TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/AP) – Florida Power & Light Co. wants to hike rates about seven dollars a month for the average residential customer beginning next year.

On Tuesday the state’s largest electric utility notified the state’s Public Service Commission that it would seek a $695 million per year rate for 2013. Company officials said the higher rate is needed to pay for increases in the cost of doing business and to begin paying for a new, high-efficiency natural gas power plant after it enters service in June 2013.

A customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month, which is about average, currently pays $94.62. The rate increase would raise that to $101.42.

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