mlgwglen

Those of you who read the Commercial Appeal online may have noticed a regular commenter named mlgwglen. This is our own Glen Thomas, Supervisor of Communications and Public Relations. When MLGW is in the news, Glen reads the comments and tries to correct inaccuracies and answer questions.

Today's TVA rate increase article has brought about a number of responses and questions. Here's a sampling of mlgwglen's efforts (in bold) to provide accurate information to readers.

mlgwglen:
Thank you all for your feedback. It’s never a pleasant thing to be the bearer of bad news, but our philosophy is to communicate this information now to help prepare customers for what’s coming. Several of you have made some good points and asked some really good questions, and I thought I would address some of them in the hopes of providing more information.

Posted by martskers on August 21, 2008 at 3:10 a.m.

Talk about a one-two punch! This is outrageous, following so closely on the heels of the announced impending ripoff on gas prices. Sure, go ahead, MLGW: hit us while we're down. I guess the MLGW PR person who posted a comment a couple days ago about what a bargain our electricity rates are is going to have to recalculate that reasonability.

Remember when MLGW bought ONE AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS in electricity from TVA in a bulk purchase a few years back? Here's how the utility described the transaction: http://www.mlgw.com/SubView.php?key=a...

martskers,
You mentioned the TVA bond deal from a few years ago. Simply put, the impact and electric prices would be even higher had we not made that deal. The discount serves as a coupon of sorts -- in that it doesn't guarantee that we purchase electricity at a certain price, but a discount off the current price. Another important thing to remember is that the pre-pay agreement was only for a portion of our electric needs, not all of our gas purchases.

Posted by battlecat2002 on August 21, 2008 at 6:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)

This is what happens when you're dealing with monopolies. As one of my saltier friends used to say (and I'm toning down his language): "Dang, I got screwed and didn't feel a thing!"

Somebody wanna tell me why we don't go to nuclear power?

battlecat2002,
You asked about nuclear power. MLGW does not generate its own electricity and we must therefore purchase it from TVA. TVA does use nuclear plants for some of its generation, and also uses coal, hydro and natural gas. The main issue with nuclear is that it takes several years and must clear many hurdles before a nuclear plant is approved and constructed. TVA has increased its nuclear generation in recent years, but still uses coal for more than 60 percent of its generation. The price of coal has increased even more than natural gas - 128 percent since January.

Posted by PABobcat on August 21, 2008 at 6:58 a.m.

Didn't I read within the last few weeks that natural gas prices have dropped or are dropping considerably - not sure, other than in the US, where that was though. If natural gas is in such abundance in the US or just off shore, why the rip off?

PABobcat,
You mentioned that natural gas prices have dropped in recent weeks. While this is true, gas prices are still expected to again rise significantly during the winter. In addition, TVA's current rate increase is designed to recover costs already incurred over the past quarter and does not reflect current gas purchases.

Posted by MemphisReader on August 21, 2008 at 8:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)

By comparison, how is Mississippi able to lower power rates right now ? I heard on the radio just in the last couple of days that Mississippi residents would see a 15%-18% decrease in some specific power rate. Explain.

Memphisreader,
You mentioned the Entergy rate decrease. Entergy’s recent rate decrease came on the heels of a 28 percent rate increase in late July that was also covered by the Commercial Appeal. Most importantly, MLGW’s electric rates are still lower than those of Entergy. In August, a residential electric customer using 1000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) will pay an average of $132.71 to Entergy. An MLGW customer consuming the same kWh will pay $85.98, nearly $47 less. With the Entergy decrease, their average customer will pay $119.97 for 1000 kWh in September, and MLGW customers will still pay $85.98. Even after yesterday's announcement of the large TVA rate increase, the price an MLGW customer pays for 100 kWh is $99.71, about $20 less than Entergy.

We are working hard to open the lines of communication with our customers. That's the main reason for this blog. So feel free to pipe up here, too!