By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
The Glasgow Electric Plant Board is working to finalize potential rate changes after the Tennessee Valley Authority announced in a press release on Aug. 24 of a “unanimously approved” increase of 4.5 percent.
This increase comes at the same time as the TVA approved $15 billion worth of investments over the next three years to build additional power generation and to upgrade existing systems.
“TVA is not immune to cost increase, inflation and supply chain challenges,” said TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash in the press release. “We worked to minimize any impact on families while balancing our region’s growing energy needs, and these funds will allow us to invest in new capacity as well as invest in the reliability of our current assets.”
According to the press release, post-COVID TVA’s service area saw “tremendous growth” while the rates have remained stagnant for the past four years. The TVA approved this increase in effective rates to “meet growing demand and economic development” throughout the seven states they serve from Alabama and Georgia to Mississippi and Virginia.
Kentucky, and more specifically the Glasgow EPB, receives its electricity from the TVA. According to Aaron Russell, communications director for EPB, they have had a partnership with the TVA since their founding in 1962, with the EPB renewing its contract with the TVA every 20 years.
This 4.5 percent increase averages to $3.50 added to typical residential energy bill. Russell said the EPB is still trying to get together a “concrete” figure for the EPB’s customers. Russell said the TVA did not let the plant board know of the increase prior to the press release so they are still in the process of figuring out how this will affect customers.
“We have nothing concrete at this minute,” Russell said. “It’s something our superintendent and financial officer as well as our metering staff and those that work directly with TVA are going over.”
“We’re trying to see what that 4.5 percent really means to the end power company and what that means to the end user,” he added.
Russell said any change to their rates would have to come before the EPB Board of Directors during their monthly meetings. In addition to that, he said, and change in customer’s rates would be communicated to them 30 days prior to such change.
“Anything that’s going to have a hard impact on the per kilowatt hour rate is going to be communicated,” Russell said. “We’ll be communicating that change anyway we can when that’s locked down.”
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