A study on energy rates shows Russellville Electric Board residential customers pay the fifth-highest electricity rates of the Tennessee Valley Authority's 24 Alabama power suppliers, with an average rate of $.1187 per kilowatt hour.
According to TVA's web site, there are 24 local power companies in Alabama that purchase electricity from TVA. The Russellville Electric Board's rates, according to https://findenergy.com/al/, are in the top five most expensive rates of all Alabama TVA-supplied power companies.
And when a 3.1% rate increase goes into effect for Russellville Electric Board customers this summer, that could move REB even closer to charging its customers the highest rates among all TVA local power companies.
The Franklin Free Press contacted Charles Canida, REB manager, for comment and input into this article, but Canida did not respond to that request.
Additionally, the FFP requested information from TVA on electricity rates and the amount charged by TVA to its local power company (LPC) customers.
Scott Fiedler, with TVA Media Relations, confirmed that TVA does not offer a volume discount to its larger LPC customers. TVA's wholesale rate is $.066 for all local power companies.
“Over 80 percent of retail customers of the top 100 utilities in America pay more for power,” Fiedler said. “Our goal is to provide clean, reliable power at the lowest cost possible.”
TVA does not make public the rates charged by individuals LPCs. This is in part due to the difficulty in comparing certain LPCs to each other due to significant variances in customer mix, density and location. In other words, predominantly rural LPCs have more infrastructure costs to supply electricity to fewer customers over a larger area, as opposed to LPCs serving higher population-dense customer bases.
The average retail price of power for the entire TVA region, which includes parts of seven states, is $.091 per kilowatt hour. That's the average for all 153 LPCs served by TVA.
By comparison, Russellville Electric Board's $.1187 per kilowatt hour charge is higher than TVA-supplied City of Athens Electric Department ($.0992), Courtland Electric Department ($.1002), Decatur Utilities ($.0984), Florence Utilities ($.1074), Muscle Shoals Electric Board ($.1030), Sheffield Utilities ($.1098) and Tuscumbia Electricity Department ($.1069).
The 'Find Energy' web site states the average residential electricity cost for Alabama residents to be $.1308, so that puts REB's residential rates 9.27% lower than the overall state average, but among the five priciest TVA-supplied LPCs.
'Find Energy' is a comprehensive website designed to compare local electricity providers and solar installers throughout the United States. It has a three-part mission, according to its website:
-
#2e3f58;">“Take the immense amount of government data that is usually only used for government policy and make it accessible so consumers can make informed decisions about their energy options.
-
#2e3f58;">Present the energy industry in a realistic manner.
-
#2e3f58;">Make enough money to sustain and grow this project. We have taken no outside funding and are 100% bootstrapped by our co-founders.”
Commenting on this story has been disabled.
