Adds details on electricity cost increase for residential customers in paragraph 3

Dec 27 (Reuters) - U.S.-based utility Duke Energy DUK.N said on Friday it had filed a plan with the Florida Public Service Commission to recover about $1.1 billion in direct costs associated with the company's emergency activation and response to hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton.

Duke, the largest utility covering North and South Carolina, said the hurricanes hit its service territories in the past few months and rip away miles of transmission lines and power poles, leaving tens of thousands of its customers without electricity.

The company said on Friday residential customers will face an increase of about $21 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in their monthly bills in March 2025 compared to February 2025.

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

((Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com;))