Neighbors Powering What Matters

Community Energy: the benefit of Middle Tennessee Electric and TVA working together
Community Energy

Community Energy—In Our Region, Power Means More

Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) is powered by a public power model — owned by and accountable to the people who live here. So the initiatives we invest in through our power model serve one purpose: helping our communities thrive.

Because we support public power, we all benefit from Community Energy. It’s the progress our model enables — like more job opportunities thanks to thriving and growing communities, outdoor recreation thanks to our protected lands, cleaner energy sources, and much more.

A Partnership of Service

MTE and TVA work together to power not just our homes and businesses, but our potential too — by combining efforts to help create a future we all believe in.

Working Together to Make Life in Our Community Better

Keeping Social Services Going During the Pandemic and Helping Kids Process Tornadoes Through STEAM

Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) and TVA were founded on a mission to serve — through reliable and affordable energy, a safe and protected environment and thriving economic development.

Community energy provides our neighbors more than just reliable electricity. It’s here to help local veterans find jobs, make sure young students continue to build their reading skills, and ensure that children who need physical therapy receive care in a safe and clean environment. These are just a few examples of the services 21 nonprofits (and co-op members) in the MTE service area are able to continue to offer during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to financial assistance.  Jay Sanders, MTE community relations coordinator, said they secured a grant through a TVA Community Care Fund, and both MTE and TVA contributed matching donations. MTE also supports its residents who have struggled to pay utility bills through programs that are partially funded by TVA’s Pandemic Relief Credit for local power companies (LPCs).

MTE and TVA have a history of joining forces to support the community in Middle Tennessee, and 2020 was a particularly busy year for the partnership. In March, the same month the World Health Organization declared the global pandemic, several deadly tornadoes blasted through the Middle Tennessee region, damaged homes and businesses and caused power outages. During this difficult time, MTE and TVA checked on co-op members and supported their line crews. According to Larry Rose, communications and marketing consultant for MTE, at one point, 600 people were on the ground helping, and they were able to restore power in less than a week. Rose said, “It was an incredible effort to get it done so quickly. Some of the TVA towers were twisted like pretzels.”

One individual in particular was also inspired to find a way to help the community heal after the tornadoes. DeAna Duncan, audio-visual production teacher at Green Hill High School in Mt. Juliet reached out to MTE and TVA for financial assistance with a multi-faceted art project that would give students a way to process how the natural disaster affected them. MTE and TVA supported her idea, and each contributed $2,500 to a science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) grant, and awarded Duncan $5,000.

She used the funds to repurpose a baby grand piano donated by the family of one of her former students. Sadly, they had lost their home in the tornado, but the instrument remained intact, although the exterior was roughed up by winds. Duncan taught students how to remove the piano’s interior and replace it with an A/V system. They custom designed it to play audio and video recordings of dance and choral performances and spoken stories by their peers that expressed how they were impacted by the tornadoes. Elementary and middle school students from Wilson County collaborated, too, and created a new surface design with images that captured their own responses to the storms. The project, titled, “And the Song Played On,” is intended to serve as a symbol of hope and healing for the community.

As Amy Byers, marketing/public relations coordinator for MTE, said, community energy “isn’t a new thing; MTE was created to make the lives of our members better.”

Helping some of the most vulnerable people in their service community will always be a priority at MTE, and the partnership with TVA and its programs makes many of these efforts possible.

Our energy has fueled progress in our region since 1933. See the ways it's helping shape our future.

Resources for Your Home, Business and Life

Our partnership makes helpful programs like these possible.

Economic Development

MTE works with TVA Economic Development to attract new companies and bring more jobs to the area and to help existing businesses and industries grow in a sustainable way. Here are a few of the economic development highlights in the MTE service area since 2018.

