Power costs up from rain shortfall

The typical Chattanooga household will pay another 58 cents for electricity next month because of an increase in TVA's monthly fuel costs adjustment. The Tennessee Valley Authority is raising the fuel-cost portion of its electric rates next month by 1.4 percent, due primarily to a lack of rain. TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said Wednesday that hydroelectric generation from TVA's 29 power-generating dams was only 35 percent of normal last month after rainfall so far this year is more than 4 inches below normal.

EPB says the average Chattanooga household that uses 1,461 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a month will pay $153.78 for power in July, up 0.3 percent from the $153.20 average paid this month. Next month's bills will be up 5.7 percent from a year ago when the average household paid $145.44 in July 2013, EPB spokesman John Pless said.

Sequoyah unit refueled, restarted

The Unit 2 reactor at TVA's Sequoyah Nuclear Plant resumed power generation Wednesday after a refueling and maintenance outage that involved about 10,000 activities and more than 194,000 work hours. Sequoyah Site Director John Carlin said inspections confirmed all components met or exceeded design requirements and there were no problems with the unit's steam generators that were installed during the 2012 refueling outage.