How to read your FPL bill

A Florida Power & Light bill packs a lot onto two pages. For a solar plan you only need a few numbers, and they are easy to find once you know the layout. FPL publishes its own how to read your bill guide with a sample bill. Layouts and line names change over time, so your bill may label things a little differently from the descriptions here.

The account summary

The first page shows your balance, the date payment is due and a summary of what you owe for the period. This tells you the dollars, but not the thing solar offsets. Dollars also move when fuel costs or fees change, even if you use the same amount of power.

Energy usage and the usage history

FPL shows a graph of your recent energy use. That graph is the most useful part of the bill for solar, because it shows how your use changes through the seasons. Read the kilowatt-hours for each month. Twelve months of kWh is the best input you can give a solar calculator.

Meter summary and billing days

The meter section lists your meter readings for the period and the number of days in the billing cycle. Cycles are not exactly a month, so a 33-day bill will use more than a 28-day one. A good calculator uses the days, not just the month label, and BillToSolar does.

Bill details: where the dollars come from

The detail section breaks the charge into parts. Names vary by year, but the pieces are usually these.

• A customer charge, a fixed monthly amount to cover the meter, billing and customer service. It does not change with how much you use, and solar does not remove it.
• An energy charge for the non-fuel cost of producing and delivering power, billed per kWh. FPL has described it in tiers, so check whether your bill shows more than one rate.
• A fuel charge per kWh, which passes through the fuel cost of generating power and moves over time.
• Other per-kWh riders and cost-recovery charges, set by FPL and approved by the Florida Public Service Commission.
• Taxes and fees, such as franchise charges, gross receipts tax and regulatory fees.

Add up the per-kWh pieces and you get a rough all-in price per kWh. Solar saves roughly that price on each kWh you stop buying, but not the fixed customer charge.

Energy comparison and tips

The bill compares this month to last month and to the same month last year. If your use is climbing, size for the use you expect, not the use you had. Reducing use first usually means buying a smaller system.

If you already have solar

Customers with their own generation are billed under net metering, which tracks power delivered to you and power you send back. The terms and credit rules are FPL's to set, so confirm them with FPL.

What to take to the calculator

Use your kWh by month and the billing days. The rate is optional, since the tool falls back to the Florida average of 14.1 cents per kWh (EIA 2024, as of 2026-11) when it cannot read yours. Try it on the FPL solar calculator, or see the Florida page. Your bill is read in your browser and never uploaded.