Late last month, President Donald Trump nominated four new members for the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority. These nominations fill all but one of the vacancies on the nine-member governing board for America's largest publicly owned utility.

More than 2,000 community-owned, not-for-profit public power utilities in the United States employ more than 93,000 people. Public power represents a critical piece of our nation’s electric infrastructure, serving approximately one in seven electricity customers. Overall, the electric industry supports nearly 2.7 million jobs across the United States — including nearly 500,000 direct employees. These power industry jobs support an additional 4.4 million induced jobs in U.S. communities, including 445,000 public-sector jobs through tax revenue. In all, seven million American jobs — one in every 20 — are supported by the electricity industry.

Many plants have come and gone since Gallatin was commissioned, but the future still looks bright for this old jewel. TVA considers the facility a key component of its balanced energy resource portfolio. As such, in 2012 it embarked on a $600 million, 35-month construction project to extend the plant’s life for another 20 years.

Almost 76 percent of North American utilities executives believe they face at least a moderate risk of electricity supply interruption from a cyber attack on electric distribution grids in the next five years. The survey of more than 100 utilities executives from more than 20 countries revealed interruptions to the power supply from cyber attacks is the most serious concern, cited by 57 percent of respondents. Just as worrying is the physical threat to the distribution grid. Fifty-three percent of executives cite employee and/or customer safety and 43 percent of executives cite the destruction of physical assets as their biggest concerns.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Oct. 10 that it has placed "an initial order" of $115 million for materials, including more than 50,000 utility poles and 6,500 miles of cable, that are needed to rebuild the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s electric grid.

SEDC has put together a free social media kit for utilities to use during the month of October. It's a collection of suggested posts, graphics, and videos that utilities can use on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin platforms.

A recent trip to visit family is eventful and recalls times past, part of a thirty year career of traveling to and from utilities.

An exclusive insurance program developed for public power by Hometown Connections and Wortham Power Gen Insurance speeds up the process and improves recovery rates for assets damaged by automobiles. The Property Damage Recovery Program provides the personnel and expertise to pursue these recoveries. Frequently, utilities must repair or replace poles, traffic lights, and other fixed assets that are damaged when hit by automobiles. But utility personnel may not have time or manpower to pursue these recoveries on their own. This service recovers costs from the automobile insurance of the drivers at fault. There are no upfront costs to the utility.

A website is a 24/7 employee that never calls in sick and will happily work on Christmas morning. Utilities should work to get the most traffic to their website — using social media, magazines, bill inserts and such as funnels — and work to engage users while there. Sometimes a utility needs to communicate something on the internet that doesn’t match up with its current website. Either the branding needs to be completely different, the audience has changed, or maybe the underlying infrastructure of your site just can’t do this task. This is where the "microsite" shines.

Tennessee is in for one of the state's most active election years in decades. After 2018, Tennessee will have a number of new faces in statewide federal and state offices due to term limits, retirements, and public officials seeking other offices. As of now, the state will have new people serving as United States senator, governor, state House Speaker, state House minority leader, state Senate majority leader, state Senate minority leader, and in three United States congressional seats, along with a multitude of new state senators and representatives. Let's take a look at how Sen. Bob Corker's announcement to not seek reelection in 2018 has added even more intrigue to an already busy political atmosphere.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on Oct. 10 issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to repeal the Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced that it is now accepting Broadband Accessibility Grant applications until November 17, 2017. Established by the recently enacted Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act (TBAA), this program aims to spread broadband access to more Tennesseans while promoting practices that increase deployment and encourage adoption. In total, $10 million is available in the first round of grants.

In an unusual step that could have significant implications for U.S. wholesale electricity markets, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry on Sept. 28 directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a final rule that would require organized wholesale power markets to "develop and implement market rules that accurately price generation resources necessary to maintain the reliability and resiliency" of the country’s bulk power system.

Sweetwater Utilities Board is located in the city of Sweetwater, TN, 60 miles north of Chattanooga and 45 miles south of Knoxville along I-75. The current General Manager of Sweetwater Utilities Board is Eric Hicks. He is a native of Sweetwater and a 23 year employee of SUB. To date, Sweetwater Utilities Board has 50 full time employees. The board, management, and employees of SUB strive to meet and exceed the expectations of its community and its customers.

SecurIT360 is hosting a lunch and learn on October 24 at TMEPA Offices on how to prepare and recover from a potential cybersecurity breach. Topics will include most common cyber threats for utilities, how to strengthen your IT environment to protect against a cyber attack, how to develop a cyber security incident response plan, how to recognize a potential cyber security incident, and steps to take when you suspect a cyber security incident. Deadline to RSVP is October 20.

TMEPA's Fall Engineering and Operations Conference will be held October 26-27 at the Embassy Suites Cool Springs in Franklin, Tennessee. The conference provides information on topics utilities are facing today, and it allows for engineers and operations staff to network and hear how their peers deal with similar issues. The program for the two-day meeting is being finalized. Click on "Learn More" for registration and program information.

Have an important meeting or event coming to your town? Let us know and we'll put it on the TMEPA Calendar. Stay up to date with all the TMEPA meetings and other events around the state and even nationally for TMEPA Member Systems.

