TVA, EPB prepare for Friday winter storm
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- With the impending winter storm, utility companies are preparing to work to keep your lights on and your family warm.
Winter weather combined with extreme cold can place a strain on our local utilities.
We saw that back in 2022 during a big cold snap during Christmas that led to rolling blackouts. T
VA says however there have made several improvements since then to make sure that never happens again.
TVA’s general manager for gas operations, Eric Grou, said, “TVA has made a significant amount of investments, both financially and from a time standpoint with our folks at our sites to be sure our winter readiness program has been executed. There’s been thousands of activities that have gone one to make sure that we assess, enhance and repair any of the critical systems that are necessary to make our plants reliable for the winter months.”
TVA says that in order to avoid gas plants shutting down, they’ve undergone large efforts to make them cold resilient.
Grou said, “These efforts include making sure that we’ve got electrical cabling that is heated to make sure that the equipment inside the pipes don’t freeze, but then even more critical is making sure that the instrumentation that controls the plant is properly insulated and heated so that when the winter weather does hit, it can stay in service and make sure that we reliably and resiliently operating the plants.”
As TVA looks to keep power supply moving, EPB is looking to avoid outages at the local level.
Sophie Moore with EPB said, “We don’t expect widespread outages in our area, but all of our crews and all of our contractors will be reporting to work tomorrow… We have called in about 10 outside crews outside of our service area for help.”
Moore says there are several factors that can lead to outages.
She said, “So the number one cause of power outages are trees, so snow accumulating on limbs that may fall, ice that may accumulate, ice that may accumulate on power lines, potential auto accidents that hit a power pole.”
Moore encourages customers to download the MyEPB app if any outages occur to keep track of their status.
