Nashville Electric Service raises rates for customers - Tennessean

Nashville Electric Service raises rates for customers

Nashville Electric Service rate hike hits power bills this month
Rachel Wegner

No, you're not imagining things. Your October bill from Nashville Electric Service is just a little bit higher.

NES announced a rate hike for customers on Friday, which took effect this month. Average residential customers will see a 3.6% increase on their monthly statement, or an estimated $4.83 per bill.

NES said it raised its rate because of an increase from the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally-owned electric utility company that covers multiple states across the southeast, including Tennessee. The bump is due to the end of a recovery credit given during the COVID-19 pandemic from November 2020 until Oct. 1 of this year.

From 2022: NES customers to see another increase to electric bill

Last year, NES announced two rate increases — a 10% hike in July due to high fuel costs and an additional 3.6% increase in October 2022. The company said annual rate increases help support safety, technology investments, replacing old equipment and meeting Nashville's growing needs.

"While NES strives to limit increases to 3%-5% every three to five years to cover the rising costs of serving Middle Tennessee, TVA may increase wholesale rates on a yearly basis — which are then passed through to customers," NES said in a news release Friday. "When TVA makes a change to the way they bill NES, whether it be a structure change or a rate increase, those changes must be reflected in the way NES bills customers."

Have you been an NES residential customer for more than 12 months? You can apply for the company's "balanced billing" program. It calculates a monthly bill based on average energy use over a full year and can help offset increases when the weather changes. Find out more at nespower.com/forms/balanced-billing-form.