Electric Rates to Increase Next Month

HUNTINGDON (August 29) — Electric rates in Carroll County and throughout the TVA service area will increase in October after the federal electrical producer raised wholesale rates by 5.25 percent effective October 1, board members of the local electrical distributors were told during the regular monthly meeting.

Ryan Drewry, general manager of the Carroll County Electric Department, said ratepayers of the local distributor can expect an increase of 3.2 percent as a pass-through cost. Ratepayers throughout the TVA pay an average of $138 monthly and will experience an average rate of $4.35 monthly. Drewry said the local ratepayers will be affected less since CCED’s rates are less than the valley’s average rate.

The Board welcomed new member Vickie Williams, who replaced Marty Hurley as the Hollow Rock-Bruceton area representative. Williams is the executive assistant to the president at Bethel University.

In informational updates, Drewry said construction of the 6.5-megawatt solar farm by Silicon Ranch in Trezevant should begin in September and possibly be online by mid-year in 2025. CCED is constructing a new power line to connect with the Milan utility and upgrading its substation at Trezevant to accommodate the new power-generating array. One of the main electrical components, a 69KV breaker, is expected to arrive in May, which will allow the solar array to connect to CCED’s distribution system in June and take advantage of the longer days of sunlight. Silicon Ranch is a Tennessee-based company.

The installation will be a win-win for the local utility by providing locally generated electricity at a lower cost than TVA.

The construction of a new power substation in the Leach Community is still being developed. Drewry said CCED’s contractors and TVA will ensure the construction will match up as both build out their infrastructure to connect with TVA’s overhead high-voltage lines.

CCED plans to provide an outage map for customers to see where outages are located on the system. Honeywell provides the mapping for the CCED employees to inspect, however, the company is having difficulty interfacing it for the online viewing. Drewry said CCED’s system is a first-of-a-kind for the data provider.

CCED is also working to upgrade its after-hours dispatch system and provide more exact information about the outage and allow customers to upload photos of damage and send those to dispatch.

An aging two-way radio system is also causing problems and needs to be updated. Radio communications between dispatch, the service crews, and handheld radios have been less than ideal since the department was forced to place its main broadcast antenna on a lower-elevation tower near Carroll County Jail. The antenna was previously on a Charter Communications tower with a higher elevation, however, Charter planned to remove the tower and required by the county emergency services and the electric department remove their equipment.

CCED crews have difficulty communicating in some areas of the county. A solution is to transfer to a different network, Tennessee Advanced Communications Network. The department would have to purchase approximately 30 digital radios to make the transition. West Tennessee Public Utilities is using that network with success, said Drewry, who said CCED will first test the system before committing to purchasing all new equipment to replace the 15-year-old radios.