MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – You will not likely be the least bit surprised to learn there were more power outages in Shelby County last year. This dark bit of information was released Wednesday morning, during the MLGW President’s discussion about the utility company.
They’ve never had one before. Never had a State of MLGW – basically, a look at how things are going and what they expect next year.
These speeches normally focus on the good things. But before things got going, the MLGW board heard the bad things.
Memphis Pastor Maurice Hunt complained that a poweroutage at his house that was supposed to be fixed in two hours, took two days. AndMLGW never kept him updated.
“I could get my family out. We don’t need to besitting in the house with no power over a day and a half or two days. I loseall my food and whatever,” said Pastor Hunt.
According to MLGW President J.T. Young, there were alot of people last year who could relate to the pastor.
“We saw about four customers on average per monthexperience an outage,” said Young.
The blackouts on average lasted more than 20% longerthan in 2018.
Sure they had success stories, and sure, J.T. Young mentionedthem. Like all the work done behind the scenes for that cool Saturday morningwhen ESPN Game Day came to town.
“We had folks stationed in a lot of places toensure our power stayed on and to make sure we were available. We had to dosome things before they even set up. Our team did that quickly, and in a greatway,” said Young.
Memphis City Council Chairman Patrice Robinson sayscustomers probably wish the company would so the same thing for them when theylose power.
“I didn’t need to see the report. I get the callsevery day,” she said.
The company did get its rate hike and is now startingits five-year plan to improve the infrastructure.
And 2020 could be a very big year for MLGW. Within thenext few months it’s expected to decide whether to stop buying electricity fromthe Tennessee Valley Authority and switch to another provider.
Several studies have shown the move could save theutility and its customers up to $400 million per year.