UPDATE: TVA has reduced the number of people required in each rolling blackout. Residents may still be without power for 20 minute intervals, but it should not happen more often than every four hours. At the peak this morning, up to 6,500 customers may have been without power at a time. That number was reduced to about 2,500 at a time shortly after 10 AM.
Rolling blackouts began around 6:00 AM and will continue as long as TVA orders. This is not a local decision, and Greeneville Light & Power must comply with the TVA order. TVA has ordered the blackouts across their entire service area, which is all of East Tennessee and a total of seven states.
GL&P Manager Chuck Bowlin said that each outage should last about twenty minutes. If you power has not come back on by 30 minutes, you should call Greeneville Light & Power. Bowlin said it will take approximately 2 hours to go through the entire cycle, but if TVA does not lift the restrictions, the cycle could repeat. The cycles began around 6:00 AM, so the second round of rolling blackouts would start in the 8 AM hour.
Temperatures are expected to get into the upper teens today which will help with the power demand, however any power saving tips the public can take will help during this time. Delaying laundry, drying clothes, and cooking during the morning could help the situation.
Greene County 9-1-1 asks the public NOT to call them to report power outages and use 9-1-1 only for emergencies.
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