Florida utility programs that pay you in 2026

No. None of the three offers a battery or solar rebate in 2026, so a home battery in Florida is about backup power, not utility payments. The closest thing is a Duke Energy Florida study: in 2026 Duke installed Generac batteries in more than 75 homes in Orlando's Hunter's Creek neighborhood for a 10-year study. Duke draws on them for one to three hours on high-demand days, and they back up select parts of each home in an outage. It's limited to that neighborhood. See whole-home battery backup.

Each one pays a credit on your bill whether or not the utility ever cycles your equipment, and the equipment is installed free.

FPL pays $6 a month for central AC from April through October, $2.75 a month for central electric heat from November through March, and $1.50 a month each for a conventional electric water heater and a single-speed pool pump. AC and heat can be switched off up to three hours a day, and water heaters and pool pumps up to four. Tankless, heat pump and smart water heaters don't qualify. Enrolling everything comes to about $92 a year.

Duke Energy Florida pays up to $141 a year: $45 for cooling, $24 for heating, $42 for a water heater and $30 for a pool pump. You need to use at least 600 kWh a month, and Duke says cooling is rarely affected.

Tampa Electric pays $12 a month for heating and cooling, $6 for a water heater, $3 for a pool pump and $9 for a Level 2 EV charger, up to $30 a month or $360 a year. You need to use at least 400 kWh a month, and customers on the Energy Planner rate can't join.

Rarely, by their own accounts. Tampa Electric says Prime Time Plus pauses were just over two hours in all of 2024, 30 minutes in 2025 and a single one-hour pause in 2026, usually lasting an hour or less. Its program caps heating, cooling, pool pump and EV charger pauses at 134 hours a year.

FPL says it rarely activates On Call, only for short periods during very high demand or system emergencies, and that pool pumps and water heaters are switched off first, with air conditioning only if absolutely necessary.

On Tampa Electric, yes, with notice. You can opt out by calling 813-275-3909 at least one business day ahead, but not on the day of a pause. One opt-out a year doesn't affect your credits; a second one pauses them until your next event or the end of the season. Only the equipment you enroll is affected, never lights or outlets.

Tampa Electric installs its smart thermostat free, which takes about two hours, and needs centrally ducted electric heating and cooling plus Wi-Fi. FPL says most On Call installations take under an hour at no cost, and credits start about two to three weeks later.

Possibly less. Tampa Electric requires at least 400 kWh a month of delivered power to earn Prime Time Plus credits, so a solar home whose grid purchases fall below that in a sunny month may miss a credit. FPL says an adjusted credit applies in months with low energy use at the home. Duke's EnergyWise Home sets its own minimum use, described above.

These programs pay modest monthly credits; for a bigger bill cut, see is solar worth it in Florida.

They're easy money, but small. On our estimate, solar for a $200 FPL bill saves about $2,010 in the first year, many times what any of these programs pays. They can work together, but a home with solar may use less from the grid than the program minimums, so ask your utility whether you still qualify. See is solar worth it in Florida and Florida solar incentives.