The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reported its personnel restored power to three additional customer connection points in western Kentucky and northwest Tennessee last night, saying they will continue to repair damage to the TVA transmission system from the storms last week.
Connection points are the interface between the TVA transmission system and local power company distribution systems. The organization states it has restored 18 of the 21 connection points affected by the storms since Saturday, according to a press release. An additional connection point serving a TVA industrial customer is still out of service.
Also since Saturday, the TVA states it has reduced the number of consumers without power by more than 85%. More than 160 TVA line workers, additional contractor crews and TVA Aviation Services helicopter crews remain focused on repairing or replacing 97 transmission towers and poles and miles of transmission line to fully restore power in the impacted area. Hundreds of additional TVA employees are working across the region to support the field teams’ efforts.
Pennyrile Electric provides power to approximately 48,000 members in Butler, Caldwell, Christian, Logan, Lyon, Muhlenberg, Simpson, Todd and Trigg counties. Brent Gilkey, vice president of member services and communications for Pennyrile Electric, said two two main TVA transmission lines and about a dozen TVA structures were damaged or destroyed, leaving some areas still without power.
“I can only imagine what folks are going through,” Gilkey said. “We see the Mayfield and Dawson Springs and Princeton areas that were hit so hard. But to folks here in South Christian and Todd County that lost their home, it’s just as devastating to them to have everything gone, and my heart just goes out to them.”
Approximately 1,900 of the 18,000 members who lost power during the storm have not yet regained it. The largest outage is concentrated north of Elkton — where 1,750 members are affected — but power is scattered in other parts of Todd, Christian and Lyon counties. Gilkey said residents of the affected communities and beyond have been gracious as Pennyrile Electric has worked to restore electricity.
“We just had a truckload of Chick-fil-A and water dropped off here,” Gilkey said. “We’ve probably got more food than we can eat right now, but it’s great to see that kind of support and the community pull together in an effort to help people make it through these times. If there is a silver lining, that is it, and that there is still some humanity out there.”
The West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (WKRECC) provides power to approximately 31,000 members in Calloway, Carlisle, Graves and Marshall counties, more than 13,000 of which are in Calloway County. Georgann Lookofsky, communications coordinator for WKRECC, said power has been restored to all residents of Calloway County unless they experienced localized damage to their house.
“It’s highly unusual to have the degree of transmission damage that we’ve seen in this storm,” Lookofsky said. “More typically, you may have one structure down, or two structures. In this case they were saying that as many as 60 or 70 separate structures were damaged. [This is] I think indicative of the extraordinary strength of this storm system.”
The number of WKRECC members without service dropped from 2,000 to 1,096 earlier today, according to a press release. Approximately 80% of the organization’s operational communications network has been restored, allowing members to access more online services.
Due to the extent of the damage in some areas, the TVA states it is unable to project a specific time for full restoration, noting the need to repair both the TVA transmission system and local power company distribution systems may result in longer restoration times.
“During a major storm, it’s almost impossible to make predictions on that,” Gilkey said. “We’ve just asked folks to be prepared for extended outages as we go along, and so far, everyone has been so understanding and patient, and we really appreciate that.”
This story was updated with the latest information from the TVA and WKRECC on Dec. 14 at 6:26 p.m. CST.
