Johnson City Power Board leading the way by empowering customers

Electric light first rendered the gloom of dusk in Johnson City and Washington County Tennessee in April 1888, powered by James F. Crumley’s new generation plant near East Tennessee State University’s campus.

Prominent businessmen -- J.E. Candrall, W.A. Dickenson, W. F. Thomas, M.I. Gump and V.G.C. Harris -- formed a company to distribute that electricity. From this origin, a succession of companies generated and distributed power for much of the Tri-Cities, including Watauga Lighting and Power Company, and Johnson City-Jonesborough Electric Light and Power Company.

Some 23 years later, long before the birth of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the first hydroelectric power plant opened on the Nolichucky River near Greeneville in 1911. A transmission line was built from the hydroelectric plant to bring power supply to Greeneville, Jonesborough and Johnson City, and, thus, the Tennessee Eastern Electric Company was born through the purchase and consolidation of the distribution companies serving those towns.

Tennessee Eastern expanded through the years adding a steam plant at Watauga, Tennessee in 1921 and raising the height of the dam on the Nolichucky River in 1925. In 1929, a new corporation, East Tennessee Light & Power Company, was formed to take over electric distribution.

By 1939, East Tennessee Light & Power served an area in excess of 4,000 square miles, operating in nine counties with more than 102,000 customers. The company also sold wholesale to other electric distributing companies. In 1945, TVA acquired East Tennessee Light and Power Company which then sold the distribution rights to the City of Johnson City for $2 million a few months later. This distribution grid served most of Washington County as well as portions of Sullivan, Greene, and Carter counties.
The first Annual Report of the Johnson City Power Board issued in 1946 reflects that it was serving a total of 9,778 metered customers and paid TVA $219,139 for electricity.  Today, JCPB serves more than 77,000 metered customers in Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Carter counties, and purchased more than $142 million in electricity from the TVA.

Many advances have come through the years, as JCPB leads in the deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure and wireless-managed smart grid systems. All substations are now linked via fiber optic cable. And, a new wireless broadband service is being considered as JCPB positions itself to continue to lead in customer service, reliability and satisfaction.

"As a Public Power company, we believe smart investments in technology best protect our customers in the long term," CEO Jeff Dykes said. "With AMI, our customers are empowered with the data necessary to manage their household energy consumption.

"At the same time, AMI and smart grid allows us to respond to any grid outage quicker than a customer can even call us, as well as spotting potential faults before they become a problem, increasing our overall reliability. This improves customer satisfaction as we provide reliable power, increased billing accuracy, and empower our customers to take charge of their usage costs."