Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) board members unanimously passed the municipally-owned utility’s PeakSHIFT pricing program, moving forward with a controversial new plan that introduces peak pricing and reduces residential rooftop solar incentives. After months of delaying the vote and attempting to accommodate the plan for public concern, the five-member board agreed it was time to push the program through.
The decision sparked controversy from environmentalists, members of the solar industry and politicians. All but one of seventeen public commenters at Tuesday’s meeting spoke against the program in its current state – with fears of substantial energy bill price increases and negative impacts on residential rooftop solar panel installations.
Now that the plan moves forward, the next step for OUC is to communicate the change to its customers.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who sits on the board, said his guess is most people impacted by the decision have yet to learn about it.
“We need to do a lot of education,” he said. “Because outside of this room, if we go survey most of the people in the city of Orlando and OUC’s service area, I’m guessing they know nothing of this conversation.”
PeakSHIFT is made up of three core pricing designs: TruNet Solar, DemandLevel and Shift & Save. Under the plan, OUC will reduce incentives for residential rooftop solar panels and encourage users to change how and when they use energy, among other changes.
Board member Robert Chapin said it boiled down to OUC’s 2050 net-zero carbon emission goal. He called the goal the north star.
“Make no mistake, we want people to adjust their behavior,” he said.
Part of the plan is rate increases during high-demand energy usage periods throughout the day. This section of PeakSHIFT involves incentivizing residents to use energy at off-peak hours to help level out energy spikes.
The ability to change energy use habits was a point of concern raised by public commenters against PeakSHIFT. They argued that certain customers – such as seniors, single parents and those on extended medical care – do not have the privilege to switch their energy consumption habits.
Orange County District 5 Commissioner Kelly Semrad expressed concern over the risk price changes could have for seniors and those in lower economic brackets.
“Discussions pertaining to PeakSHIFT demand and increasing costs on people – have for a certain economic bracket – decisions that will be made between things like buying their prescription and keeping their light bill on,” Semrad said.
OUC officials say they only anticipate a small change in monthly bills. For customers without rooftop solar, OUC anticipates about half will see lower or no change to their bills. The utility also anticipates less than 1% of these customers will see monthly increases of $6 to $12, according to a statement from Dec. 4.
Price Program Pivot
DemandLevel and Shift & Save is where non-solar users will see the bulk of their energy-bill impacts. DemandLevel introduces tiered, fixed distribution charges based on monthly grid use and a slight reduction to the residential non-fuel energy rate.
DemandLevel is planned to come into effect March 2026.
Shift & Save will follow in January 2027. This part of the plan introduces an incentive for customers to shift their energy use during “off-peak” hours. But, again, those against the plan fear these items will affect energy equity, and they raised those concerns at a gathering outside of city hall last week and in the OUC building on Tuesday.
OUC has acknowledged that lower-income households in Orlando already spend more of their earnings on energy than households with higher incomes, but board members believe the program has implemented enough community feedback that will prevent it from adding to the disproportion.
One public speaker questioned whether OUC’s projections would match the program’s reality once implemented. To ease those concerns, Chapin said any unintended consequences that come from the pricing plan can be tackled by the board.
“We have the power to adjust if the practice doesn’t prove out to the theory,” he said.
OUC’s pilot-program saw 98% of participants satisfied with the pricing program.
Solar Impact
The impact on solar power brought out both solar installers and residential users. TruNet Solar, PeakSHIFT’s changes to solar energy pricing, will bring new net metering policies July 2025.
Residents with solar interconnection agreements by the end of next June will be grandfathered into current excess solar electricity rates for 20 years. Customers after then will see reduced rates for sending electricity back to the grid.
Bill Johnson, Florida Solar Energy Industries Association President, warned OUC that customer bills would be higher than anticipated and said he was unsatisfied with TruNet Solar’s potential impact on OUC’s 10,400 existing residential solar users.
Time will tell.
Orlando District 5 Commissioner Patty Sheehan, a longtime user of solar energy and critic of PeakSHIFT, was not happy with the board’s decision. She said OUC misrepresented the price impact solar customers have on other customers and is worried the pricing change could disincentivize others from investing in residential solar energy.
“I think we are part of the solution,” she said of solar customers.
A day after a report revealed OUC overcharged certain commercial customers, many speakers, including Semrad, Sheehan and State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani said they were speaking in the good interest and trust of citizens.
Mayor Dyer pushed back on the allegations that overbilling had anything to do with trust in OUC employees who worked on PeakSHIFT.
“I would have thought that would have been beneath them to make those types of allegations in the context of this argument,” Dyer said prior to the final motion.
For many of the public attending the meeting, grievances boil down to being heard but not listened to in their concerns. Resident Charles Behrens said OUC chooses trickles of information to take in.
He would have liked to see an opt-in feature for Shift & Save instead of an opt-out. He said the different presentation could turn Shift & Save into a beneficial money-saving option instead of a change many may not know the existence of until it gets to them.
“It’s not a two-way street,” Behrens said.
Members of advocacy groups had previously planned to meet with OUC employees and discuss how to collaborate on a vision for the PeakSHIFT plan. Instead of meeting with advocates as one big group, however, OUC employees changed plans and opted to meet with the people individually.
Editor's note: OUC is a corporate sponsor of Central Florida Public Media but does not have any editorial control over our stories.
