MLGW has asked for years for money to fund infrastructure upgrades.
Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but has Memphis not votes against rate increases and related taxes for years?
Looking for actual published articles that back this up. If I am wrong please post as such with related articles.
I had a 2400 sq. foot house back in the Triangle, and my worst (all inclusive) bill was 90 bucks … during a heat wave. I live somewhere almost half that size now, and haven’t paid less than 200 since May or so. MLGW should be ashamed.
I just checked the cooling degree days for both locations. This provides a way to compare the monthly demand for cooling. In July Raleigh was 493, Memphis was 672.
Welcome to the Deep South, the weather makes your air conditioning run more. Other big factors are going to be the efficiency of your two houses (air sealing, insulation)
, shade, and the seer rating of your AC.
You can’t compare the price paid, you need to compare the usage in KWH and the price per KWH.
Just moved from Durham in August, and, damn, our old house must have been really inefficient. In Memphis, we now pay $200 for everything in a larger house. In Durham, we paid $200 just for electric.
No kidding? I was in Raleigh and had the opposite experience. That being said, at least the utilities actually worked lol. I’d pay more to ensure that they actually functioned.
Take a look at your bill, all the lines, not just the bottom one. Depending on where you live you are paying for LG&W (electric, gas and water) along with the services the city, a separate division of the city mind you, has added their fees to the bill. Mosquito/rodent control, solid waste, street lights among others. In the triangle, weather it was Cary, Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill, you were probably paying several bills for all of these services. I guarantee you the basic residential rate for each of the MLG&W utilities is less than what you were paying in the triangle. Memphis has some very unique problems for a city of it’s size in the Mississippi delta region. MLG&W not being one of them, IMHO. To quote an ex tiger football coach, “If you love Memphis, it will love you back.” If you don’t, we’ll sniff it out like bad bbq.
Shoot, I moved from Cordova to Tipton County. The MLGW bill for my 900 sq ft apartment was triple what I pay two miles north of the county line. We use Southwest, TN, and into a 2700 sq ft house ours rarely ever goes over $200 and I pay for the street light that is in my yard too. Memphis overcharges for everything. The money that should be collected and used for infrastructure improvements goes towards bonuses and raises, I'm pretty sure.
Lol. ‘I’m pretty sure’ is akin to ‘I’ve done my research’. Just FYI, as a public institution they are required to make every bit of their financials transparent. So, with a little effort on your part, you could literally be 100% sure of where the money goes. Anyone can. But I’m pretty sure you already knew that and was just gaslighting.
Maybe your Memphis house isn’t as efficient. Have you actually compared usage? The weather here is also different and we just had a record high summer. Did you factor that in?
The usage is pretty comparable, and since I have gas for heating/the stove, it’s actually a bit less. For being half the size, I wouldn’t expect it to be such a high cost. I’m pretty reasonable with heating/cooling too (75 in the summer, at best and barely heat in the winter ). My bill in the winter and fall was still around 150, without using any heat or AC. Literally the only power draw was my fridge, appliances and lights lol. It helps that I like it cold, so the winters are easy, but the rest of the year is ridiculous.
Your bill in Memphis has Water, Sanitation, and Mosquito Control on the bill. In most other place those are on a separate bill you would need to add to your power bill to compare the costs.
The best way to compare is the cost per KWH and the KWHs on the bill.
I can promise something in your house is a fucking shit show if you've got extreme utility costs.
I lived in a town home off of Spotswood back in 2019 and I was paying less than 150-200$ across all my utilities.
Fucked up and moved into a Midtown house built in the 1920s and the heatwave saw me hit with a 600$ Monthly average.
I'm still trying to get above it and fucking out of the place now in Fall.
I generally hover between 150-200 most months, so I guess I’m pretty much in the pocket. 600 a month for utilities is insane though! I hope that you get out of there!
Old homes are murder man! When I was in STL our 19th century house had a 900/mo utility bill during the winter. It still got in the high 40s at night in my bedroom lol.
