Reduce Electricity Use This Christmas, Says Nashville Utility that Promotes EVs
The Nashville Electric Service public utility promotes Electric Vehicles (EVs) and tries to incentivize customers to buy them, but twice this year it restricted access to the very thing that powers those cars.
A Christmas cold front delivered extreme frigid temperatures to Middle Tennessee and strained the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) power generation facilities. NES officials purchase electricity from the TVA, which is federally owned and services residents in seven states.
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TVA this Christmas directed all utility power distributors in the Tennessee Valley to drop 5 percent of its electricity load. More than 72,000 customers in the NES service area lost power. NES top-level brass warned customers they would experience rotating, intermittent power outages in 10-minute increments every one and a half to two hours, at least until the power load stabilized.
NES officials, on Twitter, advised customers to delay using heavy power appliances like washing machines, clothes dryers, and dishwashers. They also told customers to “adjust your thermostat to 68 degrees or lower and bundle up in a cozy sweater, warm socks or a blanket.”
As RVIVR reported last summer, high temperatures at the time prompted NES to tell customers to conserve the city’s power supply. NES officials warned about high temperatures.
In 2018, NES partnered with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation to launch SmartCharge Nashville. This was a voluntary study to help Nashville prepare for a growing number of EVs.
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The following year NES officials offered their customers a rebate on the all-electric 2019 Nissan LEAF. Public power customers and employees were eligible that year for a $3,500 rebate on the 2019 Nissan LEAF 40 kWh Standard and a $2,500 rebate on the 2019 Nissan LEAF 62 kWh ePlus.
NES is the 12th largest public electric utility in the nation and distributes energy to more than 420,000 customers in Middle Tennessee.
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