'The bill keeps going up,' Progress Energy told

Critics of a proposed Progress Energy Florida rate increase turned out in force at a public hearing here Wednesday.

Elaine Geyer of Holiday perhaps summed up best the feelings of many of the hundreds of residents among a standing-room-only crowd.

"We can't take it anymore," Geyer told the Florida Public Service Commission, which conducted the hearing.

The utility is asking the PSC for a $500 million rate increase to the base rates of customers by 2010.

A request for a big jump in a fee for nuclear power projects could come later, pushing the total close to $1 billion more.

"No matter how much we conserve, the bill keeps going up," Geyer complained. She often raises the thermostat for her air conditioner to 80 degrees or turns off the system entirely at night, to no avail.

Geyer relies on Social Security disability payments as she raises a grandchild. The federal government announced no cost-of-living increases for Social Security programs in the near future, she noted.

Charities help people pay electric bills, but the money for assistance typically runs out within a few days each month, Geyer said.

"We can't go elsewhere" for electricity, Geyer said. "Progress Energy is the only game in town."

Geyer and others were bothered that Progress Energy Florida wants a return on equity of 12.54 percent when most businesses are accepting lower profits during the recession.

"There's never a good time to raise base rates," Alex Glenn of Progress Energy Florida testified.

Yet electricity costs have risen very little during the past 25 years, while food costs have gone up 113 percent, housing 115 percent and medical costs 253 percent, he said.

"We are a capital intensive business," Glenn said. For example, he said, a single turbine replacement blade costs $41,000, he said.

Progress Energy Florida recently spent $1 billion to convert its Bartow generating plant, on Weedon Island, from oil to natural gas and an additional $300 million at its Crystal River nuclear plant.

"We compete for investors," who need an attractive return, he said.

Public counsel J.R. Kelly objected to the proposed rate of return of 12.54 percent, considerably higher than most stocks and bonds in his view.

Much of the company's costs are passed along to customers, which could make electric base rate increases appear artificially small, he argued.

"Today's economy is bad, I don't have to tell you that," Kelly testified.

Another "huge issue" will focus on depreciation expense, Kelly said. He said he thinks Progress Energy Florida customers have been billed too much.

"They are a monopoly," Kelly concluded. Other recent, similar rate increases have included a return on equity of about 9.1 percent.

"That's enough!" someone from the crowd shouted.

State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, described the utility's rate increase request as "outrageous."

"Constituents already are struggling to pay their bills," even as Pasco's unemployment rate has soared past 10 percent, Fasano said.

A widow had told Fasano she was forced to go back to work to help pay her electric bills. She was late paying some bills, so Progress Energy Florida demanded a $600 deposit, Fasano said.

Fasano took exception to the amount of profit and depreciation expense, which together he calculates represents $200 million of the proposed $500 million rate increase.

"It goes on and on and on at the worst time for any family trying to keep heads above water," Fasano said.

A resident at a Publix supermarket stopped state Rep. John Legg to relay a message on his behalf at the public hearing.

"Can you 'cut a guy a break?'" Legg, R-Port Richey, said about the man's reaction to the possible rate increase.