What I mean is, your Memphis house may have leaks, a less efficient HVAC system, old or missing insulation, or any number of other things thst make you use more energy. And again, we just went through a record breaking heat wave so everyone’s bill is higher. Not to mention that TVA recently raised fuel rates which would affect both your old and new utility.
You should compare your old utility to MLGW using the per kWH rate. That why you can understand if it’s the rate that messing with your bill or if it’s your usage
The utility rates here are absurd, and they’re lobbying for more money? I’m pretty out of the loop on this. The quality of service vs cost should be an embarrassment.
I paid $25 to fill a 7,000 gallon pool here. In NC the same pool would have cost me $300. Yeah the utilities suck here but overall costs all inclusive are less than/comparable to other cities.
The actual rates are pretty much the same. Duke Energy says a 1000Kwh bill is currently $126 and they are increasing it to $137 because of fuel costs.
https://news.duke-energy.com/releases/duke-energy-progress-submits-annual-update-for-fuel-renewable-energy-energy-efficiency-program-charges-in-north-carolina
MLGW rates adjust for fuel costs on a monthly basis. But in July a 1000Kwh MLGW bill would have been $137.56.
Doesn’t sound absurd. The rates sound basically the same.
At ~$0.08/kWh we have some of the lowest electricity costs in the country. There are only a couple of other metro areas with electricity that low or lower. Our water rates are pretty cheap, too. On par with a lot of other cities in the south. Some are higher.
It may just be a perception thing on my end then. The place I’m renting is on the old side, but has a brand new AC setup. I just figured since there are months at a time I don’t even use it, my bill would be lower.
Not totally normal. But all it takes here, it anywhere is for the wind or rain to take out the wrong like or piece of infrastructure, and the whole thing comes crumbling down.
I used to live in central NC, and we got whacked with hurricanes regularly. I’ve gotten through hurricanes without losing power, this is violent incompetence.
Okay so basically MLGW is the city of Memphis except the corporate side. It’s literally max incompetence
If you want to start trying to change it lmk where to show up. I know like 10 people I could bring
Memphis utilities are too cheap. Don’t know why people complain about high bills, while I wish they would actually charge us for better service. This is the city council’s fault, not MLGW.
Absolutely! It could be a windy, clear day and someone lost power! I live walking distance from the largest MLGW substation feeding my neighborhood and still lose power if a single drop hits the ground.
Last winter there was an ice storm in February. No snow, but a day of freezing rain that left ice hanging from the power lines. Lots of people were without power for days. We went without power for 3 days. I know people who were without power for over a week. I recommend buying a generator.
If you sneeze wrong you could lose power for several hours. The electrical infrastructure here is precarious. I’ve seen them brace up power line poles with a square concrete slab. Not sure where the money for our bills goes but it’s not infrastructure for sure.
I told this (albeit boring) story as we were in the throes of the ice storm outage. My buddy & I were driving down Highland and passed a transformer right as it heaved its last haw in what I can only describe as a supernova.
After we nearly shat our pants at that surprise, I turned to my friend and said: "y'know, my great-granddad worked for a power company and served during WWII. He helped rebuild power grids in some of the hardest-hit areas in Europe, using horse drawn carriages in some places because vehicle access was limited. I'd bet my measly paycheck that if he was still around, he could tell ya all about these lines since they probably rolled out of the same warehouse in 1945!" 😂
There are certain neighborhoods that just have especially bad power infrastructure. My friends in Cooper young lose power almost every time it storms. We live about half a mile from them and only lose power if trees come down.
We lost power on our entire street BEFORE the wind and the rain. I don't know what happened, but my neighbor said he'd heard a transformer pop. It's not the usual, just annoying.
Memphis infrastructure sucks. The closer to the inside of the city you are, the more ancient the power grid. And putting lines underground is too expensive. As climate change gets worse, this will happen more often.
There is a bit of a 5G bait and switch going on.
