Crashes, transmission issue culprit for Christmas power outages
The holiday’s most extensive outage was caused when part of a high-voltage transmission tower broke, triggering a safety response.
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The holiday’s most extensive outage was caused when part of a high-voltage transmission tower broke, triggering a safety response.
Unlike last year, when more than half the service area lost power during an ice storm, these outages were mostly isolated in the southeastern parts of Shelby County on an unseasonably warm holiday weekend.
The four-year term of the Memphis City Council is at an end. The Daily Memphian’s Council Scorecard has chronicled 158 critical decisions by the body over that term. Here are the most critical decisions ones.
Memphians who’ve lost power for a long stretch can tell you: It doesn’t matter if it was last December or decades ago, they remember it vividly.
The last City Council Scorecard of the year includes a pay raise for the new mayor, another ballot question for 2024 and several items for the new council to decide.
Whitehaven resident Patricia Smith is one of about 10% of MLGW customers affected by billing issues over the past year due to faulty smart meters.
“The council chairman failed to take advantage of an opportunity to positively affect the lives of thousands of Memphians. Rather than receive help, they were served up hollow words.”
“I cannot guarantee that nothing will happen,” Doug McGowen, president and CEO of Memphis Light, Gas and Water said. “But I can guarantee that we’re much better prepared than we were last winter.”
“It has been one heck of a year, and it’s culminated with this most recent decision by City Council,” MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowen said of this week’s vote to approve a 12% electricity rate hike.
“I heard loud and clear from City Council and from other people that moving the headquarters from Downtown was not the right signal at this time,” MLGW’s president and CEO told The Daily Memphian.
MLGW is planning to do routine gas maintenance Dec. 7 near the Mississippi state line.
“I believe, and my team believes, this is the necessary remedy for decades of disinvestment and failed decisions under previous presidents and previous councils,” said MLGW CEO Doug McGowen.
The Memphis City Council will also tackle moving state funding for the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium renovations and a resolution to give Mayor-elect Paul Young a raise.
“It is suspicious that MLGW prefers to generate power — TVA’s job — rather than publicly admit TVA is hobbled. Whose interests are being protected?”
MLGW’s CEO said the utility has operated with a “run to fail” mindset, meaning it only fixes what’s broken, and there haven’t been regular investments in MLGW’s infrastructure for decades.
MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowen said underground power line improvements show the benefits of MLGW’s 2020 rate hike.
As the City Council nears the end of another term, they’re being asked to increase power rates — again.
Protect Our Aquifer says change is needed “to ensure we have clean drinking water far into the future. We have one chance to get this right. At this point, we are failing.”
“It would be unfair to the citizens of our city if either of these MLGW proposals were approved on Thursday without further serious discussion and the critical input necessary from the ratepayers who could be affected.”
“City Council has continuously approved MLGW’s requests, while ratepayers continue to receive subpar, substandard services. It is long past time for the residential customers and stakeholders to be put first!”
TVA built a training house on the Midtown Memphis campus where contractors can learn to identify weatherization problems, and how to correct them. The new course will start in January.
The MLGW Board of Commissioners moved the City of Memphis owned utility one step closer to leaving Downtown and buying a new headquarters in Cordova. MLGW board approves electric rate hikes, City Council up nextRelated story:
Shelby County electric rates are one step closer to going up 12% over the next three years.
Opinion: “Instead of our publicly owned utility sharing with us — its owners — where that money has gone, MLGW is once again proposing a hefty rate increase for infrastructure.”
On “Behind the Headlines,” Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo discussed MLGW and the suburb’s crisis that left residents unable to use water from the tap for six days.