Ken Thomas woke up this past Wednesday to find the power had gone out at his house in Boca Raton. A text message from his utility said a piece of equipment had failed at 2 a.m. By the time a repair crew showed up eight hours later, the hot, sticky Florida summer was already taking a toll.
"You just don't realize how important your power is until you don't have it," says Thomas, a retired air traffic controller. "In Florida's heat, you just can't live without air conditioning. And this time of year particularly."
Thomas has invested in energy-saving windows and insulation to keep his house comfortable. But in the heat of the summer, his power bills still top $400 a month.
"It's painful to see that bill when it comes in," he says.
Across the country, electricity prices have jumped more than twice as fast as the overall cost of living in the last year. That's especially painful during the dog days of summer, when air conditioners are working overtime.
In Pembroke Pines, Fla., Al Salvi's power bill can reach $500 a month.
"There's a lot of seniors down here that are living check to check. They can barely afford prescriptions such as myself," says Salvi, who's 63 and uses a wheelchair. "Now we got to decide whether we're going to pay the electric bill or are we going to buy medication. And it's not fair to us. You're squeezing us between a rock and a hard place."
Earlier this year, the utility that serves both Thomas and Salvi, Florida Power & Light, applied for a rate increase that would have boosted bills for a typical South Florida resident by about 13% over the next four years.
The AARP launched a petition drive to oppose the rate hike, and quickly gathered tens of thousands of signatures.
"Our members are pretty upset," says Zayne Smith, AARP Florida's director of advocacy. "That's just another way people are getting nickel and dimed out of being able to afford to live here in Florida."
Last week, Florida Power & Light announced a tentative agreement on rates with commercial and industrial customers. CEO Armando Pimentel said the deal would ensure, "we can continue to provide reliable electricity to power our fast-growing state while keeping customer bills low."
Details of the new rate proposal have not been made public.
It's not just Florida that's wrestling with high-priced power. Electricity prices have been rising rapidly across the country — thanks to a combination of factors tied to both demand and supply.
Power-hungry AI data centers are one factor driving high prices
Power-hungry data centers have been popping up all over, to serve the boom in artificial intelligence. The Energy Department projects data centers and other commercial customers will use more electricity than households for the first time ever next year. That's a challenge for policymakers, who have to decide how to accommodate that extra demand and who should foot the bill.
"Regulators always play catchup," says John Quigley, senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. "The growth of data centers is far outpacing the response by grid managers, public utility commissions across the country, and they're racing to catch up."
Natural gas exports also push prices higher
The soaring price of natural gas is also pushing power prices higher. More than 40% of electricity is generated using natural gas. As more gas is exported as liquid natural gas, the competition from foreign customers is driving up the price utilities have to pay here at home.
The Energy Department says the cost of gas used to generate power jumped more than 40% in the first half of this year compared to 2024. Another 17% increase is expected next year.
"Any way you look at it, gas-fired power is expensive," Quigley says. "It's going to be increasingly expensive as natural gas exports increase. The future is to make electricity cheaper and the way to do it is clean energy."
One in six households already struggles to pay for power
Solar and wind power can be cheaper than gas-fired plants, even without government subsidies. But building new power supplies and the wires to carry it will cost money. And one out of six households already have trouble paying their current electric bills.
"We're not questioning whether the grid needs to be rebuilt," says Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which advocates for low-income energy customers. "We're not questioning whether there needs to be new data centers built. But the problem is, for low income families and people living in poverty, they don't have the ability to pay any more than they're currently paying, without falling even further behind and getting into shut-off situations."
The federal government currently spends about $4 billion a year to help low-income families with energy bills. But Wolfe says that's not enough to cover rising cooling costs in the summer. And President Trump's proposed budget would end the assistance altogether.
In Boca Raton, Ken Thomas was grateful to have his power restored this week, after about ten hours with no air conditioning. At the same time, he's bracing for his August electric bill.
"I value my utility that I need to stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter," he says. "But I also know that there is a limit to what we can afford to pay."
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