A webinar offered by Vantage Point Solutions to discuss broadband feasibility studies, including: "best practices and guidance on what you should do during the planning phase of a broadband project - and what you can save for later." The webinar will take place Wednesday, October 18.

A webinar to address the facts and myths surrounding Small Cell Wireless, 5G, and other next-generation wireless technologies, as well as the challenges and opportunities that these developments create for public power utilities. This webinar will also explore current efforts to streamline the make-ready process, including One-Touch-Make-Ready.

Customers think about their utility more when the power is off than when it is on. When the lights go out, they’re on their phones, scrambling to know what’s happening. In this narrow window of time, utilities have the best chance to impress or frustrate their customers. Communications are put to the ultimate test when outages occur. That’s why planning is critical.

Any public power utility looking for an established checklist and a clearly delineated road map to customer service excellence will be disappointed. There is no single path to excellent customer service, even though the desired result — happy customers — remains the same. The goal posts may move continually as the expectations of customer-owners evolve, but the fundamentals of what makes for good customer service — compassion, know-how, communication, and respect — don’t budge. Here are seven takeaways for excellence in customer service.

The Tennessee Job Training & Safety Training program is a joint venture between the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Murfreesboro (TCATM), Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association (TECA), and the Tennessee Municipal Electric Power Association (TMEPA). The program provides job training and training and support in health and safety issues for both municipal and cooperative utilities throughout the state of Tennessee. We are based at the TCAT Murfreesboro campus. JT&S is based at the TCAT Murfreesboro campus.

Loudon Utilities Board, a municipal electric, natural gas, wastewater, and water utility, is seeking an Electrical Engineer for its Loudon, Tennessee, operations. Working under the instructions of the Director of Engineering, the individual awarded this position will have responsibilities in the following areas.......:

The City of Sparta, Tennessee is seeking qualified applicants for the position of Lineman with the Sparta Electric System. Sparta is located 90 miles east of Nashville, TN, 95 miles west of Knoxville, TN and 80 miles north of Chattanooga, TN. The service territory includes a 6.3 square mile service area with approximately 3,000 meters.

Dyersburg Electric System has an open position for a General Accountant. The position prepares and provides various reports to management, reconciles funds and accounts, performs audits, prepares and maintains accounts payable, etc. A Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from an accredited college or university and/or equivalent experience is required. A CPA is a plus. Five or more years of accounting experience preferred.

The City of Trenton, TN, Light & Water Department is now accepting applications for a journeyman lineman. Interested applicants should contact Trenton Light & Water, P. O. Box 260, Trenton, TN 38382, 731-855-1561. Please click the link for more information.

Cleveland Utilities is seeking a supervisor of safety to administer, supervise, coordinate, train and develop the overall safety and security program of Cleveland Utilities.

Newport Utilities is actively seeking a motivated and dynamic Business Account Executive -- Broadband Services. This position is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with NU Business Customers, specifically for broadband related services.

Newport Utilities is actively seeking two motivated and dynamic Customer Service Representatives -- Broadband Services. This position will provide customer service and support to all NU and NU Connect subscribers needing assistance with broadband service issues.

BrightRidge has an opening for a Journeyman Lineman. High School Diploma or equivalent required, plus successful completion of apprenticeship training registered with the Dol.A For additional information, refer to www.brightridge.com. EEE/M/F

Johnson City Energy Authority board members, local leaders and utility employees gathered Tuesday morning to unveil the new name of the Johnson City Power Board: BrightRidge.

Power outages are common during bad storms, but a local crew was among relief efforts win the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Ten crewmen from the Greeneville Light & Power System jumped at the opportunity to help the citizens of Gainesville, Florida, through the chaos that Irma created. The two crews left for Florida two days before Irma was scheduled to hit. The southbound travel was expected to be smoother before the weather hit, but the primary reason was so that the men could be part of the first response efforts in Gainesville.

In times of tragedy, communities frequently pull together to help those most in need. The people of Tullahoma are no different. Three Tullahoma Utilities Authority (TUA) journeyman linemen — Andy Warren, Kyle Riddle and Cameron Denney — recently drove over 10 hours to the small town of Wauchula, Florida, in order to assist in the efforts to restore power to the town after Hurricane Irma left behind her devastation.

Airmen from the 118th Wing of the Tennessee Air National Guard have been deployed to Puerto Rico to aid in hurricane relief. Sixteen airmen from the Civil Engineer Squadron are bringing eight large generators to provide electricity to facilities that lost power during Hurricane Maria.

McMinnville Electric System participated in their city's Autumn Street Fair, which gave employees a chance to talk with customers about the benefits of public power.

Would you like to receive updates about Tennessee politics and electric utilities, delivered every morning to your inbox? Our Daily News Clips is a list of news articles curated from hundreds of news articles we believe are of interest to TMEPA members. If you would like to receive the clips, just send an email to any of the staff (bsolsbee@tmepa.org, susans@tmepa.org or jelrod@tmepa.org). You can also see the current and past six days on our website by clicking on the link below.