Residents' high electricity bills pay off

MIAMI, FLORIDA - While wide swaths and then pockets of Florida Power & Light customers sweated it out across water-logged Miami-Dade County, most Homestead residents were keeping cool.

Homestead has its own electric utility, named Homestead Energy Services. City officials said 15,000 of 18,000 customers had power by 5 p.m. September 2, the day after Hurricane Katrina blew through.

Spokeswoman Lillian Delgado said 1,500 were without power by September 3, and 15 or 20 by September 4. Two or three customers who needed work specifically at their houses were out of power on September 5, said Kenneth Konkol, assistant director of utilities.

That was good news to at least two businesses on Krome Avenue.

"They came through for us," said Hector Hernandez, owner of El Toro Taco, 1 S. Krome Ave.

His main concern: losing meat and produce.

Luckily, the power came back soon enough, he said, but he still waited until August 30 to reopen, after cleaning up some water.

Casita Tejas Mexican Restaurant, one block north at 27 N. Krome Ave., was spared flood damage and opened Saturday when power was restored to the eatery.

"We had extra business because El Toro Taco was closed," said Veronica Corona, manager of Casita Tejas.

Corona said power at her house in Keys Gate came back on Monday. That wasn't nearly fast enough in the summer heat, she said.

Konkol said Homestead customers pay about $7 to $8 more a month than FPL customers, but he's proud of the service delivered by Homestead Energy Services. FPL has 4.3 million business and residential customers in South Florida.

"Our guys know it's their neighbors," he said, "and they're eager to get them up and running quickly."

"We do have pretty high bills, but we have good service," said Tom Milner, who lives on Northeast 17th Street.

Konkol said his crews worked 16- to 18-hour shifts starting Friday morning. He has about 20 crew members.

The average residential energy bill in Homestead went up to $96.66 from $92.04 in May, after Homestead Energy Services imposed a power cost increase from $22.565 per 1,000 kilowatt hours to $27.434 per 1,000 kilowatt hours.

It was the second rate raise in a year. City officials said the increase was needed to cover rising fuel costs associated with electric energy.