POWER RATES UP SLIGHTLY IN MAY AS TVA RAISES FUEL COST

The local power rate in the coming month of May will rise slightly to $0.09579 from April’s level of $0.09257 as TVA raises the fuel cost adjustment.

AUB’s portion of the overall rate remains the same month to month, at $0.07043.  TVA’s fuel cost is going from $0.02214 in April up to $0.02536 in May.

The month of May marks the second month of the “transition season” in the ratemaking system.  Two months that come later in the year—October and November—are also “transition” rate months.

May will be the second month in a row of power rates that fall below 10 cents per kilowatt hour.

“We hope it stays this way.  If TVA can control its costs, we should be able to stay below 10 cents even when we move into the summer rate months, which run for four consecutive months beginning in June,” said AUB’s Wayne Scarbrough.

The fuel rate charged by TVA is different from the power rate they charge to AUB.

AUB’s gets a varying fuel charge from TVA each month.  Some months it goes up, sometimes it falls.

“We pay TVA the fuel charge, and we also pay them a power rate charge.  Then AUB has its power rate to cover our costs.  We combine those three costs to arrive at our overall rate,” Scarbrough explained.

“It can be a bit confusing.  But basically, TVA has two portions they charge to AUB: a power rate and a monthly fuel charge.  And AUB has its power rate that is then combined to come up with what we all pay for each kilowatt hour every month,” he said.    

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

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