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MLGW warns of higher bills after prolonged cold; committee advances consent agenda
Summary
Doug McGowan told council committees that historic cold drove high natural gas and electricity use and urged customers to seek payment arrangements now; MLGW presented fiscal consent items including utility assistance grants, a software replacement, license renewals and janitorial and consulting contracts.
Doug McGowan, president of Memphis Light, Gas & Water, told the council on Feb. 3 that the prolonged cold spell caused historically high natural gas and electricity consumption and that customers should expect larger February bills.
"There will be a little sticker shock," McGowan said, urging customers who expect difficulty to contact MLGW for payment plans rather than waiting for cutoff notices. He stressed that MLGW does not send representatives who call and demand immediate payment, calling such calls "scammers." "MLGW will never call you and threaten to cut you off," he said.
McGowan presented the committee with fiscal consent agenda items totaling roughly $2.2 million for the meeting and $17 million for the fiscal year. Line items included a $227,000 community care fund (matched by TVA for utility assistance), a $247,000 utility assistance slide item (noting TVA allocations and required matches), a five-year data historian software replacement for operations data backup, Quest Toad software licenses (~$461,000), renewal of janitorial services (one-year renewal for Mason's Professional Cleaning Service at $360,000), and a two-year on-call consulting contract for facilities engineering.
Committee members praised MLGW for keeping power service steady during the storm while staff responded to water main breaks and burst protection systems. McGowan said the utility had more than 120 water-main breaks and over 1,100 resident service calls during the cold spell but no long-term water outages or pressure loss.
The MLGW committee gave the fiscal consent agenda a positive recommendation to advance to the full council.
