TVA Rates Rise 5.25 Percent This Fall

KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to increase costs for energy this fall to fund ongoing construction and energy development, according to a release shared by the TVA on Thursday.

The TVA shared that the 5.25% base rate increase will be taking effect on October 1, 2024. This follows a 4.5% increase approved for the 2024 fiscal year that was approved in August 2023.

“We recognize that people don’t pay rates, they pay bills, and that matters,” said Jeff Lyash, TVA President and CEO. “We know this is a kitchen table issue for many families across our region. At TVA, we don’t like price increases anymore than you do, and that’s why we continually work to reduce expenses by hundreds of millions of dollars each year. We have done everything possible to absorb costs as we invest in the reliability of our existing plants, construct new generations to keep up with growth and maximize solar to produce more carbon-free energy.”

Lyash added that the fund increase in 2023 helped support the “completion of the Paradise”, a natural gas plant in Drakesboro, Kentucky, and move forward with the construction of additional generating resources at Cumberland, Kingston, Johnsonville, and Shawnee.

The TVA’s announcement on Thursday also included that its Board of Directors approved $150 million in additional nuclear funding to support continued design work and the TVA’s development of potential small modular reactors at the Clinch River site near Oak Ridge. That funding, in addition to the $200 million approved in February 2022, means funding for the project has reached $350 million.