The winter storm that cut off power for millions of Tennesseans just before Christmas is also being blamed for pushing up power bills for TVA customers next month.
The monthly fuel cost adjustment by TVA is going up again next month, adding an extra $5.72 to the monthly light bill for the typical EPB residential customer in Chattanooga during February.
TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said TVA fuel costs jumped during Winter Storm Elliott, when temperatures fell at a fast rate and left TVA without enough power to meet the surge in demand on Dec. 23-24. With its biggest coal plant idled by frozen lines and wind damage, TVA had to limit power delivery to its customers for the first time in its 89-year history, and the federal utility scrambled for days to buy power on the grid at premium prices.
“We are seeing the effects of the record demand and winter storm in the February adjustment,” Brooks said in a statement Friday. “The February fuel rate is 89% higher than the three-year average, mostly due to higher commodity prices.”
Even though TVA required local power companies to reduce their electricity use on the two days before Christmas, natural gas, coal and purchased power costs all rose last month and remain much higher than in recent years.