Tennessee Valley Authority headquarters and TVA logoWith summertime temperatures heating up after a mild and wet spring, Tennessee Valley consumers won’t have to sweat quite so much when they pay their monthly air conditioning bills in August.
That’s because TVA is cutting what it charges for electricity again next month because of another drop in its fuel costs. The decline in TVA’s August fuel cost adjustment will trim the typical residential power bill by only about 28 cents compared with what consumers would pay for the same amount of power this month. But compared to a year ago, August power bills will be 3 percent lower, saving a typical EPB customer that uses 1,461 kilowatt-hours an extra dollar next month, EPB spokesman John Pless said.
EPB estimates the typical homeowner using the average power level will pay a monthly power bill of $145.16 in August.
With above-average rain swelling TVA reservoirs and mild temperatures and economic growth limiting power demand, fuel costs for the Tennessee Valley Authority are cheaper this summer than they have been in at least four years.
“The good news is that fuel costs are down and that should save on consumer bills,” said Donald Hoffman, executive director of the Chattanooga-based Associated Valley Industries, a trade group for industrial and major commercial power users served by TVA distributors. “The bad news is that part of the reason fuel costs are down is because TVA is selling less power and that isn’t necessarily good for TVA.”