Paris, Tenn.–Meeting in regular session, the Paris Utility Authority board of directors approved the Interconnection Agreement between Paris BPU and Silicon Ranch. At a special session earlier this month, the board gave the nod to proceed with plans for a ten-mile power line to connect the recently-completed Eagle Creek delivery point substation to the Puryear substain.
CEO Terry Wimberley explained the line will complete a 69kV transmission loop that will allow the Paris Board of Public Utilities to serve much of the electric grid out of the Eagle Creek station if needed.
Silicon Ranch has been granted a Green Invest solar project with TVA. The solar farm, which will generate 50 MW, will be situated on HWY 140 East in Puryear. The produced power will be transmitted to the new Eagle Creek delivery point substation, where it will be sold back to TVA.
Wimberley said at the earlier special meeting, “Just so everyone understands. This is a TVA transmission line” and it will be a plus for the Board of Public Utilities, too. “Eagle Creek was not totally serving our system like it could and we needed this infrastructure. This gives us more options.”
In other business, Paris BPU received two sealed bids on the sale of 8.1 acres off the end of Mulberry Cove in Paris (Tax Map 106 Parcel 10.00). The bid amounts were as follows, $10,100 from an adjacent owner on Harding Road and $16,000 from an adjacent property owner on Lankford Road. The Board has approved the higher bid of $16,000.
Next, action was taken to approve the quarterly write-off of delinquent accounts in the amount of $5,983.30. In addition, President Wimberley presented an updated the long term financial plan detailing future capital expenditure in the Electric department.
In his President’s Report, Wimberley discussed the timeline of events that occurred during last week’s storm. Beginning Tuesday (7/18), the storm event caused widespread outages resulting in an 8-hour restoration timeframe that was completed by 10pm. On Wednesday morning (7/19), approximately 11,000 customers were without power, however BPU successfully restored all services by 5pm on the following Thursday (7/20), completing the restoration in 36 hours. In other news, the request for unclaimed property was completed and the amount totaled $20,500 from the State.
In closing, Wimberley’s Board guest was Loretta King. Loretta was hired in 2007 as a Cashier and transitioned into a Customer Service Representative role in 2008. She spent 10 years as a CSR for Paris BPU and over the past 5 years has excelled in many areas such as administration, billing, dispatch support and more.
The August meeting of the Board is scheduled for Tuesday, August 29, 2023.