St. Petersburg is quietly teeing up one of the biggest energy fights in the city’s recent history, formally asking consulting firms to study whether it should run its own electric utility and walk away from Duke Energy. The clock is ticking: Duke’s 30-year franchise agreement with the city expires in August 2026, and leaders say they want hard, local data in hand before they lock residents into whatever comes next.
What the City Wants Studied
The city’s request for proposals calls for a Phase 1 feasibility study that looks at the financial, technical, operational, regulatory and legal implications of creating a municipal electric utility, or MEU. Optional Phase 2 and 3 work would dig into what it would take to operate a 100% renewable MEU and explore other municipalization pathways.
According to APPA, the RFP spells out those phases and sets March 19, 2026 as the deadline for proposals. The write-up also notes the city wants detailed rate and valuation modeling on the table before any high-stakes negotiations or potential transition.
Scope, Deliverables And The Numbers To Watch
Procurement documents show the city is asking for a sweeping package of deliverables: multi-scenario financial models that run 10, 20 and 30 years into the future, asset valuation estimates, acquisition-cost projections, sensitivity analyses and public-education materials in case leaders decide to pursue a switch.
The solicitation also sets minimum qualifications for firms and specifies that work products must be delivered in both draft and final form, along with formal presentations to city leadership, according to a procurement summary posted by GovTribe. That summary pegs the project budget at about $750,000 and lays out shortlisting and interview dates in April, with a recommendation to City Council expected in June.
Politics And The Local ‘Dump Duke’ Push
The RFP did not appear out of thin air. It follows months of public complaints about high bills, outage response and transparency that some residents say have not been resolved to their satisfaction. Local reporting and a steady stream of public comment at City Council meetings helped push the issue onto the council’s agenda, according to WUSF.
Grass-roots organizers have added fuel to the debate under slogans like “Dump Duke,” holding town halls and canvassing neighborhoods to rally support for a public-power option, per San Pedro Gazette.
Duke’s Counterargument And Big-Picture Costs
Duke Energy, for its part, is warning that buying out its local system would not be cheap and might not save customers money. The company commissioned a third-party analysis that looked at a nearby city and concluded acquisition costs there could exceed $1 billion, a price tag Duke points to as a cautionary sign.
Reporting in St. Petersburg detailed findings from Concentric Energy Advisors, which put preliminary acquisition costs for Clearwater in the $1.1 to $1.5 billion range, while Duke stressed that different assumptions could shift the outcome, per St. Pete Catalyst. City officials, meanwhile, note that unresolved questions around purchase options, stranded assets and keeping the lights on throughout any transition mean the path forward would be legally and financially complex and could take years to sort out.
What Happens Next
Firms have until March 19, 2026 to submit their proposals. The city plans to narrow the field in April and bring a recommended consultant to City Council in early June, according to the procurement posting. Local coverage of the RFP and the council debate was published by WTSP on Feb. 10, 2026.
If the study ultimately recommends creating an MEU, any actual transfer of service would hinge on complex valuation work, multiple layers of regulatory approval and a financing plan that pencils out. Even in the rosiest scenario, officials say, that kind of power shift would be a long game, not a flip-the-switch overnight change.
