The new year will bring higher electricity rates in the Tennessee Valley, which industrial customers complain already have risen above the Southeast average.
BY THE NUMBERS* $1.10 — Average increase in EPB residential monthly power bills in January due to rate increase announced Tuesday* 1 percent — Wholesale rate increase next month by TVA due to January change in fuel cost adjustment* 5.5 percent — Change in TVA electricity rates compared with a year ago* 31 — TVA’s rank in overall rates among the top 100 utilities in 2010, up from its 41st position the previous year* 6.12 cents — Average kilowatt-hour electricity price for TVA industrial load, or 3.9 percent higher than Southeast utility average* 24 percent — Increase in calls to United Way of Chattanooga for utility assistance in the past yearSources: Tennessee Valley Authority, EPB, Brubaker & Associates
“The trend is troubling,” said John Van Mol, director of the Tennessee Valley Industrial Committee, the trade group that represents the largest industrial power users directly served by TVA.
“Many of our members report that they are buying electricity less expensively in other parts of the country at sister plants,” he said. “We have some real concerns that TVA’s industrial power rates are not always the most competitive.”
TVA insists its overall rates still are well below the U.S. average, even with a 1 percent wholesale rate increase planned for January.