The Tennessee Valley Authority is about to start charging less for electricity when demand is low, like right now – and more when it’s high, like on a hot summer afternoon.
How TVA’s rate change trickles to consumers is up to their middlemen – local utilities.
Middle Tennessee Electric’s Chris Jones says some peoples’ bills will actually be lower when the plan goes into effect in April, since spring temperatures are mild. But Jones says as more air conditioners click on this summer, rates will climb higher.
Jones says that kind of peak demand has always been harder for TVA to meet – the difference is now bills will reflect that added cost.
“On a hot in the summer in the afternoon when TVA is marshaling all of its resources and has to go out on the open market to purchase power, we’re paying the same per-kilowatt-hour charge individually as we were back on a nice day in March, but for TVA it’s a drastically different story.”
One other thing: Jones says there’s also a change to the Residential Customer Charge. In the case of Middle Tennessee Electric, which covers Franklin, Wilson, Cannon and parts of Rutherford County, customers will be looking at an extra four dollars a month.