Tag: Memphis Light

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW Installing Free Air-Conditioning Units For Senior Citizens

CREDIT: MLGW

window_unit.jpg

  • MLGW

The summer has finally approached, and citizens are burdened with the task of staying as cool as possible.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) in collaboration with the Neighborhood Christian Center will make that task a little easier for some with their “Play It Cool” initiative.

The partnership is donating 50 window air-conditioning units to disadvantaged senior citizens through the initiative, which they implement each year. On Tuesday, July 8th, the application process and screening for the free units will be held at Neighborhood Christian Center (785 Jackson Avenue) from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

According to a MLGW press release, to qualify, applicants must be Shelby County residents aged 60 or older, receive a low-income, and reside in a home that lacks operable air conditioning.

Applicants will need their Tennessee state ID or drivers license and their most recent pay stub or Social Security Income statement to apply. If an applicant has a physical disability but doesn’t meet the age requirement, they must bring the proper certification information.

After an individual is screened and pre-qualified, MLGW will conduct field inspections at their residence to verify that it meets installation requirements. Subsequently, a window air-conditioning unit will be installed at their house by a MLGW employee free of charge.

For more information on necessary qualifications and credentials for eligibility, Play It Cool applicants can contact the Neighborhood Christian Center’s hotline at (901) 881-6013.

Categories
News News Blog

More Than 7,000 MLGW Customers Remain Powerless

CREDIT: MLGW

MLGWunnamed.jpg

  • MLGW

Nearly 43,000 Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) customers lost power after a cluster of thunderstorms traveled through the Memphis area yesterday.

Between 1:30 and 4 p.m. Thursday (June 5th), 42,797 homes and businesses throughout Shelby County experienced power outages after harsh winds associated with the thunderstorms damaged utility poles and power lines.

By Friday afternoon, MLGW crews had restored power for more than 34,000 customers. But there are still more than 7,000 customers without electricity.

MLGW President Jerry Collins said the area’s biggest circuits serving the highest number of customers were restored first. Circuits serving a smaller amount of customers are next in line.

“What we’re down to now are hundreds of small outages that affect one, two, three, four, five customers,” Collins said. “That’s going to take longer, because it’s a much slower process. We should have everybody back in business by Sunday midnight.”

Customers without power today and into the weekend are encouraged to stay hydrated and to seek shelter temporarily elsewhere, if necessary. MLGW recommends customers to keep survival kits ready for power outages and other service disruptions. These kits can include things such as bottled water, canned food, prescription medicines, flashlights, a radio, batteries, and a first-aid kit.

Considering that thunderstorms are in the weather forecast for Friday as well as scattered showers this weekend, restoration efforts could be slowed. Collins, however, assures that MLGW will do its best to fully restore power expeditiously.

“We have all crews working, and we have eight crews in from out of town to help us,” Collins said. “We’re going to go as fast as we can and try to get power restored just as quickly as possible for all the remaining customers.”

To report an power outage, customers should call (901) 544-6500.
Outage numbers can be tracked via MLGW’s outage map at mlgw.com/outagemap.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Utility Customers Will Be Able to Pre-pay for Services

Come this winter, cell phones won’t be the only thing locals can purchase pre-paid plans for.

In December, Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) is rolling out a pre-payment plan for customers who have smart meters, which provide more detailed information on energy consumption than conventional meters.

MLGW customers can decide how much they’d prefer to spend on their utilities and receive a notification when those funds are about to exhaust.

“You can put enough down that might last you three months or you can put a smaller amount down that might last a couple of weeks. That’s completely up to the customers and how fast they use the utilities,” said MLGW President Jerry Collins.

“And we would contact them by whatever means they wish, be it text message, telephone, [or] email, and let them know they’re so many days away from that amount of money running out. Then they can choose to put more money on their account if they need to or make other arrangements.”

By the end of summer, there will be 60,000 smart meters installed at 24,000 homes or buildings throughout the city.

