The Tennessee Valley Authority generated a record $13.7 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, as electricity sales grew and the federal company invested a historic amount to expand its system of power plants.
The nation’s largest public utility generates electricity for 10 million people in seven Southeast states, but it only has around 210 customers, split between 153 local utilities and dozens of large companies and agencies that buy power directly. Around 90% of its power sales are to local utilities that distribute the electricity to their residential and commercial customers.
TVA’s revenue was $960 million higher than budgeted, TVA Chief Financial Officer Tom Rice told the board of directors at a quarterly meeting in Mississippi on Thursday.
Fuel costs included on power bills accounted for $636 million of the increase as TVA relied on coal and natural gas plants to fill a gap left by unplanned nuclear outages. TVA burned 389 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 14 million tons of coal during the year.
(READ MORE: TVA lost ratepayers $645M by hedging gas costs, audit finds)