By ADAM ARMOUR

Staff Writer

Itawambians can expect higher electric bills this month -- and all subsequent months -- following the Tennessee Valley Authority's largest rate increase in more than three decades.

Most of Itawamba County's approximately 12,000 Tombigbee Electric Power Association customers can expect to pay an additional $14 to $20 each billing cycle to cover the cost of the utility provider's highest rate hike since 1974. The 20 percent increase was approved in August and is intended to help offset the growing costs of coal and natural gas used to fuel the company's power plants.

This is the second increase enacted by the company this year, following a 7 percent increase last April.

According to Bill Long, general manager for Tombigbee Electric Power Association, the increase actually reflects two changes made by TVA: A fuel cost adjustment, representing a 16.9 percent retail increase, and a 3.1 percent increase to the base rate. Adding the two together reflects the entirety of the 20 percent increase.

These two changes will affect customers' bills in different ways. While the 3.1 percent increase is a permanent rate adjustment, the fuel cost adjustment rate is transitory and can fluctuate either up or down each quarter. How much this rate changes will depend on the amount of fuel and natural gas TVA has to purchase to both power its equipment and transport materials.

Due to the current drought in the southwest, the company has been forced to purchase more and more of the necessary components to run its plants, rather than rely on the hydroelectric dams that are the company's cheapest source of energy.

"Although we get a lot of rain in North Mississippi, it doesn't fall where it can run into TVA's reservoirs and be used in their hydroelectric system," Long explained. "TVA normally has about 15 percent of its generating requirements produced by the hydroelectric dam. But, in the last year, that's been almost zero percent, so that's been a tremendous cost for us. We've had to buy other fuels to make up for that loss in energy."

Long added that the increase is a direct reflection of the wholesale rate increase Tombigbee Electric Power Association will be paying and includes no additional costs.

"We're not adding anything to this increase for our local use," Long said. "All we're doing is taking the dollar-amount increased in our wholesale bill and passing it on within our different rate categories ... All of this cost is related to new money that TVA needs specifically to buy fuel."

This change is expected to affect all of TVA's 159 distributors, spread throughout Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina.

Adam Armour can be reached at 862-3141 or by e-mailing adam.armour@itawamba360.com.