. It asked the commission to let it into the docket as a full party, saying enough of its members are Duke customers who would pay for the investment needed to serve large loads. Florida Rising petition to intervene It was deemed eligible to take part. Clark ruled that enough of the group’s members are Duke Energy Florida customers for it to do so, after Duke worked to keep organizations with limited ties to its customers out of the proceeding. WUSF The commissioners are not expected to vote until sometime after mid-September.
Who pays if a big customer’s bills fall short?
Duke Energy Florida spokesperson Ana Gibbs described what happens if a very large customer joins the system before the end of 2027 and its revenue does not cover what it costs to serve it. In that case, she said, the gap falls on Duke’s shareholders rather than on existing customers. WUSF The promise rests on Duke’s current rate case settlement, which the utility says keeps customers protected through 2027. Cost to serve means the money Duke spends on the wires, substations and generation needed to keep that one customer supplied. Duke argues the plan satisfies SB 44, a new state law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis that requires utilities to shield their customers from cost increases tied to bringing AI data centers onto the grid. Duke has also said it will file a new large load rate to take effect by January 1, 2028, backed by the analysis and documentation to support it.
The settlement behind the shareholder promise ends in 2027, and the new rate Duke has promised begins on January 1, 2028. Nothing I read makes the shareholder backstop a written term of a tariff rather than a description of how the settlement period works. A developer should therefore price in the possibility that the shortfall risk moves onto the customer the moment a large load rate is in force.
The cost study nobody has filed
Bradley Marshall, the Earthjustice attorney representing Florida Rising, said Duke has produced no analysis showing that AI data centers on the existing commercial rate pay their full share of the costs. WUSF He said just one AI data center needing a gigawatt of energy to function would cost billions of dollars to serve, and that Duke has proposed nothing that makes that customer pay those costs. Marshall also said the case has spent time on whether Florida Rising belongs in it instead of on that question.
Whether a utility can make the showing Marshall is asking for is not established here. Alabama Power told its own state commission that large load AI data center customers pay for their cost of service and do not shift those costs to other customers. It said it has made that effort since at least 2024. Government Technology I found no source stating that Florida’s commission must resolve the cost question before approving a rate. It can approve the rate and order the study, or it can push the numbers into the January 2028 filing Duke has already promised. Either choice leaves this year’s negotiations without a settled rule.
Serving a hyperscale load, meaning one of the very largest AI data centers, in Duke Energy Florida territory, before and after the August 25 hearing
| Dimension | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Rate for a new hyperscale load | Existing commercial rate schedule, no data-center-specific tariff in effect | Proposed large load tariff heard on the record, commission vote expected after mid-September |
| Who absorbs a gap between revenue and cost to serve | Duke says shareholders, under the rate case settlement running through 2027 | Unsettled beyond 2027, depends on the tariff terms the commission ultimately approves |
| Consumer group participation | Duke sought to keep Florida Rising out of the proceeding | Prehearing officer Clark found standing, Florida Rising participates as a party |
| Timing of a data-center-specific rate | None on file at the commission | Duke committed to a new large load rate effective by January 1, 2028 |
| Who is deciding | August 5 prehearing and August 17 hearing assigned to Commissioner Clark | August 25 hearing before all commissioners, with witnesses from both sides |
What a developer signing today is bound to accept
Duke’s proposed numbers are not set out in the documents cited here. What is missing is the size of load the rate applies to, the minimum take, the length of the contract, and the fee for leaving early. Also missing is the money a customer must post as security before Duke starts spending. Minimum take is a promise to pay for a set amount of power each month whether or not the site uses it. It decides whether a half built AI data center still pays for the plant and lines built for it. An exit fee is what a customer owes if it walks away before the term ends.
A contract signed before the commission votes needs an express answer to one question, which is what rate applies after January 1, 2028 and who bears the difference if that rate costs more. Florida Rising’s place in the case matters after the vote as well, because a party can ask the commission to reconsider and can take the decision to court. While a challenge is pending, the terms a lender reads are not the final terms, and for a project being financed today that is a real problem.
What clauses are other utilities writing in?
TVA’s board approved a rate on August 20 covering every AI data center customer on its system, new and existing. The rate sorts customers into four classes by how much power each site draws, with an extra charge on top for capacity costs the basic rate does not cover. Axios Huntsville Sites above 5 megawatts face that extra charge. TVA chief financial officer Tom Rice said AI data centers are expected to pay about 10 percent more on average, phased in over the next three fiscal years.
The White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge expanded on July 23 to 187 organizations, among them 27 AI data center developers. POWER Magazine Signers commit to building or buying new generation to serve their own load. They also pay the full cost of transmission and distribution upgrades and honor their negotiated large load rates whether or not they use the power. That last promise is a minimum take under a different name, and 27 developers have accepted it in public.
Microsoft told federal energy regulators that agreements filed by American Transmission Co. covering a large load project were negotiated without its input. It said the separate minimum transmission charge agreement in that package lacks a mechanism to stop retail customers from paying the cost of the facilities. It said large load customers could end up paying twice. And it said the proposed early termination fee would hand the transmission company an unjustified windfall. Utility Dive On August 14 the developer PowerHouse Hillwood asked those same regulators to reject Commonwealth Edison’s cancellation of the agreement securing transmission for a 1.8 gigawatt, $20 billion AI data center in Joliet, Illinois, a fight the developer says turns on the timing of a security deposit. An early termination fee and the date a deposit comes due are among the clauses those companies are disputing right now. That is the argument for negotiating both line by line instead of accepting a utility’s form. I would not sign a Duke large load agreement that fails to name, in writing, the rate that applies after January 1, 2028 and who pays if that rate is higher.
Tomorrow’s topic
The Durham County nine-month AI data center moratorium.