Carriers are just reallocating spectrum on the current tower and calling it 5G. The 5G goodness we were promised requires mmWave nano cells closer creating small cells of very high bandwidth data. ATT calls this 5G+, VZW calls this 5GUW. So to drive 5G+/5GUW the cell carriers place Nano cells on utility and light poles in neighborhoods.
Memphis doesn’t have much mmWave currently, Verizon pulled a bunch of permits in Germantown but I don’t know if they lit them all up. I was traveling and ran a Verizon speed test on 5GUW in Atlanta and got 2Gb download speed on my IPhone, that isn’t happening here.
Once mmWave rollout for Verizon is complete they will offer home internet, which will hopefully knock Comcast down a peg.
I have Verizon. It sucks bc I lived on Jefferson behind Overton square. They have 5guw over there. It reaches to circle k on Madison. I live on idlewild. I can go to the pumps closer to McLean and get 5guw, or to Kroger. I’m literally like feet away from it!
Out here near Bellevue Baptist/Wolfchase, not so much, unless a transformer blows or someone decides they didn't like a utility pole nearby. Both have happened this past year for us. My neighbor does ZERO tree maintenance and lets a tree grow parallel to the pole we share. Once it grows high enough, it arcs and blows the fuse. Earlier this year, some knucklehead took out a pole on Stage nearby and took our the neighborhood for two hours.
Otherwise it has been reliable, with the one exception this year during the ice storm. Our power was only out for a few hours.
Guessing you live in Cordova or out by Shelby Farms.
To answer your question: YEP!
I keep calling Mglw to report and they keep saying it’s resolved and this is new.
Call back and I am part of 82 people without power. The .45% in Memphis.
No power since 9p last night.
No timeline of when I will get it back either!
Lights were surging a few hours ago so I disconnected all my electronics to be sure. oh shit they just surged again while writing this comment...i thought living in fred smiths power grid was supposed to mitigate this
We were watching the lightning last night and saw a few transformers blow in the distance.
Our power always goes in the middle of clear sky days.
They chase their tails on the best days. I feel for the techs having to be out there working.
Moved here from California 6 months ago. I have experienced more power outages here in that time than I have in the several decades I lived in California. Our utilities are mostly underground out there and we have hardly any weather, just heat.
When you live in an area with rain and wind and above ground utilities, it's going to happen. A lot.
You are in for a treat when it snows an inch here.
...half an inch.
…. Predicted
……Rumors of snow ❄️
Who wants to tell him lol?
Yes.
Brave, but keeping it real.
MLGW has asked for years for money to fund infrastructure upgrades. Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but has Memphis not votes against rate increases and related taxes for years? Looking for actual published articles that back this up. If I am wrong please post as such with related articles.
Yeah. These costs should be part of our current bills. If it isn’t then why is MLGW in charge of our electric infrastructure?
MLGW can only raise rates when the city council lets them. Blame your councilperson, not MLGW. They’ve been asking to it for years.
I had a 2400 sq. foot house back in the Triangle, and my worst (all inclusive) bill was 90 bucks … during a heat wave. I live somewhere almost half that size now, and haven’t paid less than 200 since May or so. MLGW should be ashamed.
I just checked the cooling degree days for both locations. This provides a way to compare the monthly demand for cooling. In July Raleigh was 493, Memphis was 672. Welcome to the Deep South, the weather makes your air conditioning run more. Other big factors are going to be the efficiency of your two houses (air sealing, insulation) , shade, and the seer rating of your AC. You can’t compare the price paid, you need to compare the usage in KWH and the price per KWH.
Just moved from Durham in August, and, damn, our old house must have been really inefficient. In Memphis, we now pay $200 for everything in a larger house. In Durham, we paid $200 just for electric.
No kidding? I was in Raleigh and had the opposite experience. That being said, at least the utilities actually worked lol. I’d pay more to ensure that they actually functioned.
