{"id":71141,"date":"2026-06-17T19:19:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=71141"},"modified":"2026-06-17T19:19:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:19:55","slug":"lakeland-electric-is-looking-to-increase-its-rates-by-15-87-over-the-next-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/17\/lakeland-electric-is-looking-to-increase-its-rates-by-15-87-over-the-next-four-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Electric is looking to increase its rates by 15.87% over the next four years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lakeland Electric submitted its final proposal on June 12, 2026, outlining a multi-year base rate adjustment to keep pace with rising operational, equipment, and material costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how the plan breaks down and what it actually means for your monthly bill:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Proposed Breakdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Instead of hitting customers all at once, the utility is proposing a 3.75% annual adjustment<\/strong> over the next four years (compounding to a total of 15.87%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Timeline:<\/strong> If approved, the first increase will take effect on October 1, 2026<\/strong> (the start of the city’s fiscal year).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • What is Affected:<\/strong> The increase applies only to the base rate<\/strong> portion of the bill (which covers grid maintenance and operations). It does not affect fuel charges, taxes, or local surcharges.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Estimated Bill Impact (Year 1)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    Customer Type<\/strong><\/td>Average Monthly Increase<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
    Residential Standard<\/strong><\/td>~$2.83 \/ month<\/td><\/tr>
    Small Commercial (General Service)<\/strong><\/td>~$6.70 \/ month<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    Next Steps in the Process:<\/strong> This isn’t a done deal just yet. The ordinance will be presented to the Lakeland City Commission for a first reading on July 6, 2026<\/strong>, with a final second reading and vote scheduled for July 20, 2026<\/strong>.<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    To help offset these steady increases, the utility has been pushing programs like its Shift to Save<\/em> plan, which offers lower rates if you run major appliances during off-peak hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Lakeland Electric submitted its final proposal on June 12, 2026, outlining a multi-year base rate adjustment to keep pace with rising operational, equipment, and material costs. Here is how the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL2ltYWdlcy00LTMud2VicD9maXQ9MzAwJTJDMTY4JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTGFrZWxhbmQgRWxlY3RyaWMgaXMgbG9va2luZyB0byBpbmNyZWFzZSBpdHMgcmF0ZXMgYnkgMTUuODclIG92ZXIgdGhlIG5leHQgZm91ciB5ZWFycyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.4tHMksvmeoizRTLRW7vf5kIpIaavoBU1AaB4R5_l-bgMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA2XC9pbWFnZXMtNC0zLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJMYWtlbGFuZCBFbGVjdHJpYyBpcyBsb29raW5nIHRvIGluY3JlYXNlIGl0cyByYXRlcyBieSAxNS44NyUgb3ZlciB0aGUgbmV4dCBmb3VyIHllYXJzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.rjenh3swVriRmqiLA1PQUMZTZ1bywUFeiPvl9W9U504MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7591,12,14],"tags":[14896],"class_list":["post-71141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-of-lakeland","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland-electric-is-looking-to-increase-its-rates-by-15-87-over-the-next-four-years"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71143,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71141\/revisions\/71143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}