Athens Utilities customers were told Monday to prepare for a 20 percent increase in electric rates beginning Oct. 1.

The average customer – who uses 1,320 kilowatt hours per month – will see a $21 increase on his or her November bill, according to Electric Department Manager Gary Scroggins.

Athens City Council members approved the utility’s request for the rate hike during their regular meeting Monday. The increase was triggered Aug. 19 when the Tennessee Valley Authority raised by 20 percent the rates it charges Athens Utilities and its 158 other distributors in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia.

Athens Utilities officials asked council members for permission to pass the rate increase on to its customers, saying the utility could not absorb such a rate hike.

“That ain’t good news – we’re just passing things on,” said Councilman Ronnie Marks before the council voted 5-0 to approve the rate hike.

TVA blamed the $2 billion rate system-wide increase – the largest hike in 30 years – on skyrocketing fuel costs and a three-year drought that has sharply reduced its ability to generate cheap hydroelectric power. At the same time, the TVA has been criticized for giving TVA board members and some employees millions in bonuses over the past three years.

Whatever the causes, the hefty rate increase will further burden consumers already pressed by rising food and gasoline prices.

Scroggins said Monday that the Electric Department had to write off $16,197 more in unpaid bills in 2008 than in 2007, most of them residential bills. It wrote off a total of $193,845 for 2008. He blamed increases coupled with a cold winter as reasons for the increase. The utility still will try to collect those debts but wrote them off for budgeting purposes.

Although Scroggins anticipates a $21 per month increase for most electric customers, the TVA has said the increase will raise monthly electric bills between $15.80 and $19.80 for the average residential customer, based on the use of 1,320 kilowatt hours a month.