The Southern Environmental Law Center, Protect Our Aquifer and Memphis Community Against Pollution urged Memphis Light, Gas and Water to invest in renewable energy sources in a letter sent Tuesday.

The organizations said it’s a crucial moment as MLGW’s board prepares to make a recommendation on its next electric supplier contract. 

“MLGW has both an opportunity and an obligation to make sure that whoever supplies our electricity gets the most bang for our community’s buck, in terms of our power bills, our Aquifer, and the health of our community,” the organizations said in the letter. “This Board’s power supply decision provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for MLGW to reduce economic, health, and energy burdens in our communities.” 

First public bidder for MLGW electricity contract is familiar name

GDS Associates — MLGW’s consultant — will present to the board on Sept. 1, followed by a comment period of at least 30 days prior to any board action.

After that, MLGW will vote and make its recommendation to the Memphis City Council to be ratified.

The council is moving forward with plans to hire an energy consultant to advise them on their vote.

Until this point, the request for proposals have been confidential, and MLGW will not disclose any information from the proposals until the board makes its final recommendation. 

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Southern Environmental Law Center, Protect Our Aquifer and Memphis Community Against Pollution said their letter is based on the limited information that’s publicly available, and they urge MLGW to make the process transparent.

MLGW declined to comment on the letter, aside from a reminder of the comment period that will precede the board’s action. 

The public got its first glimpse into the bids on June 9, when GDS Associates released preliminary information about the anonymized bids at a joint MLGW-City Council meeting.

That meeting revealed lower-than-expected savings if MLGW leaves the Tennessee Valley Authority, with savings in the tens of millions of dollars rather than hundreds. 

The authors of the letter said their key takeaway from the presentation is that MLGW should not lock its ratepayers into TVA’s — or any other power supplier’s — “unnecessary and risky new gas plants.”

Arlington-area church pays utilities bills for more than 100 MLGW customers

“In fact, during their presentation, MLGW’s GDS consultants indicated that if MLGW were designing its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) today, there would be even more renewables and battery storage across the portfolios,” they said in the letter. “The implication is clear: MLGW should demand more affordable, available renewable resources from TVA and other bidders and refuse to pay for risky and polluting new gas.” 

TVA is planning to retire Kingston and Cumberland, two of its aging coal plants. The utility’s plans to replace Cumberland with natural gas faced backlash from the Environmental Protection Agency, among other groups, but TVA said, “natural gas is a key part of our transition to net-zero carbon emissions.”

The three organizations said that MLGW should follow Nashville Electric Service’s lead to oppose the proposed Cumberland gas plants and “advocate for TVA to instead add more solar and battery storage to its grid for the benefit of all ratepayers.”

“Not only are unnecessary new gas plants costly for ratepayers, they also risk harming the health of our Memphis communities and are a wasteful use of our Aquifer,” they said in the letter.

MLGW’s current 20-year contract with TVA requires a five-year notice of termination, which is lower than TVA’s standard 10-year notice.

The letter’s authors said the option of remaining with TVA under its current five-year termination provision was not adequately explored during the June 9 meeting.

“Given the results of the RFP, MLGW should not consider any deal that is simply ‘take it or leave it,’ such as TVA’s long-term contract,” they said in the letter. “Instead, MLGW should use its purchasing power to negotiate with TVA and other potential suppliers to get the best deal for Memphis’s future: a future that relies on affordable, available renewable energy, battery storage, and energy efficiency.”