Vehicle damages TVA transmission line causing outage in Murfreesboro

Power restored to all impacted areas

Residents and business in the Blackman and Gateway areas of Murfreesboro experienced a power outage today for several hours. At approximately 11:15 a.m., the Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) Blackman and Gateway Substations lost service from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), affecting nearly 11,000 MTE members. The outage was caused when an unidentified vehicle damaged guy wires, a transmission pole and equipment at the intersection of Tabitha St. and Boyd Dr. in Northwest Murfreesboro before leaving the scene. MTE was immediately in contact with TVA and dispatched crews to the affected substations and to assist TVA.

MTE’s crews and technicians rerouted power to the Gateway Substation at approximately noon, which restored power to Ascension St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital and the Murfreesboro Medical Center. TVA’s transmission feeds would not allow for rerouting power at the Blackman Substation.

In hopes of restoring service to some members served by the Blackman Substation, MTE rerouted power on its distribution system at approximately 1:25 p.m. Despite these efforts, power was restored to about 2,500 members for only matter of minutes as the ensuing power demand proved too great to hold.

At approximately 2:04 p.m., TVA restored transmission service to MTE, and MTE immediately restored power to all affected members.

TVA passes along its regrets to MTE and its members for the length of the service disruption. If you have information about the vehicle that caused this damage, please contact Murfreesboro Police at (615) 849-2673.

MTE works hard every day to maintain our system and make upgrades that improve reliability, but some outages are unavoidable. When an outage happens, our top priority is restoring power quickly and safely. Team MTE is ready to respond to outages 24/7/365.

About Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE)

Founded in 1936, MTE is the largest electric cooperative in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) region and the second largest in the United States, serving more than 750,000 Tennesseans via 340,000+ accounts covering nearly 2,200 square miles in 11 Middle Tennessee counties, primarily Rutherford, Cannon, Williamson and Wilson. Municipalities served include Murfreesboro, Franklin, Brentwood, Smyrna, La Vergne, Lebanon and Mt. Juliet. MTE employs around 540 people in six local offices and its Murfreesboro headquarters. 
 
MTE’s subsidiary, United Communications, is a nationally recognized broadband company with a fiber network spanning more than 4,800 route miles, providing high-speed internet and phone services to portions of Bedford, Davidson, Franklin, Giles, Lincoln, Marshall, Maury, Moore, Rutherford, Williamson, and Wilson counties.