Amid mounting pressure from elected officials and other consumer advocates, Duke Energy Florida today announced it will issue a credit to customers whose rates were impacted by a meter reroute.

Customers expecting a big rebate may be disappointed, though. Duke Energy spokeswoman Nicole LeBeau said the average impacted customer will receive a credit of $5.62, based on each customer's usage over 1,000 kilowatt hours during the extended billing period.

Here is the company's statement:

Recently, Duke Energy Florida began a major meter reroute project to maximize efficiencies within its system. When transitioning customers to a new due date, as a result of the reroute, some customers incurred a bill with more days than a normal billing cycle, which unintentionally put them into a higher rate tier due to additional usage over the extended period.

In response to our customers and the concerns of the Florida Public Service Commission, Duke said today that it will be issuing a credit to all customers whose bills were affected by the reroute.

"We apologize for any hardships and confusion we have caused our customers,  and we will make this right," said Alex Glenn, state president of Duke Energy Florida.  "We will continue to work with impacted customers until all credits have been issued.  We are also taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again."

The Company has additional call center representatives dedicated to ensuring every affected customer's questions are answered and concerns promptly addressed. Customers who have specific billing questions can call 800-700-8744 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Duke has been under fire since media reports last week detailed how a change in Duke's meter-reading process impacted some customers.

The utility made the change to become more efficient, but as many as 267,000 customers had their billing cycles extended by as many as 12 days. Customer bills revealed additional charges in some cases of $100 or more for the extended days. For some, the additional days bumped them into a higher rate class.

Duke charges customers $11.34 for every 100 kilowatt hours of usage up to 1,000 kilowatt hours. Above that, it charges $13.70 for every 100 kilowatt hours. That's before taxes and other government fees.

The Public Service Commission had asked Duke to appear before the commission Sept. 4 to answer questions about the meter issue.

Several lawmakers, including state senators Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, and Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, got involved on behalf of customers.

"While it is understandable that customers are charged higher rates when they actually use more electricity, the practice of pushing customers into higher usage brackets because the company extends its billing cycle is simply no way to treat people," Latvala wrote to Glenn.

"I hope you will agree that such a practice is unfair and unreasonable, even if it is allowed by current state regulations."

Brandes wrote directly to Public Service Commission Chairman Art Graham.

"If consumers had the choice of multiple utility providers then actions like those taken by Duke Energy could be met by a change of consumer preference to another provider," Brandes wrote. "Unfortunately, the State of Florida does not permit free competition among the different utility providers. As such, it is the duty of the Public Service Commission to intervene and ensure that regulated utilities do not treat customers unfairly or in a discriminatory manner."

Duke is only crediting customers who incurred additional charges at the higher rate charge that were related to the meter rerouting, LeBeau said.