PARIS TN: Property owners hear TVA’s plans on new transmission line

Representatives from Murray Electric, the Board of Public Utilities and the Tennessee Valley Authority gathered on Thursday at the CFSB Center at Murray State University to answer property owners’ questions regarding TVA’s proposed upgrades to their transmission system in Paris and Murray to provide additional power for economic growth and to help increase power reliability.

TVA is proposing to invest $18 million to build about 16 miles of transmission line to provide power to a new Paris Board of Public Utilities substation at Eagle Creek.

Terry Wimberley, general manager of BPU, and Cole Edwards, director of engineering and operations for BPU, said the new installation of TVA’s proposed transmission system should help BPU’s ability to bring more reliable electricity to their customers.

“With the completion of this project, BPU will be able to receive power from TVA from two delivery points,” said Wimberley.

“This should help us not have another issue like we did a couple of weeks ago, when a backup DC voltage system failed and caused a countywide outage.”

The proposed line would be built on steel pole structures. For 14.5 miles, the new line would be parallel to TVA’s Marshall-Cumberland 500-kV transmission line, and it would use a portion of the existing right of way, which would require just 60 feet of additional width. The remaining 1.5 miles of the proposed line would require a new 100-foot right of way.

David and Stacey Mikulcik from Murray said they were glad that TVA had taken the time to consider the least amount of disruption for property owners affected by the project.

“We own a nursery (Mikulcik’s Nursey) just south of Murray, and we’re just thankful that TVA has decided to run through our property where we have most of our brush,” said Stacey Mikulcik. “If they had decided to go to the other side of our property, our nursery might have lost quite a bit.”

The estimated project schedule is as follows: surveys will begin in spring 2019, easement purchase will begin in the fall 2020, construction will begin in 2021 and the project should be operational by winter 2021.

TVA noted that these dates are estimated, and if unexpected issues arise, this proposed schedule may need to be adjusted.

More information about the project can be found at www.tva.com/transmissionprojects.

If you have questions, please contact Cherie Minghini toll-free at 800-362-4355 or email newtransline@tva.gov.

You can also mail questions to Cherie Minghini, TVA, 1101 Market St., MR 4G, Chattanooga 37402.