Collins said the utility pre-pay program has been active in the U.S. for five years, and participants have reportedly saved around 12 percent on average. One of the companies utilizing pre-pay is Gibson Electric Membership Corporation (EMC), a nonprofit, member-owned and member-controlled electric cooperative that operates in eight Northwest Tennessee counties.

Gibson EMC has been implementing its pre-pay program, Pay-As-You-Go (PAY-Go), since 2009. Currently, more than 3,000 of its 35,000 member-owners use PAY-Go, according to Rita Alexander, vice-president of human resources and communications for Gibson EMC.

“It gives new members a way to establish service with minimal set-up costs,” Alexander said. “It enables members to closely monitor their energy use on a daily basis through email, our automated phone system, or through in-home display units. The information that members receive about their electricity use helps them to become more energy efficient and save dollars.”

Smart meters closely monitor a customer’s utility consumption, informing them of their usage every 15 minutes. And the meters can be connected or disconnected without utility workers coming to a residence to do it manually.

Pre-pay plans eliminate disconnection fees associated with non-payment, and the plan rids the need for deposits from customers. People with conventional meters are only able to measure their utility usage once every 30 days. The meters have to be physically connected or disconnected.

MLGW has been developing its pre-pay program since 2013. Collins said he thinks it would be a significant benefit to both MLGW and its customers financially and in terms of convenience.

Collins said if only a small portion of MLGW customers opted for pre-pay, around $8 million could be saved annually, if participants were able to save 12 percent on their utility bills.

“It’s an opportunity to save a substantial amount of money by saving energy,” Collins said. “And the locations across the country where pre-pay has been implemented have seen savings in the 10 to 12 percent range. If we have a substantial amount of households that are able to save that much, then they can use the money they save toward things like rent, food, and medicine, and things that will improve their quality

of life.”

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW Leads Ranking of Top 50 Utilities Using Social Media

MLGW.JPG


Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) not only manages the city’s utilities, they also ensure customers receive feedback online.

And they’ve been recognized as the number one utility company that does just that. In March, research and consulting firm Northeast Group, LLC conducted a week-long study surveying the top 50 utility companies in the country regarding their social media efforts. Based off of their findings, MLGW ranked number one among the utility companies in the nation that assisted customers on a timely basis through social media. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) ranked second and Dominion Virginia Power ranked third.

Ben Gardner, president of Northeast Group, said the firm conducted a content analysis of the various social media postings and mobile app offerings of the top 50 utilities, and through that were able to score each of the utilities together and rank them in order.

“For Twitter hostings, it would be things like how responsive were the utilities? How quickly did they respond to customer requests?” Gardner said. “Another thing was the quality of the content. Were the utilities posting energy-saving tips and safety tips of value to customers? How high was the value of the content they were posting? Each utility was scored on those criteria.”

The survey took place over one week in March. During that week, Gardner said MLGW posted 77 tweets and the median response time of how quickly they got back to customers was five minutes. LADWP came in second place with 134 tweets and a median response time of about 34 minutes. Dominion was third place with 62 tweets and a median response time of about 18 minutes, according to Gardner.

“We’re extremely honored to be recognized,” said Richard Thompson, senior communications specialist for MLGW. “We’ve been recognized by our peers before but to be recognized again by an independent study for the Top 50 utilities, we’re really honored, and most importantly, we thank our customers and our followers on Facebook and Twitter for believing in us, following us, and interacting with us. We take great pride in those relationships that we’ve established.”

Thompson said MLGW was one of the initial utilities to utilize social media back in 2008. However, it was 2009 when MLGW established a variety of social media channels and its staff began to communicate with customers via Internet significantly.

“We had a major storm in June 2009. It knocked out power for a lot of customers over several days. That really helped integrate our social media to our communications efforts,” Thompson said. “That was really the first time that we live-tweeted or did some continuous tweeting about the outage situation. Customers really appreciated the fact that it felt like we were there during their outages and they could communicate with us and get ready information about their outages. The fact that our customers fill like they can reach out to us and communicate with us when they need to, it just opens up another avenue for us to serve customers.”

