TVA Electricity Rates To Rise 20% In October On Higher Coal, Gas Costs

[hatrack]

KNOXVILLE — TVA electricity rates will jump another 20 percent in October, a move Tennessee Valley Authority officials say is necessary to absorb more than $2 billion of increased costs for coal, natural gas and purchased power in the next year. TVA directors approved a $12.6 billion budget Wednesday that includes its biggest single-rate increase in more than three decades, reflecting both a fuel-cost adjustment and an increase in TVA’s base rates.

The Oct. 1 rate increase will cost the typical residential electricity user from $15 to $20 extra each month, according to TVA and EPB estimates. Combined with other TVA rate increases this spring and summer, power rates will be up this fall by nearly 35 percent from a year ago and make this fall’s monthly power bills about $25 to $30 more expensive than they were a year ago.

“I don’t like this at all,” TVA President Tom Kilgore said. “The fact is we have to pay our fuel bill, and that’s what is causing all of this increase.”

Bobby Glenn, general manager of a 300-employee Panasonic aluminum foil operation in Knoxville, told the TVA board that the increases will add about $3 million to his plant’s annual power bill and “threatens the very survival of our business.” TVA is suffering from a 3-year-old drought that has dried up more than half of its hydroelectric generation — its cheapest power source — and from soaring coal prices that have more than doubled in the past year. Natural gas and purchased power costs also are up by more than 60 percent this year, Mr. Kilgore said.

EDIT

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/aug/21/tennessee-valley-authority-boosts-rates-20-percent/?local

[phantom power]

1. Half its hydro.

Fuck.