Florida Staff Recommends Denying Duke's First 50-Megawatt Data Center Tariff

Florida Public Service Commission staff recommended on October 22 that commissioners deny Duke Energy Florida's large load customer tariff, the first such filing to reach a vote under the state's new data center cost law. The recommendation sits as Item 3 on the Commission's November 3 agenda conference in Tallahassee, and it carries leave for the utility to refile.

Senate Bill 484 took effect July 1, 2026 and requires each of Florida's four investor-owned utilities to file a tariff reasonably ensuring that every large load customer bears its own full cost of service, with no cost shifted to the general body of ratepayers. The statute defines a large load customer as one with an anticipated monthly peak of 50 megawatts or more at a single location, measured over any 15-minute interval, and it bars splitting load across sites to stay beneath that line. Filings were due October 1.

Duke filed in Docket 20260064-EI on April 22, after withdrawing an earlier version built on a 100-megawatt threshold. The petition pairs a Large Load Customer Policy with a 20-year minimum agreement, a minimum billing demand of 75 to 85 percent of contract capacity, a load factor floor of 60 percent, and a nonrefundable $150,000 system impact study fee plus another $150,000 for necessary updates. Commissioners heard the merits of the petition on August 25 and 26.

Staff's central objection is that the filing sets no rate. Large load customers would stay on the existing GSD-1 and GSDT-1 schedules until a new rate class takes effect, a date Duke targets for January 1, 2028. Staff wrote that the 2024 settlement's rate freeze addresses only half of what the statute demands. It also faulted the tariff for covering firm service alone, which would exclude non-firm loads above 50 megawatts, and objected to a clause letting the utility negotiate non-material terms without Commission review. The Office of Public Counsel opposed the petition and asked that the case be dismissed, while the Florida Industrial Power Users Group, Nucor Steel and PCS Phosphate backed the tariff as filed.

The record shows how much electrical scope sits behind the decision. Discovery produced 13 system impact study requests above 50 megawatts, the smallest of them 160 megawatts, while Duke's own load hosting analysis found the system can absorb roughly 200 megawatts before upgrades are required, upgrades the contribution in aid of construction mechanism does not cover. Until those terms are settled, campus substation, medium-voltage feeder and interconnection packages stay unsigned, and the contractor hiring that follows a signed package stays on hold with them. Duke would have 10 business days after the order to refile either way.

Tampa Electric filed its own large load tariff on September 30, Florida Public Utilities Company followed on October 1, and Florida Power and Light's large load schedules are already approved. The docket had drawn more than 4,400 public comments by October 20. Whatever the Commission decides on November 3 becomes the template those dockets get measured against.