Prior to the storm in 2009, which left more than 140,000 customers without power, MLGW had only 220 followers. The following week, after power had been completely restored, MLGW’s Twitter following increased to over 1,500 followers.

Northeast Group’s survey also ranked the top utilities in the country for mobile apps. MLGW ranked third on this list. San Diego Gas and Electric took the number one slot and Con Edison in New York was selected second in the category.

This portion of the survey was based on the type of functionality that the mobile app boasted. If the app offered energy saving tips, allowed customers to pay bills, and provided utility related information such as reporting outages and receiving estimated times of restoration, conservation tips, and a mobile-friendly outage map.

“In general, utilities have some room for improvement in their customer engagement,” Gardner said with regard to what influenced the survey. “We think that social media and mobile app are very effective channels for utilities to better communicate with their customers.”

Thompson said several thousand people have downloaded MLGW’s free mobile app, which can be accessed by both iPhones and Androids. MLGW has nearly 12,000 Twitter followers, 8,000 Facebook likes, an award-winning blog and website, and pages on Pinterest, Youtube, and Flicker.

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW Constructing $2 Million Compressed Natural Gas Facility

The price of conventional petroleum gas by the gallon has increased lately, but there’s an alternate route drivers can take to save a few dollars.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), made from methane stored at a high pressure, currently goes for $1.69 by the gallon locally. Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) opened its first CNG public fueling station at its North Service Center (1130 Tupelo St.) this past July.

MLGW CNG-fueled truck

  • MLGW CNG-fueled truck

And the utility company is currently in the construction phase of a new $2 million CNG facility.

MLGW president Jerry Collins said the facility would be located at the company’s South Service Center (2981 South Center Road). It’s slated to open this July.

“It’ll have two islands, four lanes, [and] two high-flow nozzles, which will let the trucks fill up faster than what we currently have at the other facility,” Collins said. “The other aspect of the facility on the south side, it’ll let us expand our fleet of natural gas vehicles, so that vehicles stationed at the south work center can fill up [there].”

MLGW currently has 76 natural gas vehicles and more than 20 on order.

Collins said there’s been an increase in commercial and industrial vehicles using the CNG fueling station at the MLGW North Service Center.

“In March, we sold 10,000 gallons of compressed natural gas,” Collins said. “We’re seeing growth every month. When we build this new facility, we anticipate having three firms that have long haul tractor-trailer trucks to be filling up at the new station. Those three firms alone are going to be 20,000 to 40,000 gallons of CNG a month.”

The current price of CNG per gallon has only increased a dime since late last year. The price is anticipated to drop as the weather warms up locally.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuel Data Center website, CNG powers about 112,000 vehicles in the country and roughly 14.8 million vehicles worldwide. CNG vehicles provide environmental benefits such as reduced pollution and lower levels of emissions. Some new vehicles are already designed to take CNG, but older models must be converted to use the fuel. It costs about $9,000 to modify a vehicle to run on natural gas.

With CNG per gallon about half the cost of conventional gas and more than half the price of diesel per gallon, Collins said CNG-fueled vehicles is “a trend growing rapidly” across the world.

Initially, it was stated that MLGW had plans of building public CNG fueling stations at all of its service centers. Collins now says the number of facilities they will build depends on how the market develops.

Categories
News News Blog

Memphis City Council Passes Water Meter Ordinance

After months of debate and amendments, the Memphis City Council finally passed an ordinance that would require individual water meters to be installed at all newly constructed condominiums.

MLGW Master Water Meter

  • MLGW Master Water Meter

On Tuesday, April 1st, the Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) Committee held its third and final reading of an ordinance proposed by Councilman Myron Lowery earlier this year that would require all condos or apartment complexes converted into condos to have individual water meters installed. The committee passed the ordinance, and it was subsequently heard by the full council. It was passed unanimously and will take effect July 1st.

