Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said selling MLGW could be one way to pay for moving powerlines underground.
In his weekly email update, the mayor addressed the power outages following last week’s ice storm, and the frustrations of everyone affected. Strickland said every storm like this that hits Memphis is a “painful reminder of a critical piece of the power supply puzzle – infrastructure.”
Strickland said keeping the power supply infrastructure up-to-date is important, and a potential solution would be to move powerlines underground. But he went on to say that could cost roughly $6 to $8 billion. He said that could be paid for by raising rates, or by selling MLGW – with all proceeds going toward the costs of construction.
The mayor said he was not advocating for a sale – yet, “but it’s something that we as a community must thoroughly review.” He also said the city needs to explore options to reduce the impact of these storms.
Mayor Strickland included a chart showing storms from 2003 until present day, including the number of customers affected and how long the outages lasted. He also noted that they are awaiting numbers from the 1994 ice storm in the Mid-South.