Gulf Power High way robbery on monthly bills pensacola Florida

my electric seems to keep going up and up and got a fuel charge on the bill this month alone was more than 89.00 for a fuel charge. What does a fuel charge got to do with my electric we DO NOT have gas here nor do we have anything else that needs to be driven in to our small 2 bedroom apartment, lord this apartment is over stuffed so there is not that much room to have to keep cool. We came from a very large 4 bedroom home in the country and were not paying nowhere near the cost that we are paying now for our small 2 bedroom, this is just crazy and we are at work all day and the thermostat stays at the same temp at all times. And we also have a 20.00 base charge what is this for? I thought a base charge is what they charge those who do not live in their homes just to keep the electric going not something you would charge for those who live in their homes daily.. Last year on this month we only used 388 kwh but this year they have us at 1996 kwh used.. Really???? How did we go up that much in one year?? I read an article about switching electric companies in Forbes but really how do you do this when the electric companies are separated by region so you cannot get someone else to service an apartment that is assigned to one company someone needs to do something this is madness and we cannot afford to keep paying these high bills!!! There are tons of complaints on this company and yet they are still charging customers this much every month.. Where is this money going to and why are we paying for the electric company to buy land? Something has got to give the minimum wage here is so low that we cannot afford these bills and our electric! I am a single mother and it is getting very hard to support myself and my son. I have a heart condition and I still work as much over time as my body will allow but it is not enough to pay my electric and my rent and we do not qualify for any assistance. And the electric company won’t allow us to go onto the energy program cause your bills must be paid on time for an entire year but really who can afford to pay them on time when we only get paid 2 times a month and have to struggle to pay them when we do get paid as we have all the other bills to go with it..