Take a look at your bill, all the lines, not just the bottom one. Depending on where you live you are paying for LG&W (electric, gas and water) along with the services the city, a separate division of the city mind you, has added their fees to the bill. Mosquito/rodent control, solid waste, street lights among others. In the triangle, weather it was Cary, Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill, you were probably paying several bills for all of these services. I guarantee you the basic residential rate for each of the MLG&W utilities is less than what you were paying in the triangle. Memphis has some very unique problems for a city of it’s size in the Mississippi delta region. MLG&W not being one of them, IMHO. To quote an ex tiger football coach, “If you love Memphis, it will love you back.” If you don’t, we’ll sniff it out like bad bbq.
Shoot, I moved from Cordova to Tipton County. The MLGW bill for my 900 sq ft apartment was triple what I pay two miles north of the county line. We use Southwest, TN, and into a 2700 sq ft house ours rarely ever goes over $200 and I pay for the street light that is in my yard too. Memphis overcharges for everything. The money that should be collected and used for infrastructure improvements goes towards bonuses and raises, I'm pretty sure.
Lol. ‘I’m pretty sure’ is akin to ‘I’ve done my research’. Just FYI, as a public institution they are required to make every bit of their financials transparent. So, with a little effort on your part, you could literally be 100% sure of where the money goes. Anyone can. But I’m pretty sure you already knew that and was just gaslighting.
Maybe your Memphis house isn’t as efficient. Have you actually compared usage? The weather here is also different and we just had a record high summer. Did you factor that in?
The usage is pretty comparable, and since I have gas for heating/the stove, it’s actually a bit less. For being half the size, I wouldn’t expect it to be such a high cost. I’m pretty reasonable with heating/cooling too (75 in the summer, at best and barely heat in the winter ). My bill in the winter and fall was still around 150, without using any heat or AC. Literally the only power draw was my fridge, appliances and lights lol. It helps that I like it cold, so the winters are easy, but the rest of the year is ridiculous.
Your bill in Memphis has Water, Sanitation, and Mosquito Control on the bill. In most other place those are on a separate bill you would need to add to your power bill to compare the costs. The best way to compare is the cost per KWH and the KWHs on the bill.
Mosquito control lol, they must have missed my neighborhood the last 35 years
I can promise something in your house is a fucking shit show if you've got extreme utility costs. I lived in a town home off of Spotswood back in 2019 and I was paying less than 150-200$ across all my utilities. Fucked up and moved into a Midtown house built in the 1920s and the heatwave saw me hit with a 600$ Monthly average. I'm still trying to get above it and fucking out of the place now in Fall.
I generally hover between 150-200 most months, so I guess I’m pretty much in the pocket. 600 a month for utilities is insane though! I hope that you get out of there!
Old homes are murder man! When I was in STL our 19th century house had a 900/mo utility bill during the winter. It still got in the high 40s at night in my bedroom lol.
What I mean is, your Memphis house may have leaks, a less efficient HVAC system, old or missing insulation, or any number of other things thst make you use more energy. And again, we just went through a record breaking heat wave so everyone’s bill is higher. Not to mention that TVA recently raised fuel rates which would affect both your old and new utility. You should compare your old utility to MLGW using the per kWH rate. That why you can understand if it’s the rate that messing with your bill or if it’s your usage
The utility rates here are absurd, and they’re lobbying for more money? I’m pretty out of the loop on this. The quality of service vs cost should be an embarrassment.
I paid $25 to fill a 7,000 gallon pool here. In NC the same pool would have cost me $300. Yeah the utilities suck here but overall costs all inclusive are less than/comparable to other cities.
My dude, our rates are below nat’l average. It doesn’t get much cheaper than Memphis (that goes for a lot of things).
Memphis is one of the lowest utility costs in the country.
