More than 30% of Shelby County lost power earlier this week — the third bout of widespread electricity outages in as many weeks — and Memphis Light, Gas and Water leadership said the recent barrage of storms is getting in the way of long-term infrastructure improvements.

MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowen wants the utility to get out of recovery mode and focus on a long list of fixes and upgrades, such as trimming trees and modernizing the grid. 

“We need to get the power restored for everybody, and then we need to make these improvements that will make us more reliable and resilient for the future,” McGowen said.

MLGW estimates power outages will last several days

Back-to-back severe weather compounds damage to Memphis’s power grid because there’s often damage that goes undetected.

For instance, when strong winds damage the cross arms of power poles — the bar of wood that holds up the power lines — it can crash through the wires and cause an outage. If that’s the case, MLGW deploys a crew to repair the pole. 

But sometimes, even if wind damages the cross arms, it doesn’t hit the wires and doesn’t cause an outage. The problem would go undetected, and the damage would make the power pole more vulnerable in the next storm. 

Power outages the eighth-worst in MLGW’s history

“There could be a problem that sets us up for failure in the future, so we want to make sure we correct that,” McGowen said.

The cross arms of power poles are just one example of widespread damage that can go unnoticed in a storm’s aftermath. That’s why McGowen is calling for a baseline assessment of the entire system. That assessment will guide a five-year work plan — updated annually — that McGowen hopes will keep MLGW on track with what work needs to be done.

“This way, we have a regular and recurring investment in all our infrastructure so we never get behind once we get caught up,” McGowen said. 

MLGW is already improving infrastructure through its $1.2 billion Way Forward Plan. But because of COVID-19-related delays, that five-year plan has turned into a seven-year plan, with an estimated end date in 2026. 

McGowen is confident the gamut of improvements MLGW already has planned will reduce future power outages. 

MLGW started work on its Way Forward Plan in areas regularly hit hardest by power outages, like Normal Station, a neighborhood northeast of Orange Mound. Since modernizing the equipment in Normal Station, McGowen said the neighborhood has seen a 50% improvement in reliability. 

“That gives me optimism, and it should give everybody hope that this work actually will make a difference to our customers,” he said.