Power rates to decrease 1.2 percent next month
Milder temperatures and cheaper coal should combine next month to cut the price of electricity in the Tennessee Valley.
TVA is lowering its monthly fuel cost adjustment in April, saving the typical EPB residential customer an average of $2.55, or 1.2 percent, on their April power bills compared with the current month. Chattanooga households that consume the average 1,295 kilowatthours of electricity a month will pay $141.61 next month for electricity, according to EPB spokesman John Pless.
TVA spokesman Scott Fiedler said the drop in fuel prices next month “is primarily due to mild February weather, lower sales expected in April, and lower expected coal prices for April.”
TVA’s fuel costs are also lower because of increased hydroelectric generation at TVA’s 29 power-producing dams during the recent heavy rains and from extra nuclear power generation since TVA added a second reactor at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn., in the fall of 2016. Hydro power has no fuel costs and nuclear fuel is far cheaper than most fossil fuels.
Fiedler said TVA’s fuel costs next month will be 5 percent below the average for April over the past three years, although only slightly below the year ago price. Because of wholesale
base rate increases by TVA adopted last fall, overall power rates next month for a typical EPB customer will still be up 1.7 percent, or $2.40 for a typical household, from the same month a year ago.
“We understand the monthly variability that occurs within the market and how that impacts pricing, but we’re obviously always pleased to see fuel prices adjust down,” said Rob Hoskins, a spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Industrial Committee, which represents the biggest direct-served customers of TVA. “We’re always hopeful that equates to good things for the customer.”
Over the past five years, the average price of TVA’s electricity has declined 2 percent.
TVA’s industrial rates last year dropped to the 8th lowest among the top 100 utilities in America, down from No. 29 the previous year, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.