Tennessee power crews prepare for winter storm

AccuWeather

Power companies and crews in Tennessee are bracing for the looming winter storm that is expected to not only bring snow and ice, but also cause power outages in the state.

Transcript

00:00The Mid-South is bracing for the biggest ice and snow event so far this season.

00:04Power companies are preparing as well. The TVA, the Tennessee Valley Authority,

00:09they provide energy to more than 150 local power companies across Tennessee and six other states.

00:16Greg Henrich, he's the VP of Transmission Operations for the TVA. All right, Greg,

00:20thanks so much for joining us. We have a couple questions for you. Number one,

00:23what challenges does this upcoming winter storm have on that power delivery?

00:27Yeah, yeah, welcome. Thank you for having me on here, Damian. And again, as I was telling you

00:33maybe ahead of this, that, you know, it's an interesting transition that we're in right now

00:37because we're just now seeing winter storm Blair exit the Tennessee Valley Service Territory,

00:43and that brought us some cooler temperatures than normal. We saw a peak of the week this morning,

00:48but handled it well with some reserves in our generation and delivered the energy consumption

00:54just fine. And looking forward now, we see that winter storm Cora entering the Service Territory

01:00this evening, heading in across the weekend. You know, as much as Texas probably isn't used

01:05to snow, we also aren't used to this much significant amount of snow. This storm looks

01:11to dump wintry precipitation across about 90% of the Tennessee Valley, which is a bit unusual for

01:17us. We're preparing well. Most of it's going to come in dry, powdery snow in the northern part

01:23of Tennessee, maybe, you know, up to six to eight inches there, one to three inches lower in the

01:29Tennessee Valley. And then ultimately what we're really watching is that potential for icing and

01:34freezing rain in the North Alabama, North Mississippi, and North Georgia areas. And, you know,

01:39what causes the problems there is once the ice accumulates on the power lines or on the trees,

01:44that's when you can see down trees into power lines, down power lines, down power poles, which

01:49is both not only dangerous for the public, but it also results in those power outages that we

01:55learn to anticipate heading into a storm like this. All right, Greg. So how has the TVA and

02:00your crews been preparing for the, not only the higher power usage, but also the potential for

02:05power outages? Yeah, again, we're used to this type of work. So we know to go ahead and stage

02:12crews and equipment strategically across the territory where we see the highest risk or

02:17highest threat of some of these power outages. And again, that for us is in the lower part of

02:22our service territory. We also have to, as you can see on the screen with the plants, we have some

02:27exposed equipment to the elements. We have to make sure that equipment is protected, insulated.

02:34We have enclosures built around it. So it's protected from both the wind and the rain so

02:37that they don't have any freezing instrumentation or control systems that cause issues at the plants.

02:43And then finally, from an energy consumption standpoint, we actually do a 10-day hourly

02:49weather forecast that then we highly, it's highly correlated to the energy consumption. And we build

02:55that 10-day plan. And as you all well know in the industry, every day closer that you get,

03:00we get a little bit more certainty around that forecast and ultimately build the plan to execute,

03:05to deliver the power to the 10 million people of the Tennessee Valley. All right, Greg, speaking

03:10of those 10 million people that you were talking about, what advice would you give to them to stay

03:15safe during this upcoming storm? Yeah, you know, it's really probably prudent to pay attention to

03:22the National Weather Service, your local weather, because it's unique to each individual area and

03:27region. Just pay attention to what are the temperatures and wind chills, what are the

03:31conditions, what are the road conditions anticipated to be, you know, stay off the roads,

03:35if at all possible. And then lastly, if you are out in the roads, make sure that you've got,

03:39you know, a warm set of clothes, some boots and some blankets in the car in case you get into a

03:44traffic jam or a breakdown. So, you know, some of the standard protocols, but really just paying

03:48attention to the conditions local in your area. All right, Greg Henders, VP of Transmissions

03:53Operations for the TVA, joining us from Chattanooga, Tennessee, the local. Thank you so much

03:58for joining us, Greg.

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