DECEMBER POWER RATE LOWER THAN NOVEMBER

ATHENS, Tenn. – There is good news for Athens Utilities Board (AUB) electricity customers as the power rate for December will go down compared to the November rate.

AUB’s portion of the rate for the month is $0.07244 and will be at that level for the next four months during the “winter” rate season.

TVA is lowering its fuel cost adjustment to $0.02796 from the current November level of $0.03099.

The new rate move will take the December power rate down to $0.10040 from November’s current level of $0.10142.

“It’s great news that TVA has a lower fuel cost coming up in December.  We at AUB continue to push them to keep their overall costs lower so that their fuel cost doesn’t affect our customers as much,” said AUB’s Wayne Scarbrough.

The cost of natural gas, which TVA purchases to fire many of its power generation plants, has risen significantly over the past year.

“That higher natural gas cost figuring in to TVA’s fuel charge to us has affected our end rates pretty dramatically, keeping them above 10 cents,” Scarbrough said.  “We are urging them to keep their other costs in control just as much as local power distributors do while all of us get through these tough times,” he said.

AUB’s power rate has increased less than eight percent in the past 25 years.   However, TVA has increased its rate by more than 62-percent in fewer than 20 years.

“Those are the facts, and they say a lot.   We at AUB have gone up less than eight percent in a quarter century against TVA’s increase of well more than 60 percent in less time.  Those facts weigh heavily on us and we hope are weighing in the minds of TVA management as well,” Scarbrough said.

About 83 cents of every dollar that AUB’s power division collects go to TVA for wholesale power.