The National Weather Service has notified Tri-County Electric that they have identified a problem with the antenna at the NOAA Weather Radio Transmitter at Russell Hill.

The antenna is working, but in a limited broadcast capacity. This explains why some weather radios continue to work and others do not pick up the signal. The National Weather Service has a system on site to identify issues with the transmitter; unfortunately the system is within the range of the signal the antenna is currently putting out. This particular antenna problem defeated both automated and manual checks.

The National Weather Service contacted their contractor. A maintenance technician performed a physical inspection at the site today and identified the antenna problem. The contractor who will climb the tower to fix the antenna is expected to be in town later today. Depending on the weather the antenna could be fixed as early as tomorrow, but hopefully within the next couple of days.

TVA Board Implements Wholesale Rate Increase Effective April 1, 2008…..

The Tennessee Valley Authority has approved a 7.0 percent increase in firm wholesale power rates that will allow TVA to carry out its Strategic Plan and meet the growing power demand in the Tennessee Valley. The rate change will take effect April 1, 2008.

The TVA Board made its decision after consideration of pertinent data concerning current and anticipated conditions and cost affecting TVA’s operations and the adequacy of revenues from both wholesale and other power customers to recover those expected costs and to meet the requirements of the TVA Act and the tests and provisions of TVA’s bond resolutions.

Tri-County Electric’s Board of Directors has elected not to add any additional increase to the rates. TVA’s rate adjustment will result in a 5.7 percent increase in our member-owners monthly bills. A residential account using an average of 1200 kWh will see their bills increase by approximately $5.55

“Our Board of Directors, management and staff strive to ensure that being a member-owner of Tri-County Electric is a value. We are committed to providing safe and reliable power and improving technology while keeping costs low” stated Paul Thompson, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Tri-County Electric. “Although we have no choice but to pass along TVA’s rate increase, it is Tri-County Electric’s continued efforts to maintain operational costs that is allowing us not to add any additional increase.”

Although Tri-County Electric directors, management and employees work hard in many ways to help our communities thrive and prosper, our primary responsibility is to provide reliable, affordable electric service to our over fifty thousand member-owners.

During the past year Tri-County Electric has invested more than nine million dollars in utility plant expansions and improvements. With all these system improvements we still cannot provide the level of power quality our member-owners expect and deserve without a true commitment to maintaining our right-of-way.

We love trees, but reliability goals cannot be met with trees growing in our power lines. In addition to the blinks and outages trees in the lines: increase the chances of an interruption of power; increase the likelihood of lines being downed in a storm (ice or thunder); increase the time it takes our crews to restore power during an outage; pose a safety hazard to children climbing trees and playing near lines; and pose a safety hazard to farmers or others using equipment near lines.

We ask for you understanding, patience and support as we work to clear our right-of-way, not only to improve the power quality and reliability but also for your safety.

Tri-County Electric Scheduled Outages

TVA Board Implements Wholesale Rate Increase Effective April 1, 2008…..