White Pine, Tennessee, November 2, 2023 – At the end of October, both the Morristown Utilities (MU) Board and the Appalachian Electric Cooperative (AEC) Board approved the Notice to Proceed Resolutions for a 25-Megawatt solar generation facility in Jefferson County. MU and AEC have entered this joint agreement with Dancing Horse, LLC to secure the project.
General Manger and Executive Vice President of AEC, Josh Compton, says, “With the Notice to Proceed approvals by the AEC and MU Boards, we’ve reached a turning point on this project. I look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders during the next phase of construction and eventually completion to bring clean, low-cost power to our members.”
The joint solar project is enabled by TVA’s power contract that allows local power companies to generate up to five percent of their energy needs locally. The two utilities came together and agreed to pool their Flexibility Option allocations to yield economies of scale, resulting in a better price point.
Jody Wigington, General Manager and CEO of MU, says, “By joining together, AEC and MU take advantage of a larger project that will return financial benefits for years into the future. It also demonstrates our commitment to renewable energy and use of the sun’s free energy, a natural resource provided by our Creator.”
The anticipated launch date for this groundbreaking project is early 2025, reflecting a 25-year commitment to delivering clean energy solutions to the region as efficiently and effectively as possible. The project will be situated in White Pine, and while it feeds power into a substation utilized by both AEC and MU, each utility will receive an equal allocation of 50% of the total power produced, equivalent to 12.375 MW each. The project will incorporate over 63,000 solar modules equipped with tracking systems to follow the sun's path across the sky. In its first year of operation, the system is projected to generate more than 53 million kilowatt-hours (kWh). This renewable generation represents the annual usage of around 4,000 residential members/customers collectively for both systems. As of now, the projected savings for each utility are anticipated to be approximately $900,000 per year, per utility.
About Appalachian Electric Cooperative (AEC)
AEC receives power from TVA at four delivery point substations and operates 12 distribution substations across the service area, serving portions of Jefferson, Hamblen, Hawkins, Grainger, and Sevier counties. AEC serves over 50,000 members across 2,729 miles of utility lines with a peak system demand of 330 MW.
About Morristown Utilities (MU)
Morristown Utilities serves power to approximately 16,000 customers in the city of Morristown. With a peak system load of 170 MW, MUC receives power from TVA at two delivery point substations, which subsequently feeds ten distribution substations in a redundant scheme. All distribution lines are protected by state-of-the-art digital relays and multiple 3-phase reclosers, providing the optimum in line coordination and fault isolation.