Florida's efficiency goals were cut. Your rebates show it.

I. What the commission changed

The mechanics start with a 1980 law, the Florida Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (FEECA, which directs the Florida Public Service Commission to set conservation goals for the state's largest electric utilities). Roughly every five years the commission runs a goal-setting proceeding: it reviews how much electricity and peak demand each utility could cost-effectively help customers avoid, then sets numeric goals. The utilities then write demand-side management plans (DSM, meaning the rebates, audits, and efficiency programs) to try to hit those goals.

In the most recent completed cycle, around 2019 and 2020, the commission adopted goals well below what earlier cycles had required, close to zero for at least one large utility at last public report. With low goals on the books, utilities argued that many existing programs no longer passed the state's cost-effectiveness screen, and they petitioned to close them. Regulators agreed, which is the chain that ends at the missing line on your statement. The commission's conservation pages and order archive on floridapsc.com lay out which goals were approved for which company.

II. What left your bill

For a typical household the visible change is the menu of rebates. Programs that once offered money back for ceiling insulation, duct sealing, higher-efficiency air conditioning, and free or low-cost home energy audits were among those trimmed or closed at the largest utility. Which programs remain depends on your utility: Duke Energy Florida and Tampa Electric kept more of their residential offerings than Florida Power & Light did, at last public report, so a rebate your cousin in St. Petersburg can still claim may not exist on an FPL account in Miami-Dade.

There is a second line worth understanding. Efficiency programs are paid for through a charge on everyone's bill (the Energy Conservation Cost Recovery clause, a small per-kilowatt-hour charge). Fewer programs can mean a smaller charge, which is the saving the utilities point to. The trade is that the rebates, and the long-run bill reductions from a better-insulated house, go away too. Whether a given customer comes out ahead depends on whether they would have used a program, and that is genuinely hard to say in advance.

III. Where it could change back

Because FEECA goals are revisited on a cycle, the place to watch is the next goal-setting proceeding at the FPSC. The players are the same each round: the utilities file proposed goals, the commission's staff and the Office of Public Counsel (the state office that represents ratepayers) weigh in, and intervenors such as efficiency and solar groups file testimony. Higher goals in that docket are what would push utilities to reopen programs.

We cannot tell you a rebate will come back. What this desk can do is point you to the record: the FPSC posts dockets, agendas, and orders on its site, and its meetings, called Commission Conferences, are public and streamed. Public input lands during the comment and hearing stages of a goal-setting docket. The honest caveat is that the commission has leaned toward cost tests that produce low goals for several cycles now, so a single docket reversing that is possible but not the base case.

IV. Worth watching this month

1. Check the FPSC agenda calendar on floridapsc.com for any Commission Conference item mentioning FEECA, conservation goals, or demand-side management (routine most months, and usually no efficiency action).

2. Watch for the next FEECA goal-setting docket to be opened or scheduled, the once-every-few-years proceeding that actually sets the targets (this is the one that matters, and its timing can slip).

3. On your own utility's site, confirm which residential rebates and energy audits are open right now before you budget for a project, since the menu has changed and can change again.

4. Look for filings from the Office of Public Counsel or efficiency intervenors if a goal-setting docket is active, since their testimony signals how hard higher goals are being pushed (routine once a docket opens).

5. If you are weighing rooftop solar, note that Florida's net metering rules sit separate from efficiency goals and were left largely in place at last public report, so do not assume the two moved together (worth a direct check).

Did my rebate disappear because of a storm or politics?

Neither directly. It traces to the FPSC setting low statewide efficiency goals in the last cycle, after which utilities closed programs they said failed the cost-effectiveness test.

Do all Florida utilities offer the same programs?

No. FEECA covers the largest investor-owned utilities, and each files its own plans. Duke Energy Florida and Tampa Electric kept more residential programs than FPL did at last public report, and municipal utilities and co-ops set their own.

Will the goals go back up?

Possibly, in a future goal-setting proceeding. The commission has favored cost tests that yield low goals for several cycles, though, so higher goals are not the base case.

How do I tell the commission I want more efficiency programs?

Public input lands during the comment and hearing stages of a goal-setting docket. The FPSC posts its dockets and hosts public Commission Conferences, both listed on its website.