The Greeneville Energy Authority CEO and President Chuck Bowlin shared that the Tennessee Valley Authority has been working aggressively to make improvements and believes there won’t be any issues this year in terms of rolling blackouts, compared to last year around Christmas time.
Temperatures on December 23rd, 2022 weren’t particularly normal and were in the teens. Since 6 AM people were without power due to the blackouts. By 10 AM up to 6,500 customers were without power. TVA reported having lost the ability to produce enough power to meet the incredibly high demand across the area due to some equipment failures.
Bowlin said TVA has spent millions on improvements and added about 1500 megawatts of generation to two gas plants. He says they are in a better position but if there is any issue, they have an emergency plan in place that will be sent out to the media. There will be a better way of communicating any issues to customers this time around and there will be more descriptions as to locations affected.
