In a conference call with elected officials across the seven states covered by the Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA’s top executive said the rolling blackouts it ordered lower power companies to implement over the weekend helped stave off wider issues but that the agency “fell short” in its effort to not interrupt power.
TVA’s CEO Jeff Lyash also said the TVA could have communicated better with the 153 member power companies.
According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which had access to the conference call, Lyash said the federal agency is already analyzing why equipment failed after it invested hundreds of millions into reliability measures for extreme cold.
“It is TVA’s very objective and that of our local power companies, each and every one of those 153 local power companies, never to interrupt your power. That’s what we strive for. And occasionally we fall short of that. And, obviously, we fell short of that, in this case,” Lyash said during the conference call.
He said the federal agency is already analyzing what went wrong, according to the Commercial Appeal.
“I would tell you all as leaders, we have already begun to scope our post-event critical assessment. I will tell you I think communications from TVA to local power companies, to local officials, industrial customers could have been better and there are gaps there,” Lyash said.
He said the federal agency would analyze what investments are needed to avoid future problems.
TVA was not alone in instituting rolling blackouts. To its east, Duke Energy, which serves much of the Carolinas, instituted rolling blackouts Saturday as its grid struggled.