BrightRidge announces Pandemic Relief Credit on February bill statements

BrightRidge Directors voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to extend a $1.2 million BrightRidge Pandemic Relief Credit to all residential and small commercial power customers. The one-time credit will appear for most customers on February power bills.

Residential and small commercial customers can expect estimated savings of 6 – 9 percent on their February bills depending on actual usage. “From the pandemic onset, BrightRidge Directors and staff have remained focused on how best to assist our customers,” BrightRidge CEO Jeff Dykes said.

“BrightRidge suspended nonpayment service disconnections for four months, doubled the amount of assistance funding available to customers, supported regional small businesses through donations to Region AHEAD, and quickly expanded broadband to unserved areas in rural areas through a state grant.

“Today, we are pleased to continue these efforts through direct support in the form of a BrightRidge Pandemic Relief Credit on February customer bill statements.”
Funding for the credit comes from a relief credit on wholesale electricity generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority and sold to local power companies. The TVA credit was made available to local power companies to offset local shortfalls due to slower electric retail sales.

“While we have definitely seen slower sales in some categories, BrightRidge is well positioned financially to cover this credit for our customers,” Dykes said. Winter months generally bring the highest usage on the BrightRidge system, with residential customers averaging about 1600 kWh in usage. At that rate, customer would save $15.17 on their bill. Small commercial customers, which covers everything from garages, small stores and restaurants and other small businesses, could save as much as $28.44 depending on usage.

BrightRidge Directors indicated a desire to impact as many customers as possible with the credit, which will offset the bills of about 68,680 residential accounts and 9,437 small commercial accounts, or about 97.6% of all electric accounts.

BrightRidge is the 10th largest system in the TVA service area and serves about 80,000 customers in Washington County as well as portions of Sullivan, Carter and Greene counties.