Gasoline prices may be getting cheaper at the pump, but homeowners will be paying more to heat their homes next month.
Electric rates for Chattanooga households will edge up 0.2 percent in December due to a slight increase in fuel costs as electricity demand has risen with colder weather. Combined with base rate increases, the typical EPB homeowner who uses 1,295 kilowatthours of electricity will pay $3.36 more next month than they paid a year earlier.
The EPB residential bill next month for those using 1,295 kwh will be $143.26, or 3.7 percent more than a year ago when the ratepayer uses the same amount of power paid $$139.90.
The Tennessee Valley Authority adjusts its rates each month based upon fuel costs and usage in recent months.
"The slight increase from November is due in part to higher sales, which led to increased fuel costs, than forecast in October," TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said.
Despite the slight increase in fuel costs next month, TVA said the average fuel cost adjustment in December is still 2 percent below the three-year average for the month due to increased hydroelectric generation from heavier-than-normal rains and lower natural gas prices.
Cheaper fuel over the past five years has more than offset yearly 1.5 percent increases in baseload charges by TVA to leave the typical delivered price of electricity for most consumers slightly lower than where it was in 2013, TVA President Bill Johnson said.
Those who heat with natural gas in Chattanooga also had a rate increase this month, but cheaper commodity prices still has kept the delivered price of gas lower this year, according to the Chattanooga Gas Co.
In October, the Tennessee Public Utility Commission granted a base rate increase of nearly 4.4 percent to Chattanooga Gas in the first such rate increase for the utility in eight years. The approved increase was less than one fourth of what the gas utility requested earlier this year.
Mekke Sherre Parish, a spokeswoman for Chattanooga Gas, said rates remain about 20 percent below a year ago due to the drop in the commodity price of the fuel.
"Natural gas prices remain at historically low levels," she said.
Gasoline prices at the pump also have come down this fall as oil price have declined. Gas stations in Ooltewah and Lookout Valley cut their prices for regular gas this week below $2 a gallon for the first time in more than seven months.