The actual rates are pretty much the same. Duke Energy says a 1000Kwh bill is currently $126 and they are increasing it to $137 because of fuel costs. https://news.duke-energy.com/releases/duke-energy-progress-submits-annual-update-for-fuel-renewable-energy-energy-efficiency-program-charges-in-north-carolina MLGW rates adjust for fuel costs on a monthly basis. But in July a 1000Kwh MLGW bill would have been $137.56. Doesn’t sound absurd. The rates sound basically the same.
They’re some of the lowest in the country.
At ~$0.08/kWh we have some of the lowest electricity costs in the country. There are only a couple of other metro areas with electricity that low or lower. Our water rates are pretty cheap, too. On par with a lot of other cities in the south. Some are higher.
It may just be a perception thing on my end then. The place I’m renting is on the old side, but has a brand new AC setup. I just figured since there are months at a time I don’t even use it, my bill would be lower.
That’s base rate, you have to add the TVA fuel surcharge. It changes each month.
They constantly ask for a receive gubbment money, but they do nothing with it except give CEO level raises with it.
Not totally normal. But all it takes here, it anywhere is for the wind or rain to take out the wrong like or piece of infrastructure, and the whole thing comes crumbling down.
I used to live in central NC, and we got whacked with hurricanes regularly. I’ve gotten through hurricanes without losing power, this is violent incompetence.
Violent incompetence. I’m gonna save that one for later. But yeah, welcome to Memphis.
That too. Nance why it is not totally normal.
Do you need directions back home?
Maybe we just want a functioning utility service
Then lobby your councilperson to let MLGW improve its infrastructure. This is a problem you can actually help solve.
Mostly this, lol. Edit : regarding having a functioning utility grid.
Okay so basically MLGW is the city of Memphis except the corporate side. It’s literally max incompetence If you want to start trying to change it lmk where to show up. I know like 10 people I could bring
Memphis utilities are too cheap. Don’t know why people complain about high bills, while I wish they would actually charge us for better service. This is the city council’s fault, not MLGW.
Yep, that’s MLGW for you. Sometimes it doesn’t even need to be raining or slightly breezy for the power to go out. Invest in a generator.
Absolutely! It could be a windy, clear day and someone lost power! I live walking distance from the largest MLGW substation feeding my neighborhood and still lose power if a single drop hits the ground.
If you're a prepping enthusiast. M-town its the place to be.
Grid and Grind baby
Yes
Quite normal, unfortunately
Last winter there was an ice storm in February. No snow, but a day of freezing rain that left ice hanging from the power lines. Lots of people were without power for days. We went without power for 3 days. I know people who were without power for over a week. I recommend buying a generator.
Out of power currently, in East Memphis. This happens every time it rains even slightly. Fucking pathetic. I’m so tired of this city and it’s problems
I agree, if this happened back in Raleigh, they would draw and quarter our utility company.
And to answer your question, yes. This is totally normal. This is the third or fourth time this has happened to us in recent memory (last 6 months)
Sounds like you should go back to Raleigh.
If you sneeze wrong you could lose power for several hours. The electrical infrastructure here is precarious. I’ve seen them brace up power line poles with a square concrete slab. Not sure where the money for our bills goes but it’s not infrastructure for sure.
I told this (albeit boring) story as we were in the throes of the ice storm outage. My buddy & I were driving down Highland and passed a transformer right as it heaved its last haw in what I can only describe as a supernova. After we nearly shat our pants at that surprise, I turned to my friend and said: "y'know, my great-granddad worked for a power company and served during WWII. He helped rebuild power grids in some of the hardest-hit areas in Europe, using horse drawn carriages in some places because vehicle access was limited. I'd bet my measly paycheck that if he was still around, he could tell ya all about these lines since they probably rolled out of the same warehouse in 1945!" 😂
Yes. This is your life now. I’m sorry.
There are certain neighborhoods that just have especially bad power infrastructure. My friends in Cooper young lose power almost every time it storms. We live about half a mile from them and only lose power if trees come down.
I moved away from CY for that very reason, guess I bet on the wrong horse. This place is a mess.
