Higher power rates by the Tennessee Valley Authority may have squeezed recession-weary consumers last year, but it is giving extra money for state and local governments this year.

In the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, TVA’s tax-equivalent payments to state and local governments are projected to increase by more than 6.5 percent, to a record $538 million in fiscal 2010, TVA Chief Financial Officer Kim Greene said today.

The payments are equal to 5 percent of TVA’s annual revenues for fiscal 2009, payable in the next fiscal year, Ms. Greene said.

Despite lower consumption of electricity in the Tennessee Valley, the 20 percent rate increase in October 2009 boosted TVA revenues overall, even with subsequent rate reductions during the past year.

As a government agency, TVA doesn’t pay property taxes. But the TVA act provides that the agency make tax-equivalent based upon its annual sales from the previous year.

Tennessee will get the biggest increase in TVA tax-equivalent payments this year, rising from $295 million last year to $320 million this year.

“Our assets have grown a little faster in Tennessee because of investments at Watts Bar (Nuclear Plant near Spring City) and at the Kingston Fossil Plant (in Roane County),” Ms. Greene said.

TVA makes tax-equivalent payments to the seven states where it sells power and to Illinois, where it owns coal reserves.

Read more in tomorrow’s Times Free Press