EPB officials said mild weather is hurting its bottom line.
Greg Eaves, chief financial officer, told board members on Friday morning that for August the kilowatt hours were 16.5 percent than was budgeted for.
"The weather has been consistently mild," he said.
However, he noted that EPB fell far behind on its budget last year, but almost made it up due to a harsh winter.
Harold DePriest, president, noted that EPB this year set aside more than usual to deal with storm cleanup, which has hit the utility hard in recent years. He said $4.5 million was budgeted rather than the usual $2 million.
He said he is hopeful that much of that amount will not have to be used.
The board was told that EPB will soon sign up its 61,000th residential customer for its flourishing TV business. That goes along with 5,000 commercial accounts.
EPB had hoped to get 43,000 customers to meet its business plan.
Officials said some $50 million is now owed on the non-power debt. EPB plans to this year pay off the remaining $4 million on its phone service debt.
Joe Ferguson, board chairman, said the Oak Ridge National Laboratory wants to work with EPB "to develop the electrical system of the future."
He said the Oak Ridge facility has the capability to extract and analyze the massive data accumulated by EPB on its successful fiber optic grid.
Mr. Ferguson said, "Oak Ridge can help us develop the technology" to further develop its Smart Grid.