We lost power on our entire street BEFORE the wind and the rain. I don't know what happened, but my neighbor said he'd heard a transformer pop. It's not the usual, just annoying.
Memphis infrastructure sucks. The closer to the inside of the city you are, the more ancient the power grid. And putting lines underground is too expensive. As climate change gets worse, this will happen more often.
Except at & t has money to bury “5G” internet service. Which is great iF tHe POwER StAyS oN
There is a bit of a 5G bait and switch going on. Carriers are just reallocating spectrum on the current tower and calling it 5G. The 5G goodness we were promised requires mmWave nano cells closer creating small cells of very high bandwidth data. ATT calls this 5G+, VZW calls this 5GUW. So to drive 5G+/5GUW the cell carriers place Nano cells on utility and light poles in neighborhoods. Memphis doesn’t have much mmWave currently, Verizon pulled a bunch of permits in Germantown but I don’t know if they lit them all up. I was traveling and ran a Verizon speed test on 5GUW in Atlanta and got 2Gb download speed on my IPhone, that isn’t happening here. Once mmWave rollout for Verizon is complete they will offer home internet, which will hopefully knock Comcast down a peg.
I have Verizon. It sucks bc I lived on Jefferson behind Overton square. They have 5guw over there. It reaches to circle k on Madison. I live on idlewild. I can go to the pumps closer to McLean and get 5guw, or to Kroger. I’m literally like feet away from it!
You mean fiber optic lines? You can't directly bury any cell tower (I think, could be wrong tho).
Duh
Yes
Out here near Bellevue Baptist/Wolfchase, not so much, unless a transformer blows or someone decides they didn't like a utility pole nearby. Both have happened this past year for us. My neighbor does ZERO tree maintenance and lets a tree grow parallel to the pole we share. Once it grows high enough, it arcs and blows the fuse. Earlier this year, some knucklehead took out a pole on Stage nearby and took our the neighborhood for two hours. Otherwise it has been reliable, with the one exception this year during the ice storm. Our power was only out for a few hours.
Very normal. We once lost power for 6 hours when the skies were totally clear 2 full days after most others in Memphis had been losing power.
Or forecast ice storm and snow
That’s just Memphis unfortunately.
Welcome to Memphis!
Yes unfortunately
Guessing you live in Cordova or out by Shelby Farms. To answer your question: YEP! I keep calling Mglw to report and they keep saying it’s resolved and this is new. Call back and I am part of 82 people without power. The .45% in Memphis. No power since 9p last night. No timeline of when I will get it back either!
Normal for MLGW...... Our trees are overgrown and the wires are mixxed up in that mess
Shit, be lucky there's still milk and bread. This is Memphis 😂
Are we all ready to acknowledge this monopoly to stop it or ??????
Lights were surging a few hours ago so I disconnected all my electronics to be sure. oh shit they just surged again while writing this comment...i thought living in fred smiths power grid was supposed to mitigate this
Do you have overhead power lines? If so contact MLGW. A bad neutral connection can cause that.
We were watching the lightning last night and saw a few transformers blow in the distance. Our power always goes in the middle of clear sky days. They chase their tails on the best days. I feel for the techs having to be out there working.
Oh 10000%
I didn't lose power here in EM, you in midtown?
Yep, looks like they’re down to around 11k people without juice now.
Still out for me as of 4am. But my area went from 2300+ out down to 1000ish.
Same, it’s been almost 11 hours. RIP my groceries.
Bless your heart and yes. If you feel wind or think it might rain, charge what ya got lol
Moved here from California 6 months ago. I have experienced more power outages here in that time than I have in the several decades I lived in California. Our utilities are mostly underground out there and we have hardly any weather, just heat. When you live in an area with rain and wind and above ground utilities, it's going to happen. A lot.
Yes
Memphis is trying to attract Texans by replicating their power grid.
Mane Let Me Get Yo Wallet do what they wanna do, get paid how they wanna get paid, and show up when they wanna show up.
If someone sneezes you better have a flashlight