In the high-stakes power battle to keep its biggest customer, the Tennessee Valley Authority is sweetening its offerings to Memphis with promises to help build a major inland port on the Mississippi River to create more jobs and a new energy savings initiative to help lower the energy burden faced by many low-income Memphians.
At the same time, TVA is also providing a potential way for customers of Memphis Light Gas & Water to avoid some of the rate increases they thought were ahead.
TVA President Jeff Lyash said Tuesday he has spent much of his first year in office trying to listen to concerns voiced by those in Memphis, which is considering leaving TVA after 91 years and getting its power elsewhere.
“TVA has not always delivered the value to Memphis that it should have, which is our job as a pubic power partner,” Lyash said Tuesday after meeting with the Memphis City Council.
Lyash’s words echoed what Memphis leaders have been complaining to TVA about for years since MLGW began studying whether to leave the TVA fold nearly two decades ago.