Lenoir City Utilities Board
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Tucked away in the pastoral East Tennessee river valley, a once-rural electric company is widely recognized today as one of the region’s preeminent multi-service utility providers with the well-earned reputation for going the extra mile.
LCUB was formed in 1938, when Lenoir City signed a contract with the fledgling Tennessee Valley Authority to offer
TVA-supplied electricity to its residents and businesses. The tiny electric department had four employees and 317 customers. By the mid-1940s, LCUB’s services expanded to include water and sewer under the authority of a newly created Water and Light Commission with citizen oversight.
It was during this period that LCUB clearly demonstrated its commitment to support the broader region, working diligently to build a power distribution network for the neighboring west Knox County community. By 1945, LCUB had expanded its service area well into west Knox County and north into the Solway at the Anderson County border. LCUB also invested heavily to improve the water system and build an additional reservoir, and shortly thereafter added a natural gas distribution system to its utility services.
"I think that period in time established the underpinning for a culture that remains a big part of LCUB today," notes LCUB General Manager Shannon Littleton. "Our people truly take pride in going the extra mile, stepping up to do what is needed, whether that means working long hours in hazardous conditions to restore power during a weather crisis or expanding our services to help this region grow and prosper."
Indeed, LCUB continues to do whatever it takes to provide the highest quality services, using the most advanced technology to deliver utility services to its growing customer base at the lowest possible rates. Today, LCUB’s commitment to serve has reached 62,500 electric customers in a four county service region, 8,775 water customers, 5,900 natural gas customers and 5,150 wastewater customers, making LCUB the eighth largest utility among the 155 TVA distributors.
And when it comes to deploying state-of-the-art technology, LCUB surpasses many of the largest utilities in the region. An automated meter system streamlines billing, ensures accuracy, and provides proactive issue notification of any problems to its customers. Advances in this system soon will enable customers to manage their use, and also lower their bills.
LCUB’s use of a SCADA system for both power and water service optimizes the number of capacitors placed in service, minimizes power distribution line loss and helps engineers identify problems and provide quicker responses when outages or other problems with service occur, while also ensuring LCUB's drinking water is high quality and exceeds the State of Tennessee's regulations. Additionally, LCUB soon will become one of the few regional utilities to deploy a self-healing electric system, which will automatically restore sections of the power grid and pinpoint the cause and location of the interruption, improving response times to shorten the duration of outages and ultimately cutting costs for field crews while reducing risk of accidents.
"We also are completing the installation of 80 miles of fiber optics being in west Knoxville and Loudon County," Littleton says, adding, "we are focused on delivering smart services to enhance the personal, reliable service our customers deserve," Littleton says. "This means embracing innovation that supports the needs of our customers in a way that, ultimately, makes their lives easier and better."
Of course, this commitment extends to LCUB’s ever-growing base of commercial customers, which include Wampler’s Farm Sausage, Plexco Performance Pipe, US Cellular and Bethlehem Advanced Materials.
"We consider ourselves an important part of the economic development efforts in this region," says Littleton, who helped host Governor Bill Haslam during a recent stopover promoting job creation in East Tennessee. "Manufacturers and other businesses considering an expansion or move to this area expect the full range of utility services provided at the highest quality and lowest possible price. We stand ready to deliver."
In fact, LCUB is part of that expanding business environment. The utility is in the midst of building a new 180,000-square foot facility with an adjacent 20,000-square-foot city-owned event center conveniently located at the Lenoir City exit off I-75. The new facility will promote efficiencies by bringing employee groups together and improve response times when power outages or other problems occur. Completion of the new facility is scheduled for Spring of 2017.
LCUB was formed in 1938, when Lenoir City signed a contract with the fledgling Tennessee Valley Authority to offer
TVA-supplied electricity to its residents and businesses. The tiny electric department had four employees and 317 customers. By the mid-1940s, LCUB’s services expanded to include water and sewer under the authority of a newly created Water and Light Commission with citizen oversight.It was during this period that LCUB clearly demonstrated its commitment to support the broader region, working diligently to build a power distribution network for the neighboring west Knox County community. By 1945, LCUB had expanded its service area well into west Knox County and north into the Solway at the Anderson County border. LCUB also invested heavily to improve the water system and build an additional reservoir, and shortly thereafter added a natural gas distribution system to its utility services.
"I think that period in time established the underpinning for a culture that remains a big part of LCUB today," notes LCUB General Manager Shannon Littleton. "Our people truly take pride in going the extra mile, stepping up to do what is needed, whether that means working long hours in hazardous conditions to restore power during a weather crisis or expanding our services to help this region grow and prosper."
Indeed, LCUB continues to do whatever it takes to provide the highest quality services, using the most advanced technology to deliver utility services to its growing customer base at the lowest possible rates. Today, LCUB’s commitment to serve has reached 62,500 electric customers in a four county service region, 8,775 water customers, 5,900 natural gas customers and 5,150 wastewater customers, making LCUB the eighth largest utility among the 155 TVA distributors.And when it comes to deploying state-of-the-art technology, LCUB surpasses many of the largest utilities in the region. An automated meter system streamlines billing, ensures accuracy, and provides proactive issue notification of any problems to its customers. Advances in this system soon will enable customers to manage their use, and also lower their bills.
LCUB’s use of a SCADA system for both power and water service optimizes the number of capacitors placed in service, minimizes power distribution line loss and helps engineers identify problems and provide quicker responses when outages or other problems with service occur, while also ensuring LCUB's drinking water is high quality and exceeds the State of Tennessee's regulations. Additionally, LCUB soon will become one of the few regional utilities to deploy a self-healing electric system, which will automatically restore sections of the power grid and pinpoint the cause and location of the interruption, improving response times to shorten the duration of outages and ultimately cutting costs for field crews while reducing risk of accidents.
"We also are completing the installation of 80 miles of fiber optics being in west Knoxville and Loudon County," Littleton says, adding, "we are focused on delivering smart services to enhance the personal, reliable service our customers deserve," Littleton says. "This means embracing innovation that supports the needs of our customers in a way that, ultimately, makes their lives easier and better."
Of course, this commitment extends to LCUB’s ever-growing base of commercial customers, which include Wampler’s Farm Sausage, Plexco Performance Pipe, US Cellular and Bethlehem Advanced Materials.
"We consider ourselves an important part of the economic development efforts in this region," says Littleton, who helped host Governor Bill Haslam during a recent stopover promoting job creation in East Tennessee. "Manufacturers and other businesses considering an expansion or move to this area expect the full range of utility services provided at the highest quality and lowest possible price. We stand ready to deliver."
In fact, LCUB is part of that expanding business environment. The utility is in the midst of building a new 180,000-square foot facility with an adjacent 20,000-square-foot city-owned event center conveniently located at the Lenoir City exit off I-75. The new facility will promote efficiencies by bringing employee groups together and improve response times when power outages or other problems occur. Completion of the new facility is scheduled for Spring of 2017.
