McMinnville Electric System

We at McMinnville Electric System (MES) are like most other utilities in that we keep the lights on, provide excellent customer service, and play active roles in the communities we serve. The milestones met over the three decades of service have been incredible and in some cases record-breaking, as you will see from this short history of our system.

It has been 76 years since the first customer was connected to MES’s lines in McMinnville, Tennessee. Since then, MES has seen its territory shrink from several counties to the area that we serve today – the city limits of McMinnville. The system has had only three general managers in its history: Mr. Clyde Winters served as McMinnville Electric System’s first superintendent, retiring in 1973; Mr. Don Collette followed Mr. Winters as system manager, retiring in 1999; and in 2000, the Board of Public Utilities brought Mr. Rodney Boyd in as its third and current general manager.

MES has celebrated many notable events since bringing electricity to the citizens of McMinnville. In 1952, McMinnville Electric System moved into the new modern facility that had been constructed on Morford Street. This building was a beautiful addition to the City of McMinnville.

When the City of McMinnville celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1960, McMinnville Electric System was a mere 21 years old. Yet, the system was free of any long-term indebtedness. During FY '59-60, MES purchased 106,120,400 kilowatt-hours of electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority at a price of $473,538.56 to serve the areas of McMinnville, Sparta, and Smithville. The system at that time had 173 miles of line. At the end of 1960, the City of Sparta exercised its option to assume ownership of the system's holdings there. The fiscal year 1969 saw MES for the last time include the City of Smithville in its count of electric customers as they began their own municipal distributorship.

McMinnville Electric System weathered the oil embargo and energy conservation years of the 70s and 80s, offering our consumers such helpful programs as home weatherization and the heat pump program. Many of our customers took advantage of these programs to better insulate their homes and to help conserve energy. During this time, the system and the city of McMinnville experienced slow but steady growth. In 1979, the total system kWh usage reached almost 180,000,000 kWh.

In 1983, the system employees celebrated the completion of one-half million employee hours worked without a lost-time accident. Moreover, in 1991, the one million mark was surpassed. The system employees were able to complete 19 consecutive years without a lost-time accident. MES and its employees were afforded many awards and recognitions in light of this accomplishment.

In 1999, the former Willmore Ford Building, located across the street from the MES offices on Morford Street, was purchased by the System and became the Operations and Engineering headquarters for MES. 

In June 2001, MES became one of the state's first power systems to become both a distributor and a supplier of electrical power to the Tennessee Valley Authority. Eleven 2-megawatt diesel generators were installed at the utility's East McMinnville Substation, located in an industrial section of the city. MES contracted to provide 20 megawatts of power to TVA. The additional two megawatts of capacity is used for reserve or backup to ensure reliability. This generating facility is used during times of peak load or when the power supply is short. The capacity of this facility can generate power for roughly 45% of MES's peak load and power the load for all homes in McMinnville during an energy crisis.

In 2004, McMinnville Electric System (MES) became the first municipal electric system in the United States to generate electricity using a clean-burning fuel made primarily from soybeans (Biodiesel). The McMinnville Biodiesel Project was a collaborative effort among MES, the US. Department of Energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Stowers Caterpillar, EmeraChem, the American Public Power Association (APPA), the Tennessee Soybean Growers Association, and the University of Tennessee. To date, the Biodiesel generator has over 1,000 hours of operation and has used 187,500 gallons of 100% Biodiesel to produce 1,500,000 kilowatt hours of clean, renewable power.

In September 2012, MES installed four electric vehicle chargers in anticipation of the need for alternative fueling stations. The chargers were dedicated on September 25, 2012. These stations placed McMinnville on the map, literally. The coordinates of MES's charging stations are loaded into the alternative fuel stops database of the Department of Energy.

Our most recent project, in conjunction with grants from TVA and EPRI, was the purchase of electric hybrid fleet vehicles. The decision was made to purchase two pickup trucks, one bucket truck, and one digger derrick. The use of electric vehicles by the system promotes clean energy and sustainability to our peers and our customers.

This past year, MES was awarded the Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award for the LED streetlight project called "McMinnville Leads the Way with LEDs." McMinnville was the first city in TVA’s seven-state footprint to convert all its streetlights to LEDs. Since the completion of the project, the city’s usage has been cut in half. Shortly after the streetlight project was completed, MES began converting all customer yard lights to LEDs.

It is hard to imagine where the next wave of technology will take the public power industry, but it is safe to say MES will be on the cutting edge of that wave.