MLGW officials outline meter replacements, apprenticeship pipeline and LIHEAP assistance effort

Doug McGowan, president of Memphis Light, Gas and Water, briefed council committees on June 23 about a set of operational and community initiatives, including large metering purchases to reduce estimated bills, a broad apprenticeship program and an emergency LIHEAP application effort.

Metering and billing: McGowan said MLGW requested three purchases: roughly $5 million for about 58,000 gas meter components, about $3.058 million for ~43,000 water registers and about $5.476 million for ~43,738 water telemetry modules. Those items are intended to replace failed or out‑of‑service components and reduce a recent spike in estimated bills (McGowan said the current estimate rate was approximately 5% whereas industry standard is about 3%). Council members pressed on the cause of the estimates: McGowan explained a programming error that briefly set an average residential use number too low (one unit instead of the correct ~8 units), contributing to approximately $1.6 million in water and $1.8 million in sewer revenue shortfalls.

McGowan outlined interim remedies (remote retries, truck dispatches, manual reads and prioritized replacement of known failed registers) and said the purchases will allow the utility to reduce reliance on estimates.

Apprenticeship program: McGowan described MLGW’s apprenticeship academy: 11 pathways (mechanics; cable splicing; heavy equipment operators; circuit breaker/substation electricians; electric meter field technicians; gas fitters; overhead linemen; telecommunications/fiber technicians; test technicians; transformer repair), program lengths ranging from about three to four‑and‑a‑half years, and a pipeline that typically enrolls 15–20 apprentices a year and sustains roughly 100 apprentices in training at once. He said many apprentices move into MLGW journeyman roles and that growing the in‑house workforce reduces the need for contractors on core maintenance work.

LIHEAP and customer assistance: McGowan explained that a late federal LIHEAP allocation (about $9.6 million) required rapid processing; MLGW partnered with Shelby County Community Services Agency and trained 60 MLGW employees to process applications, converting the downtown community office into a LIHEAP processing center by appointment and processing hundreds of applications already. He said the program would aim to spend the allocation by late August and requested council help getting the word out and assisting residents with appointments.

Reorganization and staffing: McGowan defended a recent MLGW reorganization that affected 33 positions (upgrades and reclassification), saying 250 more employees work at MLGW now than in December 2022. He said the change aimed to add capacity in customer experience and talent acquisition; 15 of the 33 upgraded positions were filled by internal applicants, two employees chose not to reapply and 16 were unsuccessful and offered transition assistance including extended health coverage and severance.

Council response and next steps: Council members welcomed the apprenticeship pipeline but probed warranty/life‑cycle, replacement prioritization, the suppliers’ specifications for the new hardware, and whether the LIHEAP shift could be further decentralized to improve access for residents without transportation. McGowan said MLGW would provide detailed rate charts and timelines for replacement and would consider mobile or community‑based LIHEAP assistance if demand required it.

Ending: The committee received the presentations and advanced related consent items. Council members asked for follow‑up documentation on metering procurement, a schedule for replacements, and a summary of the apprenticeship enrollments and graduate placement rates.