News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The average residential Cookeville Electric customer will see a $1.50 increase to their monthly bills.
The bill increase is the result of a 1.5 percent TVA rate increase that the electric department can’t absorb. Thursday’s vote passed that increase on to the city’s electric customer.
“We looked at the possibility of absorbing the increase, but it would be an excess of $500,000,” Electric Department Director Tony Peak said. “With the expenses that we know we are going to have we could see no way of absorbing that.”
Peak said TVA approved the increase last month as a way to deal with a rapidly changing industry and to lower their debt, which affects their ability to provide energy at the lowest cost possible.