The ordinance that passed is an amended version of Lowery’s original proposal, which requested that both all newly constructed condos and apartments have individual meters installed.

“We’re continuing to allow master water meters on apartments, but the minute an apartment complex is late paying their water bill, and I’m talking about one month late, it will automatically trigger action from Code Enforcement, and it will go in court,” Lowery said. “And the court has the right to appoint a receiver to collect rent [from tenants], so that the water bill will be paid. The goal is to ensure that everyone can stay in their home.”

Lowery was inspired to create the proposal after tenants of Garden Walk Condominiums in Raleigh were forced to evacuate their homes due to the homeowner’s association failing to pay the property’s $30,000 water bill. If the ordinance doesn’t eradicate the potential for similar occurrences in the future, Lowery said he’s going to re-propose the ordinance in its original form.

“This was really a compromise,” Lowery said. “If this process doesn’t work one time, I’m going back to the drawing board and asking for all newly constructed apartments as well as condominiums…Water is an essential service. Food, water, and shelter are what people need, and government is here to make sure that cities run properly. We’ve got to make sure that people have water.”

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW Council Committee Pushes For Individual Water Meters At Condos

MLGW Master Water Meter

  • MLGW Master Water Meter

The city’s Memphis Light, Gas and Water Committee met with the MLGW board to discuss having individual water meters installed at newly-constructed condos and on conversions to condominiums today.

In January, City Councilman Myron Lowery proposed an ordinance that, if passed, would require all newly constructed condominiums to receive individual water meters. In the past, MLGW president Jerry Collins has said that the company was in support of Myron’s proposal. However, a decision wasn’t made regarding the proposed ordinance during the meeting Tuesday, March 18th. The matter is slated to be discussed during the next MLGW committee meeting on April 1st.

Another topic tackled during the meeting dealt with existing multi-family apartments and condominiums that have landlords neglecting to pay utility bills. Over recent years, this has had adverse impacts on tenants, and forced some to evacuate their homes. In 2013, tenants of Garden Walk Condominiums were required to exit their residences after a $30,000 water bill wasn’t fulfilled by its homeowner association.

To avoid similar occurrences in the future, the MLGW committee requested that if an apartment complex owner neglects to pay an existing MLGW water bill for two consecutive months, MLGW notifies Memphis Code Enforcement. Code Enforcement would then issue a citation and, if necessary, take the matter to court. This would be done to make sure MLGW is compensated for its distributed utilities and people would not be forced to leave their homes. A decision was not made on this proposal either and will also be revisited during the next committee meeting.

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW President Talks Winter Storm Power Outage

MLGW_Winter_Storm_March_2__2014.jpg

The winter storm that hit Shelby County last Sunday evening caused extreme traffic delays, hazardous safety conditions, and thousands of households to lose power.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water president Jerry Collins said more than 60,000 MLGW customers experienced power outages due to the storm.

Jerry Collins

  • Jerry Collins

“We started getting a few calls Sunday afternoon, about 5 or 6 p.m. As soon as the calls started coming in, we started to begin the restoration process,” Collins said. “Our employees worked in very difficult circumstances all week. They worked in very cold temperatures [and] on very slippery surfaces, with all of the ice on the ground. In some cases, there were trees that had fallen, that were blocking roads and kept us from getting to some of the people that had lost power. It was difficult all around.”

As of today (March 7th), Collins said there are 12 MLGW customers still experiencing power outages. He said their power would be restored today.

Contributing factors to the massive power outage include strong winds and freezing rain that built up as ice on tree limbs, causing many trees to collapse onto power lines and utility poles.

“The best thing that we can do is to make sure that we maintain a very active tree-trimming program, so that we can minimize the effects of either an ice storm or a thunderstorm or straight-line winds from having trees and tree limbs fall on power lines,” Collins said. “We currently spend about $11 million a year just trimming trees along power lines. That needs to continue, so that we can hopefully minimize the impact of storms.”

