Weakley County Municipal Electric System

Weakley County Municipal Electric System
Martin, Tennessee

Weakley County Municipal Electric System (WCMES) was created under the Municipal Plant Act on September 27, 1938. The public referendum to create the System received 2,188 votes with only 144 opposed.

In October of the same year, WCMES purchased the power system of Kentucky-Tennessee Light and Power in Weakley County and the northeast portion of Gibson County and began operation with 2,131 customers. By 1947, 29 employees were serving 7,433 customers.

In 1960, WCMES purchased the facilities of Kentucky Utilities and added the South Fulton area of Obion County to its service area.

WCMES serves a large rural area of about 700 square miles along with seven incorporated cities, the largest of which is Martin. 

WCMES constructed a new central office between Martin and Dresden in 2009, consolidating three office locations and six material storage facilities into one centralized location.

Today WCMES employs 55 full-time employees and serves 20,400 customers through 12 substations, 17,770 miles of distribution lines and 90 miles of 69 kV transmission lines. WCMES takes pride in using its own employees for all utility work, including:

•  substation construction, testing and maintenance
•  transformer repair
•  recloser and regulator testing, calibration and repair
•  metering and meter reading
•  line design, staking, construction and maintenance
•  right-of-way maintenance

WCMES enjoys competitive retail rates and the System carries no debt.

The customer base is largely residential, with agriculture, clay mining and manufacturing rounding out the local economy. Our largest customer is the University of Tennessee at Martin campus, which serves over 7,000 students. The largest industrial customer is MTD products, which manufacturers several lines of outdoor power equipment.