Columbus Light and Water and 4-County Electric Power Association customers will see a local rate increase on their November power bill in addition to that of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s wholesale price hike, all of which went into effect Oct. 1.
The two utilities both announced a local rate increase on top of the TVA hike, with 4-County charging an extra 2.34% and CLW charging an extra 2%, plus a $2.50 customer charge.
The TVA board in August approved a 5.25% increase to the wholesale price it charges utilities. Through Fiscal Year 2027, TVA is investing $16 billion to build new infrastructure and ensure its existing assets stay reliable. The rate change is driven by this growth and will fund ongoing construction and energy development, a press release from TVA said.
The percentage increase for wholesale power does not directly reflect the exact percentage a local utility bill will increase.
“We recognize that people don’t pay rates, they pay bills, and that matters,” TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash said in the release. “We know this is a kitchen table issue for many families across our region. At TVA, we don’t like price increases any more than you do, and that’s why we continually work to reduce expenses by hundreds of millions of dollars each year.”
On top of the 5.25% increase from TVA, 4-County Electric Power Association is raising its rates for similar reasons. In a statement to The Dispatch, CEO Brian Clark said additions to the system are a response to growth within TVA’s local service territory, especially with larger commercial members coming to the area.
“That’s great, but it also means we’ve got to make additions to our system,” Clark said. “TVA is seeing the same thing with unexpected growth across the valley. They’ve got to add generation (of electricity) to meet all our needs. So it’s a double-edged sword. People want to live here, companies want to locate here, but we’ve got to be able to serve all of them.”
Clark said the increase will also address rising costs of doing business. Basic items like poles, wire and transformers are extremely expensive right now, he said.
Effective this month, 4-County’s 2.34% local increase adds roughly $3.56 to the average residential electric bill. With the TVA wholesale increase, the total effect will be an extra $8.22 a month added to the average residential bill, the statement said. Jon Turner, 4-County public relations and marketing manager, said the average residential bill is about $155 per month, making the pending increase about 5.3%.
Columbus Light and Water’s will add a $2.50 customer charge along with the 2% increase and the TVA increase. The local increase will add roughly $3.50 to the average monthly residential bill of $175.60. Combined with the TVA increase and the customer charge, the total effect will be roughly $11.71 added to the power bill – a 6.3% increase.
General Manager Manager Angela Verdell said the increase will generate a little more than $740,000 in additional revenue to support capital projects for FY 2025.
“The rate increase is really to make sure that we can keep up with inflation and the cost of maintaining the system,” she said.
Starkville Utilities customers will only see the TVA’s increase on their electric bills, with no local rate hike, General Manager Edward Kemp told The Dispatch.
“It’s really a pass-through for Starkville Utilities,” he said.
Retail customers will still see an approximately 3.2% increase on their bill because of the TVA adjustment, Kemp said. For an average monthly bill of $102.97, that would add about $3.29 extra to the bill.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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