Whenever someone experiences power outages, they’re encouraged to contact MLGW’s outage hotline at (901) 544-6500. The hotline will not only allow residents to report outages, but it also provides them with the latest information available on estimated times of restoration and how many other people in their area are also experiencing power outages.

It’s also important that residents have a plan in place for power outages that could occur during cold weather conditions. Families should make sure they have emergency kits in their homes, keep their faucets slightly dripping to prevent frozen water pipes, and have contact information for warming centers and relatives or close friends on hand.

Categories
News News Blog

City Council Explores Ways To Adjust Streetlight Fees (Update)

project_image_5_m.jpg

Representatives from Memphis Light, Gas and Water met with the Memphis City Council’s MLGW committee to discuss why they think residents of planned developments should continue to pay a streetlight fee just like everyone else living in the city limits.

An MLGW presentation packet provided to committee members stated, “If all homeowners and commercial property owners fund the maintenance of city streets, then shouldn’t all property owners fund the streetlights that illuminate those streets? The answer is absolutely yes.”

MLGW presently charges apartment residents $1.08 per month, residential non-apartment dwellers $4.32 per month, small commercial customers $6.48 and large commercial customers $19.07 on a monthly basis. The fees are included in utility bills.

Certain people who live in planned development properties don’t have streetlights in their neighborhoods, which has led to the MLGW committee studying the possibility of certain areas being exempted from the fee. For example, some neighborhoods in a newly annexed section of Cordova currently don’t have streetlights but still pay a fee. MLGW representatives have said they think the area should be exempt from the fee until they receive streetlights.

However, if streetlight fees for residents in private developments are waived altogether, all other residences in the city would experience a slight increase in their bills. Considering this, MLGW provided a potential scenario to reduce the fees paid by those who reside in private developments.

With the 10,000 private developments added into the apartment residents category, fees would change for those dwellers from $1.08 to $1.11 per month, residential dwellers would pay $4.44, small commercial customers would pay $6.66, and large commercial customers would pay $19.54.

The other scenario explored the results of streetlight fees for residents in private developments being waived all-together. This would cause all other residents in the city to experience a slight increase in their bills higher than those previously mentioned. Apartment residents would pay $1.12 per month, residential dwellers would pay $4.48, small commercial customers would pay $6.72, and large commercial customers would pay $19.71.

Nothing has been decided at this time. The current streetlight fees are still in effect.

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW Council Committee Passes Smart Meter Opt-out Resolution

DSCN0868.JPG

At a meeting of the Memphis City Council’s Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Committee this morning, members passed a resolution that will allow any Shelby County resident to opt out of receiving a smart meter at no cost.

In a previous meeting, council members and MLGW executive staff debated about whether or not there was a fee associated with opting out of smart meters, which will provide more detailed information on energy consumption than conventional meters. Councilwoman Janis Fullilove emphasized that she had received hundreds of calls from people expressing their desire to opt out of receiving a smart meter. Fullilove said some citizens informed her that when they contacted MLGW’s Customer Customer Care Center about opting out, they were told that there would be a fee associated with having their meters removed.

During the meeting, MLGW President Jerry Collins expressed that there never has been a fee associated with opting out of receiving a smart meter. If customers wish to opt out, Collins said they should call 544-MLGW. A form will be sent to those customers, and they must fill it out and send it back to MLGW to finalize their request.

MLGW’s smart meters have been creating controversy since they’ve been introduced. Some citizens have expressed worries about the meters potentially invading their privacy, creating a fire hazard, and possibly increasing utility bills.

In August, the city council approved a $10 million contract for MLGW to install 60,000 smart meters between December of this year and June 2014. There will be individual smart meters for electricity, gas, and water. MLGW anticipates installing meters in all Memphis and Shelby County residences and businesses by 2020.