TVA Ends Requirement for MTE to Interrupt Power

At approximately 10:30 a.m. today, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) lifted its curtailment requirements for Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE).

Early this morning, TVA initiated Step 50 of the Emergency Load Curtailment Plan, where all local power companies, MTE included, were required to reduce system demand by 10%. This requires MTE to interrupt power on a rotational basis across its system. MTE intended for these interruptions to be 15 minutes, but unfortunately, some interruptions lasted longer, as sometimes crews had to manually restore power when automated systems were not responsive.

“We appreciate the understanding from our members and apologize for this inconvenience during such a cold holiday season,” said Chris Jones, MTE’s President/CEO. “We had no choice in the matter, and we share the frustrations of our members. We are particularly sorry for the outages that went longer than our intention of 15 minutes.”

TVA reported all-time record consumer demand for the last two days. TVA also reported that some of its power generation facilities were unexpectedly offline, which was the primary factor in creating the curtailment emergency. Crews are working around the clock to put those generation systems back in service.

As always, MTE crews are working to restore weather-related outages, and members can report their outages through our automated line at 877-777-9111, via the myMTE app or by calling 877-777-9020.

Please monitor MTE web pages and social media for further updates.