During a week of remembering one year ago as it relates to the effects of Hurricane Helene on Greene County, Greeneville Energy Authority board members took time during their September meeting Tuesday to publicly thank their own employees again for their efforts last year in returning electrical service in a timely manner to those most affected by the storm.
LEARNING FROM HELENE
The effects of the storm also led to a question from board member Shane Hite to operations manager Robert Keller related to what was learned from the disaster.
Keller reported it was post storm meetings that helped his department better prepare for such a disaster and do better if and when it happens again. Keller, agreeing with the Radio Greeneville video of the storm and recovery released last weekend that the forecast early on didn’t look like it was going to be as serious. In an effort to be better prepared, Keller says necessary material has been located at the various substations across the river. A year ago, much like EMS, the collapse of KInser Bridge and other road outages, limited what could be done in those locations. Now he says, GEA has material at different substations in strategic places across the river if needed. Keller said another thing identified after the storm was dealing with downed transmission lines across the river and how best to address that issue if it were to happen again.
SERVICE RELIABILITY NUMBERS BEST IN OVER A YEAR
During his monthly report , Keller said service reliability, meaning lack of service interruptions to GEA’s 41,000 plus customers, for the past month was point 999992. That’s the best that number had looking since pre-Helene. After spring and summer storms, Keller reported the past month or two has been a lot better.
BROADBAND
GEA Broadband Director Phil Bradley says the goal is to have the broadband main line blanketing most of the county by June of 2027. The state has approved the BEAD grants for the local utility to help with that project. Approval is now pending at the federal level, with a 90 day deadline, meaning early December for approval of the final plan. Board approval was also granted Tuesday for the purchase of broadband gateway devices for residential use which will be replacing less reliable units.
SILICON RANCH
Dwayne Wells reported the Silicon Ranch project “appears” to be moving toward completion. An amended completion date for what would be their 3rd solar site location in Greene County is later this month. Initially, the construction deadline was December of 2024. The contractor has been paying liquidated damages to GEA due to the delay.
TVA BOARD MEMBERS
Responding to a question about the makeup of the TVA Board of Directors, GEA President and CEO Dwayne Wells reported the timeline for getting five new nominees on board is by January. Currently there are only three members on what should be a nine member panel, meaning there is no quorum to take any official action. There had been a rate action, i.e., a rate increase discussed by the TVA Board prior to losing board members. Wells says that recommendation, now a year later, could come up again once the board has voting power which he says brings on a lot more discussion about what that means to GEA’s long time agreement with TVA.
LOCAL RATE INCREASE
Meanwhile, a local one and a half percent rate increase for GEA customers goes into effect today , the first day of October. The increase was approved during the May meeting of the board, and will add around two dollars to our local residential utility bill each month. This will mark the fifth consecutive year of a small rate increase for customers in an effort to avoid larger rate increases at the local level if done so on a yearly basis.
