How to read your TECO (Tampa Electric) bill in 2026

A Tampa Electric (TECO) bill has a basic charge billed per day, an energy charge and a fuel charge in two blocks (up to 1,000 kWh and above), three per-kWh clauses (storm protection, clean energy transition and, through August 2026, a storm surcharge), and local taxes. At the January 2026 rates, 1,000 kWh came to about 15.9 cents per kWh before taxes.

Which lines are on a TECO bill?

Every January TECO publishes an insert with the rates approved by the Public Service Commission (PSC). These are the standard residential (RS) rates for 2026:

The subtotal is our own calculation from the rate sheet; on top go the gross receipts tax, franchise fee and municipal tax, which depend on your city. From September 2026, without the storm surcharge, that same home lands about $19.95 lower.

What does each charge mean?

From TECO’s “Understanding Your Bill” page:

• Daily Basic Service Charge: covers the meter, service drop and account services (meter reading, records, billing). Billed for every day in the period.
• Energy Charge: the cost of producing and delivering electricity, excluding fuel. It includes a conservation, an environmental and a capacity charge that add up to 0.621 ¢/kWh in 2026.
• Fuel Charge: the fuel used to generate. TECO passes it through “with no markup or profit” and adjusts it every January with the prior year’s actual costs and the coming year’s projection. Definition at /en/glossary/fuel-charge.
• Storm Protection Charge: funds the plan to harden poles, cables and transformers so storms do less damage.
• Clean Energy Transition Mechanism: recovers the cost of dismantling and retiring certain coal-fired units.
• Storm Surcharge: a temporary charge to recover what was spent restoring service after named storms.
• Franchise fee, Florida gross receipts tax and municipal public service tax: local and state government charges for using public rights-of-way and for the sale of electricity.

Why did my bill go up in January 2026?

Because three things landed at once. TECO explains that a 1,000-kWh home saw an $8.88 increase: $5.51 from the base rate approved in the December 2024 rate case (which authorized $185.9 million in 2025, $86.6 million in 2026 and $9.1 million in 2027), $1.66 from the fuel adjustment and $1.71 from other charges and taxes. All on top of the storm surcharge already in place since March 2025.

The storm surcharge deserves its own paragraph: the PSC approved it on February 4, 2025 to recover $464 million of restoration costs from Idalia (2023), Debby, Helene and Milton (2024), plus replenishing the storm reserve. TECO set it at $0.01995 per kWh, about $20 a month for 1,000 kWh, spread over 18 months from March 2025 to August 2026. How this fits the bigger trend is at /en/learn/why-electric-bills-rise-in-florida.

Heads up: on TECO you will not see a line called “minimum charge”. The 2026 residential rate sheet lists no separate minimum; the floor of your bill is the daily basic charge plus taxes. That does not mean solar gets you to zero: you still pay that charge every day of the year. We compare it with FPL and Duke at /en/learn/utility-minimum-charge-explained.

What is the Energy Planner on my bill?

It is TECO’s time-based pricing program. It has four price levels (low, medium, high and critical) and, according to TECO, the low level lets you pay 11.044 ¢/kWh versus 14.235 on the standard rate. They install a programmable thermostat and a control for the water heater and pool pump. Key fact: it is not available to customers with solar and net metering. We analyze it at /en/learn/time-of-use-rates-florida.

Where do I see usage and how do I download the bill?

In your online account (tecoenergy.com or tampaelectric.com) you can “view, pay and manage your bill”, track daily, monthly and yearly usage and take a free energy audit. With paperless billing you get access to view and download bills, and the Interactive Bill shows account history and usage by day, week and month. For a diagnosis we need 12 months: log each month’s kWh, not dollars. The unit is explained at /en/glossary/kwh.

When NOT to make decisions from this bill

• If you compare September 2026 with August 2026 and see a $20 drop, the house did not get better: the surcharge ended.
• If your period had 33 days, the basic charge and usage rise on their own; compare kWh per day.
• If you use under 500 kWh a month, no big equipment pays for itself with what you would save.

What to check before deciding

• How many months you cross 1,000 kWh: extra kWh cost a cent more in energy and another in fuel.
• How many days each billing period had before comparing months.
• How much the basic charge, clauses and taxes weigh: that block does not drop with habits.
• If you have a pool, how many hours a day the pump runs (it is the easiest load to reschedule).
• If solar interests you, remember Energy Planner and net metering do not combine. More on your utility at /en/florida/teco.