Power crews preparing for outages across Nashville in snowstorm
NES will have crews on standby through the snowstorm.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Power crews are getting ready to make sure your lights and heat stay on through Friday’s snowstorm.
Parts of Sylvan Park and West Nashville lost power on Sunday night, and people in the area said they’re concerned things could be much worse if the power goes out with the next winter weather blast.
Nashville Electric Service Chief Customer and Innovation Officer Brent Baker said crews are on standby and monitoring the snow leading into the weekend. NES tries to trim trees all year to prevent issues from branches falling on power lines.
Baker said they’ve been monitoring the forecast and are happy it appears Nashville will just get snow because ice causes a lot of problems with downed trees and power lines.
“It’s inevitable during cold weather that some outages might occur because of an equipment issue,” Baker said. “Our crews are here to respond quickly, so we can get power restored as fast as possible.”
If there is an outage, NES customers should report it by calling (615) 736-6900 or by logging into their account online. If there is a downed power line, assume it is live, stay away and call 911 immediately.
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“The hardest part once we have snow is to get our vehicles around to restore anything,” Baker said. “The roads becoming slick could be an issue.”
To prepare for the snow, Baker recommends people charge their mobile devices, have backup portable batteries, check weather radios and stock emergency kits with food and water.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has also made several upgrades and improvements after hitting record demand last January. That includes heaters and other wiring to keep generators from freezing up in the extreme cold.
In the past year, TVA has added more than 1,400 megawatts of new generation and is building another 3,500 megawatts of generation.
“There’s been thousands of activities that have gone 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,” gas operations general manager Eric Grau said. “We also have the peaking ability to be able to make sure that on those cold winter mornings, we have reliable and resilient energy that can serve for the valley.”
Baker said NES expects to only reach around 80% of its power grid capacity this weekend. They recommend turning your thermostat down as close to 68 as is comfortable save money on your bill during this winter weather.
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