Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation (MTEMC) members will see their rates decrease when they get their bills in November, as the Tennessee Valley Authority has decreased its Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) for the first time since February.

"The actual percentage change in members' bills will differ depending on the amount of energy members use; however, it looks to be about a four percent decrease on average," MTEMC Communications Coordinator Todd Palmer said.

The FCA will move from October's rate of 1.173 cents per kilowatt-hour to 0.765 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The FCA is a billing mechanism TVA uses to help recover largely uncontrollable fuel and purchased power costs. Since TVA is the power supplier for Middle Tennessee Electric and the FCA is a TVA charge, all of the charge collected from Middle Tennessee Electric members goes back to TVA.

TVA cites lower than expected prices on coal, purchased power and natural gas as the reason for the decrease in the fuel cost adjustment.

Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation's Customer Care has donated $5,000 of its Operation Round Up funds to Big Brothers of Mt. Juliet.

"These funds will help us to continue extending our outreach to so many," Big Brothers of Mt. Juliet board member Harold Taylor said. "Lots of smiles come from donations just like these."

Big Brothers of Mt. Juliet is a nonprofit organization that helps needy families in west Wilson County with difficult situations.

Operation Round Up began in 2003 and has distributed more than $4 million into MTEMC's communities.

The initiative "rounds up" members' bills to the next highest dollar, with that extra change set aside for worthy causes. It is the responsibility of the Customers Care Board, which is composed of seven MTEMC members, to evaluate grant requests and send the money back to qualifying organizations.

Incoming contributions are tracked by county so that the Customers Care Board can do its best to ensure money contributed by members in a certain county goes to that county. Any balances will be carried over each month.

MTEMC Customers Care funds may not be used for political or expressly religious purposes, schools or school-related organizations.

PICTURED, ABOVE: Big Brothers of Mt. Juliet volunteer Debbie Carey and board member Harold Taylor display a replica check for $5,000 from MTE Customers Care.

According to information provided by Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will perform some electric work this weekend, causing some Middle Tennessee Electric members in eastern Wilson County - including Watertown - to be without power for a brief period on Sunday morning, July 25.

The scheduled work will cause approximately 5,000 members to experience a short power outage, approximately five minutes in length, just after 12 a.m. (midnight) Sunday.

Specifically, the affected locations will be east of Lebanon, south of Trousdale Ferry Pike to the southern Wilson County line and east of Linwood Road and Cedars of Lebanon State Park to the eastern Wilson County line. The outage will also include the adjacent service locations in Dekalb and Smith counties.

The Tennessee Valley Authority generates power for 155 local power distributors across the Southeast, including Middle Tennessee Electric.