The number of Chattanooga residents who may be disconnected for not paying their power bills could increase after October, EPB’s president said today.

The average EPB customer will start paying 20 percent a month extra for power in October, said Harold DePriest, EPB president and CEO. EPB has no choice but to pass through a 20 percent Tennessee Valley Authority price increase, he said, because EPB cannot eat that cost.

Every year EPB disconnects about 15,000 customers for non-payment, including 3,000 customers multiple times, Mr. DePriest said.

“It scares me to death,” Mr. DePriest said of those customers’ fates once power rates increase.

Read tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for complete coverage.