TVA says wet summer means lower electric bills

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Tennessee Valley Authority says an unusually wet summer has translated into lower electric bills for customers.

John McCormick, Tennessee Valley Authority's vice president for river operations, said in a statement that the rain kept the utility's hydroelectric dams, which provide the cheapest source of energy, working overdrive.

Scott Brooks, a Nashville-based TVA spokesman, told The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/18zqo98 ) that the extra hydro power has allowed TVA to purchase less energy from more expensive sources, a pattern is expected to continue this month.

The rainfall has led to a record-setting year for TVA's 29 hydroelectric dams, which produced more energy in 2013 than at any other time in the past eight decades.

TVA serves 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern states - including some in Northeast Georgia along the Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina state lines.

(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)