As part of our ongoing effort to better serve you, EPB is beginning a series of Resilience Projects to enhance the reliability of the services we provide customers.
To reduce outages as much as possible for customers, we are strategically undergrounding lines in areas where we can reduce the likelihood of outages while keeping the projects as cost-effective as possible.
Questions? We’re here to answer.
Email ResilienceProject@epb.net or call 423-648-1372.
If you receive notice of a Resilience Project in your area, ensure you stay in the loop by updating your contact information.
Update nowUndergrounding utility lines can reduce outages for you and your neighbors.
EPB makes every effort to minimize the impact for customers throughout the process. If EPB or our contractor has individualized information for a customer, we will knock on their door or leave a message to contact us. Please contact us back as soon as possible so we can keep the project on-time for you and your neighbors.
All EPB Resilience Project Team Members wear high-visibility construction vests emblazoned with the EPB logo or the contractor’s logo. If you have questions about team members, email us at ResilienceProject@epb.net or call 423-648-1372.
Please update your contact information to get notices
If you receive notice of a Resilience Project in your area, ensure you stay in the loop by updating your contact information.
As part of our ongoing effort to improve resilience and reliability for customers, EPB is beginning a series of Resilience Projects, which will include strategically relocating selected over-head utility lines underground.
We are strategically undergrounding selected lines in areas where we can reduce the likelihood of outages while keeping the projects as cost-effective as possible.
EPB’s standard for new construction has been to underground utility lines since the 1990s. Unfortunately, converting all existing over-head utility lines to underground would be prohibitively expensive and would have to result in increased electric rates.
This project will help reduce the duration of power outages for all EPB customers because the outages we are able to prevent through undergrounding allow us to focus on restoring other parts of the local electric system when damage occurs in those areas.
No. EPB’s work is limited to undergrounding the electric and fiber optic lines in the utility easement. The line that runs from the utility easement across the customer’s private property will remain overhead. If a customer is interested in learning more about undergrounding the lines to their home, we’ll be happy to provide information about the steps you can take to make this happen. Please contact us at ResilienceProject@epb.net.
EPB is selecting the utility lines that we believe can produce the highest reduction in outage durations through the most cost-effective projects.
Our work will be focused within the utility easement as provided by Tennessee law. If structures have been built into the easement, we will contact customers and work with them individually to develop an agreed-upon plan for moving and restoring those structures.
EPB will reach out directly to customers in areas included in the project. Following that notification, customers may begin to see EPB personnel and contractors accessing the utility easement where the lines run to serve their home as we assess the project.
A utility easement is the area around utility lines and infrastructure that has been set aside by Tennessee law for the utility to build and maintain the necessary for infrastructure to provide basic services like electricity, fiber optics, water, etc. Under Tennessee law utilities are authorized to access and build within easements to provide these essential services.
EPB is funding the project with support from a U.S. Department of Energy grant as a part of an overarching national effort to strengthen the resilience and reliability of essential infrastructure across the nation.
No. All work is contained within utility easements, which are set aside by Tennessee Law to allow utilities to build and maintain infrastructure to provide essential services like electricity and connectivity to nearby customers.
The EPB Local Energy Mix refers to EPB’s work to enhance the reliability of our power system by expanding and strengthening local energy resources such as energy storage to make our system more resilient while keeping costs as low as possible for customers.
