MLGW addresses recent storms, tree trimming needs in Shelby County

Tuesday afternoon, Memphis Light, Gas and Water CEO Doug McGowen gave a presentation to the Memphis City Council outlining efforts to mitigate storm damage. McGowen highlighted vegetation management and tree trimming as priorities for the utility.

McGowen gave council members a presentation, saying the utility company would be ramping up the vegetation management in order to prevent future county-wide outages.

MLGW is looking for the council's approval for a five-year contract using three vendors to address tree trimming. The total contract would be $227 million. Although the money would come from MLGW's budget, any contract over $250,000 needs approval from the council.

"Just to be clear, I am not asking City Council for any more money," McGowen said.

On June 25, more than 27% of Shelby County was without power due to a supercell storm, McGowen said in the Tuesday presentation. McGowen also said the utility estimates that 60% of the outages that have happened in 2023 were caused by trees.

The utility also said that proper vegetation management would have prevented the majority of the outages that have happened in the area. MLGW's goal is to clear 1,374 right-of-way miles per year, but over the last 10 years, that goal has never been met.

McGowen also said that The National Weather Service will be bringing MLGW an update on the weather systems that have caused the multi-day outages over the last year.

"This year has been particularly onerous with the weather...It's something about El Nino and La Nina and the intersection there," McGowen said. "It's causing a little bit of this crazy weather."

Councilmembers also had the opportunity to ask questions of McGowen. Those mainly centered on the approach to the tree trimming. The plan forward for vegetation management will be to contract out work to Memphis-area companies, as it has been in the past.

"This is a permanent problem that we have, but to me, if we always contract it out, that's a temporary fix," Councilman Martavius Jones said of the contract work.

Councilwoman Cheyenne Johnson asked if there were other ways for the trees to be trimmed, as sometimes clearing just one side of the tree can cause it to topple over due to wind. McGowen said that trimming one side of the tree is the industry standard and that they can only clear what is in their right-of-way.

"Eventually these trees start falling, I think you might need to look at the type of tree that you are doing (the work to)," Johnson said. She pointed out that some of the larger oak trees, if "sliced in half," could be unbalanced.

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While vegetation management and tree trimming is a priority, MLGW is also working to improve the overall infrastructure of the utility. Some transformers in the area have up to 14 customers getting electricity from them. MLGW is working to lessen the number of customers on a single transformer.

Late last month, Memphis residents experienced multiple days without power due to a storm dubbed as one of the worst the area has seen. After power was restored to most residents, another storm rolled through, causing more outages in the Germantown area.

While power has been restored, MLGW crews are still working on cleaning up the aftermath of these storms.

Brooke Muckerman covers county government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: MLGW CEO says tree trimming a top priority to prevent power outages