The hot, dry weather over the past couple of months is cutting TVA's cheapest power source, but Chattanoogans will still get a tiny price break next month in what they pay for electricity in November.
With autumn power demand down and TVA getting more power from nuclear plants, TVA's monthly fuel cost adjustment starting next Tuesday will dip slightly even though rainfall last month was only about half the normal levels in the Tennessee Valley and even lower in Chattanooga.
The average residential electric bill for a typical EPB household using 1,295 kilowatt-hours of electricity will be $142.02 next month, or 8 cents cheaper than the current rate for such power consumption.
But with base rate increases in the past year by both EPB and TVA and fuel costs for this November up from the typical November due to hotter and drier weather, electric bills in Chattanooga will still average 2.2 percent, or $3.11, more than in November 2015 for those using the same amount of power.
"The overall system average fuel rate is approximately 8 percent higher than the three-year average November fuel cost," TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said. "This is largely due to higher than expected sales during the summer months and lower expectations for hydro generation this fall."
TVA's 29 power-generating hydroelectric dams provide more than 10 percent of TVA's power during a typical fall and are TVA's cheapest source of power since the "fuel" for such generation is provided free with the rain from Mother Nature.
But rainfall in September was only 54 percent of normal across the Tennessee Valley, generating less than half the normal runoff that replenishes the reservoirs for hydro generation.
"Runoff was 36 percent of normal above Chattanooga and 27 percent of normal overall," Brooks said. "So September was a very dry month, and so far October has been dry as well."
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, TVA's overall rainfall was pretty normal across its entire seven-state river basin. But so far in 2016, rainfall in Chattanooga is running more than 16 inches below normal, and Chattanooga is now in a severe drought.