Aug. 19--As the economy and temperatures heat up this summer, the Tennessee Valley Authority has surpassed last year's all-time power peak three times already this summer.

Hot and humid temperatures, combined with more factory production and residential customers, pushed peak power consumption in the first half of August up by 16 percent above the same period a year ago, according to TVA officials. During the first 16 days of the month, afternoon peaks reached by TVA in its 7-state region topped last year's levels by more than 4,000 megawatts -- or enough power to supply both Chattanooga and Memphis.

"It's been a hot summer and the economy continues to grow and generate more power usage," said Van Wardlaw, TVA's vice president of electricity system operations. "But so far, our system has performed phenomenally and we've had absolutely no trouble meeting these record demands."

But while TVA hasn't been sweating over the heat, some Chattanooga electric users may.

EPB estimates the typical customer will pay from 7 to 10 percent higher power bills this month than a year ago. The city-owned electric utility also set a new power peak last month, topping the previous all-time high reached in 2002.

"We recognize some people could have some problems paying their power bills and we try to work with them," EPB President Harold DePriest said.

In the short term, customers are urged to call EPB to try to work out a repayment plan at 648-1EPB, or ask for assistance if they are low-income from First Call for Help at United Way of Greater Chattanooga (265-8000).

Longer term, EPB spokesman Colby Swann urged residents struggling to pay high summer electric bills to join EPB's fixed bill or budget bill plans that level monthly payments throughout the calendar.

EPB and other TVA distributors will be raising electric bills more in October when TVA implements a 7.4 percent wholesale rate increase.

But some other utilities in the Southeast also trying to cope with record demands for power are pushing rates up even higher. Last week, Florida Power and Light asked state regulators to approve a fuel adjustment that could boost residential electric rates by up to 16 percent. The Florida utility generates or buys about half of its power from natural gas-powered sources and as natural gas rose this week to record highs, fuel costs for generating electricity by FPL also jumped higher, utility spokeswoman Kathy Scott said.

Florida Power and Light set a new peak record Wednesday and put out a request Thursday for proposals to build another gas-fired power plant in the future to meet its growing demand. Officials with Georgia Power and Duke Power also said their utilities reached all- time power peaks this summer because of the heat.

TVA estimates more than 97 percent of all homes in the Tennessee Valley now have some type of air conditioning.

But with more independent power producers in the Southeast selling to utilities, Mr. Wardlaw said there has been plenty of power-generating capacity in the region to keep air conditioners humming. But he said the price of purchased power has increased along with natural gas prices.

"All this makes our decision to bring back the unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry look very wise," Mr. Wardlaw said.

TVA expects to reactivate the 1,200-megawatt reactor, its first nuclear unit, by the spring of 2007.