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Working to enhance your services

EPB Resilience Project

Undergrounding to improve reliability for customers 

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.

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Enhancing the EPB Local Energy Mix to serve you

In addition to the undergrounding effort, EPB is working to strengthen the EPB Local Energy Mix by adding energy storage and other advanced infrastructure technologies. Taken together, these efforts are focused on improving resilience and reliability for customers while keeping their costs down as much as possible.

Stay connected

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.

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Benefiting customers with even better reliability

Undergrounding utility lines can reduce outages for you and your neighbors.


What to expect during an undergrounding project

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.

  1. Project Planning — In the weeks following the initial Resilience Project notification, customers may see EPB personnel and contractors accessing the area where utility lines run to serve their home as we assess the project.
  2. Undergrounding — A few months after we send the communications about the planning phase, we’ll notify you of the lead contractor for your Resilience Project. Once site work starts, crews will use construction equipment in the area around utility lines for digging and trenching, tree trimming and removal, etc.
  3. Scheduled Electric Outage — Once the utility line is underground, we’ll notify you of a scheduled power outage that will last a few hours as we switch the service to the underground line. 
  4. Scheduled Fiber Optics Outage — Next, we will notify you of a separate fiber optics outage. We will give you advance notice of when both the electric and fiber optics outages will take place.

Site Restoration

Upon completion, we will take steps to restore the ground to its previous condition. Because ground settling may occur, EPB and our contractors will reassess the site over the next six months. If you notice issues with restoration near your home, please let us know at ResilienceProject@epb.net.

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For easy identification of Resilience Team Members

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.

Q&A: General

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. 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.

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 area where the lines run to serve their home as we assess the project.

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. Work is limited to the area immediately around power infrastructure that utilities maintain to safely and reliably deliver services.

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.

Q&A: Construction

Customers have been notified via email directly about the construction timeline for your neighborhood.

Customers have been notified via email directly about the contractor performing work in their neighborhood.

You are not expected to experience outages during the construction phase of the project. You will experience outages later during scheduled times to connect new lines to power and fiber optic services. We will notify you in advance before these scheduled outages take place.

Typical work hours are expected to be 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

We regret to hear you have had a negative experience. Please contact ResilienceProject@epb.net or call 423-648-1372 and a member of our team will work to resolve your concerns. .

Our work will be focused on the area where utility lines run. If structures have been built there, we will contact customers and work with them individually to develop an agreed-upon plan for moving and restoring those structures.

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