Amazon, a leading global electronic commerce and cloud computing company opened a new high-tech fulfillment center in Mt. Juliet, Tenn. The facility brings over 1,000 new jobs to Wilson County. Economic development partners include Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, the Joint Economic & Community Development Board of Wilson County, City of Mt. Juliet, Wilson County and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

Ramsey Solutions, a financial services company, expanded operations in Williamson County, including adding 600 new jobs and investing $52 million in the company’s corporate headquarters. Economic development partners include Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, Williamson, Inc., and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

MAHLE, a leading international automotive supplier, is expanding operations in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The groundbreaking for the project was held on March 23, 2021. The expansion includes adding 300 jobs and optimizing the company’s production footprint to be closer to automotive suppliers located in the Southeast. Economic development partners include Middle Tennessee Electric, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, and Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.

Mitsubishi Motors North America relocated its North American administrative headquarters to Franklin, Tennessee from Cypress, California. The move by Mitsubishi Motors move represents an investment in the county of $18.25 million and brings approximately 200 new jobs to Williamson County. Economic Development Partners include Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, Williamson, Inc., Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

TVA Economic Development serves the seven states that make up the TVA service area—almost all of Tennessee and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. TVA partnerships with other economic development organizations, help to foster capital investment and job growth in the region.

Discover all the resources designed to help you manage your energy use and boost your bottom line.

Education

Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) and TVA work together to support community-wide learning about energy efficiency, meet STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) objectives and provide opportunities to develop skills that can prepare students for careers in technical fields. 

TVA STEM Grants

Teachers in public schools that receive power from a TVA distributor can win STEM grants up to $5,000. In 2022 alone, TVA distributed $1 million, in partnership with Bicentennial Volunteers Incorporated, a TVA retiree organization, and the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network. TVA gives preference to applications covering its primary areas of focus–environment, energy, economic development, and community problem solving.

MTE is proud to serve many schools that have won TVA STEM grants.  2022 recipients are Lakeview Elementary, Mt. Juliet Elementary and Mt. Juliet High School, and 2019 and 2018 awardees are Cannon County High School, Erma Siegel Elementary School, Lascassas Elementary School, Lebanon High School, Mt. Juliet High School, Rock Springs Elementary School, Rockvale Middle School, Rocky Fork Middle School, Stewarts Creek Middle School, Wilson Elementary School, Williamson County Schools and Wilson County Schools.

TVA EnergyRight® School Uplift 

Schools enrolled in TVA EnergyRight® School Uplift receive infrastructure upgrades to reduce energy costs and improve the quality of the learning environment. Heating, cooling and lighting improvements are the tip of the iceberg, however as the program’s focus is long-term learning for communities. Students and faculty at chosen schools receive behavior-based strategic energy management (SEM) training and learn easy, actionable energy saving tips and energy efficiency practices.  

Smyrna Elementary School is a 2022 participant in School Uplift, and Cannon County High School and Woodbury Grammar School benefited from the program in 2021.

TVA EnergyRight Educational Workshops

Eye Spy Energy Kids’ Workshop

TVA EnergyRight and MTE partner to bring Spark, Bolt, Zap and their other EnergyRight Monster friends to elementary schools across the community, teaching students where energy comes from, how we use it and ways to save at home. Students can continue the energy-saving fun with their families using Eye Spy Energy Kits.

EnergyRight® Energy Monsters

TVA and local power companies partner up to bring EnergyRight® Energy Monsters workshops to schools to teach where energy comes from, how we use it and ways to save at home. Students can take home Eye Spy Energy Kits to continue the energy savings fun with their families.

Education

Reliability

MTE partners with TVA to provide safe, reliable, clean power to service area members.

TVA supplies community energy to 153 local power companies and about 60 large industrial customers and federal facilities at the lowest feasible cost. Over half of the electricity generated by TVA comes from carbon-free resources. TVA’s diverse energy portfolio includes coal, gas, nuclear and hydroelectric plants as well as renewable resources. For over 20 years, TVA’s transmission system has achieved a reliability rate of 99.999 percent.

Reliability

Residential

Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) partners with TVA to help customers make smart energy decisions and save money through TVA EnergyRight.

Our partnership with TVA EnergyRight offers you resources to help with your home’s energy needs. From DIY energy-saving advice to finding a local contractor you can trust, TVA EnergyRight resources can help you improve your home’s energy efficiency and save money on your power bill.

As of September 2021, 1,158 customers in the MTE service area have participated so far this year in the TVA EnergyRight programs.

Community Energy - Residential