LAKEWOOD, CO and BROOKLYN, NY – September 10, 2015 – Hometown Connections, the utility services subsidiary of the American Public Power Association (APPA), and EnergyHub, the leading connected device solution for electric utilities, announced a partnership to help public power organizations deploy innovative demand response and energy efficiency programs to homeowners. This new partnership will address the needs of the over 2,000 large and small public power utilities across the United States.

On Sept. 30, The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved H.R 8, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015. The measure, which includes a number of provisions supported by the American Public Power Association, passed the committee on a vote of 32-20.

Cybersecurity is a regular topic in the news and in our meetings and conferences. Even in the engineering and operations meetings or the finance and accounting meetings, cyber-"something" is a regular topic of discussion. This week at the TVPPA meeting in Chattanooga, there was a session about cybersecurity and CIP compliance. There are benefits for smaller organizations to follow the NIST and CIP standards, which put good security in place, but it is a big undertaking and most of the audience reading this article are not required to be CIP compliant. To confuse matters even more, technology vendors are investing millions of dollars into marketing and advertising to convince you to buy their widget that can handle all of your security needs. But guess what? Even security products have vulnerabilities hackers take advantage of. Products are required to add layers of security, but it is the process around these that keep you secure. They must be updated and maintained. If you do not check their performance, you have no idea whether they are functioning properly.

A municipal electric system manager spends years preparing to run a utility. The journey often involves obtaining a college degree, spending years moving up through positions at a utility, and keeping up on the latest developments. The years of hard work and learning about an electric system come together when he gets the top job of running an electric system. Just one catch: He reports to a board or city council with no knowledge of how an electric utility works — except when a switch is flipped the lights come on. How does he quickly get the board or city council up to speed and take advantage of their enthusiasm to help the municipal electric system? The answer is TMEPA’s board member training.

The Fall E&O Conference was held at the RiverView Inn in Clarksville, Tennessee, on Oct. 1-2. We had 80 attendees who represented municipal power providers from as far east as Bristol, Tennessee, all the way to Union City in the west. There were 16 meeting sponsors/exhibitors, who offered a great opportunity to learn about their products and services.

Each year, our company hosts a conference for utility communicators looking for new and better ways to tell their company's story. This year, our keynote speaker asked us to think of a story where we received truly over-the-top customer service ? service worth bragging about.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and if you've heard any of our presentations, then you know we advocate the use of multi-factor authentication — or two-factor authentication — would have prevented a majority of our cyber crime investigations.

Happy October, all. Those of you who have been reading my columns since it began in the late '90s as the Continuum Perspective know autumn is my favorite time of year. This is due primarily to the moderate temperatures and the transition to a multi-colored landscape. Each year during October, I eagerly anticipate the drive from Signal Mountain to Cherokee, North Carolina, along the Ocoee River. The route winds like a ribbon disguised as US Highway 64. It's the same route Ed and Francis Chappell traveled to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, for a family vacation. The scenery has changed very little since then, with the exception of Copperhill, Tennessee, which no longer looks like a barren desert.

We are excited to announce that our entertainment at the TMEPA Annual Banquet, July 14, 2016, will be nationally acclaimed Henry Cho. Henry's telvision and film credits include appearances on NBC's The Tonight Show, CBS' The Late, Late, Show, and NBC's Young Comedians Special. He served two years as host of NBC's Friday Night Videos and had many guest roles on various network sitcoms. Henry's one-hour Comedy Central special, "What's That Clickin Noise?" is currently running, and he can be heard on Sirrus, XM and Blue Collar Radio. He's also a regular performer at the Grand Ole Opry.

Electric power, manufactured gas, and a public water and wastewater system were first provided in Jackson in the late 19th century. In order to gain efficiency and keep costs low for residents, three separate utility departments joined together in 1959 to create Jackson Utility Division (JUD). The merger of natural gas, electricity and water/wastewater companies was accomplished by a private act of the Tennessee legislature.

Have an important event coming to your town? Let us know and we'll put it on the TMEPA calendar. Stay up to date with various meetings and events around the state for TMEPA municipal systems.

Columbia Power and Water Systems recently received recognition for its "Maury County Now" television program form the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, placing second in the Magazine Format Series.

CDE Lightband celebrated Public Power Week (#PublicPowerWeek), Oct. 4-10, along with more than 2,000 community-owned, not-for-profit electric utilities that collectively provide electricity to 48 million Americans. To kick off Public Power Week, CDE Lightband hosted a customer expo on Oct. 3. Customers learned about high-voltage electric safety with demonstrations, received hands-on energy saving seminars, were shown the high quality of our broadband services, received free lunch and enjoyed lots of kids activities.

As Public Power Week came to a close, Rockwood Electric Utility celebrated the beginning of construction for its new Administrative and Operations Building in downtown Rockwood. The ground-breaking ceremony was held on October 9, 2015 in front of the Peterman Building which was constructed around 1891.