Tallahassee, FL — Today, the governor-appointed Public Service Commission unanimously rejected Duke Energy’s data center proposal in a 5-0 vote. This decision protects Florida residential customers from incurring data center costs.

The decision comes nearly two weeks after PSC staff recommended that the commission reject Duke’s proposal, finding that the proposal cannot “reasonably ensure that each large load customer bears its own full cost of service and that such cost is not shifted to the general body of ratepayers.” 

Duke’s proposal would have placed data centers in a customer class subsidized by residential and small business customers. The proposal failed to create a new large load tariff for data centers, as required by SB484 — signed into law earlier this year. 

Brooke Ward, Florida State Director for Food & Water Watch, issued the following statement: 

“The only reason that utility regulators denied Duke’s plans to pass data center costs to families and small businesses is because of legislation preventing them from doing so. Otherwise, Florida ratepayers would be on the hook to subsidize the billionaire tech class looking to build data centers in our communities, at our expense. Today’s vote is a victory for affordability and testament to grassroots organizing and the importance of laws that put people above corporations. 

“This is not the end of the story. Florida needs affordable energy and PSC reform. The Governor and legislature must pass affordable energy legislation this session to flip the switch and ensure a more equitable energy future for all Floridians.”

Recent Food & Water Watch analysis finds that between January 2021 and January 2026, Duke Energy customer bills jumped 45 percent — over twice the rate of inflation — amounting to over $688 more annually. Duke Energy plans to file a petition for rate increase in the new year.

Background

Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB484 into law in May. The legislation was purportedly meant to protect ratepayers from shouldering the cost and financial risk associated with data center development. The law explicitly states that ratepayers will not be responsible for incremental transmission and generation costs from data centers, and requires utilities to create a new large load tariff rate class for data centers. 

During the proceedings, Duke revealed that it has been approached by data center companies about powering warehouses up to 1,400 megawatts, reported to be among the biggest in the world.