Duke pays Florida drivers $7.50 to charge in the afternoon

Duke Energy Florida is not paying drivers to pull into a fast charger. The October reminder is a flat bill credit for residential customers who already charge on a Level 2 unit, inside a published set of hours. The credit is $7.50 a month. The part that changes a routine is which hours count.

In a release issued in St. Petersburg on 13 October 2026, the utility said the Off-Peak Charging Credit has been open since 2022 and that enrolled customers have received $1.5 million in credits. Customers using a Level 2 charger can earn $7.50 on the monthly bill for charging from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays, and at any time on weekends and holidays. Up to two electric vehicles can be enrolled on one residential account. The release is about Duke Energy Florida, which the company says serves about 2 million customers, and it points people to the utility's Off-Peak page to enroll. This does not describe programs at Duke's utilities in other states.

Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida's state president, pitched the credit as simple. "For EV drivers, participating in the Off-Peak Charging Credit program is a simple, almost effortless way to lower their monthly bills [...]." The schedule under that sentence is more specific than the pitch. On a weekday, off-peak includes 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. as well as the overnight block. Duke's stated reason is that demand is typically lower in those hours. A driver who assumes off-peak means after dark is skipping a window the tariff already names.

Twelve credits come to $90 a year. That is the whole payment described in the release, not a cut in the price of each kilowatt-hour, and it does not grow just because the car took more energy. The release ties eligibility to a Level 2 charger. It does not say a public DC fast-charging session qualifies. Someone comparing a paid rapid-charge stop with this credit is looking at two different arrangements.

What the announcement leaves out is the enforcement. It does not say whether Duke reads the charger, the car, or another device, or what share of charging has to fall inside the windows before the $7.50 is paid. Those are the questions to settle before the credit is treated as guaranteed income. The company also says Florida has the second-highest number of electric-vehicle registrations in the country. That is Duke's claim, in the same release, not a separate census.

For a household that already has a Level 2 charger on a Duke Energy Florida account, the next step is narrow: enroll no more than two vehicles and set charging inside the printed hours. For a household that would have to buy the charger in order to chase $90 a year, the credit does not pay for the hardware. The October note is a reminder of a program that has been paying credits since 2022, not a new rate.