Memphis Light, Gas and Water hosted the first of three “Your Power, Your Voice,” Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) community engagement meetings to encourage an open discussion between the utility and customers. The meeting was held Tuesday, August 20 at the Hollywood Community Center, with MLGW President and CEO J.T. Young, MLGW staff, and representatives from Siemens Industry Incorporated, the consultant working on the IRP. Young wants community input about the reliability, affordability, resiliency, and sustainability of the services being offered by MLGW and answered questions from customers about the IRP process. Young opened the hour and a half long meeting by introducing the many MLGW team members present and Gary Vicinus, Regional Director, Utilities Digital Grid Siemens. The IRP process is an industry standard approach for utilities to assess optimal resources needed for the long-term electricity supply to meet the needs of their customers. Siemens took the floor and provided a non-technical definition of an IRP. An IRP is, “a comprehensive view of what a utility needs to continue providing energy to its customers” in the future. This requires knowing and considering variables that do not currently exist. MLGW is a “public utility” and each and every one of its customers are stakeholders in the agency’s future. Vicinus also explained the objectives of the meeting, the stakeholder engagement plan, the objectives and metrics of an IRP, and the options MLGW has to choose from for the future utility needs of its customers. The first stage was to create a Power Supply Advisory Team (PSAT), a group of MLGW customers, city leaders, and MLGW management who are charged with evaluating MLGW’s current agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This group will also be responsible for researching alternative power supply alternatives. Once completed, the IRP will outline the electric resources needed by MLGW to meet the electricity demand of their customers over the next 20 years. The development of the IRP will contain significant stakeholder engagement that will include: MLGW’s Board of Commissioners, MLGW’s senior management, and MLGW’s customer advocates. Both PSAT and IRP meetings are open to the public. Updates, links to videos from past meetings, and other pertinent information is available online at mlgw.com/about/powersupply. The next "Your Power, Your Voice" IRP meeting is scheduled for November and the next PSAT meeting is Monday, September 16, 2019 at 6 p.m. at First Baptist Broad, 2835 Broad Ave, Memphis, TN 38112. 14
15 Publizr Home