Who doesn’t groan when the Tennessee Valley Authority or the Electric Power Board (EPB) announces a rate increase?
Yet, the average electricity burden for the state is lower than it was in 2010, says a new study on electricity affordability by the Center for Regional Economic Research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Gary W. Rollins College of Business.
That burden, according to the study, means Volunteer State residents paid 2.6% of their annual income for electricity in 2024. However, in 2010, they were paying 3.6%.
The electricity burden doesn’t mean prices haven’t gone up — they obviously have — but that it costs median households a smaller percentage because of higher incomes, more efficient appliances and changes in electricity consumption.
Americans, burdened during the Biden presidential administration by the highest inflation in 40 years (including high energy prices), thought they would see relief during the second Trump administration. But the war in Iran pushed energy prices higher again. So it’s fair to wonder how the state’s household electricity burden compares.