HSUD report shows steady recovery
Professional consultant Michael Watson and senior accounts manager Chawanna Harris had good news to report at the January 20 meeting of the City of Holly Springs mayor and board of aldermen.
Watson recommended a customer outage management system be purchased from the Central Service Association, the vendor for almost all of the Holly Springs account services.
The system is a customer-based tool to show where there are outages in real time.
Watson said many people are sharing their outage information on Facebook, but the shares are not always accurate.
“At the other utility where I worked, it was a powerful communication tool,” Watson said. “All calls to the Customer Response Center will automatically feed into the system and show up on a map.”
The system is driven by calls and when two or three calls show up to form an area clustered together, the mapping system automatically assumes other services are out on that line and will show up on the outage map. The system will provide an overall outage map.
Watson said the outage management system from CSA, HSUD’s vendor, will cost $17,000 or $376 monthly, with a possible additional charge of $50 to $100 in communication charges.
“It’s been my opinion, this is a very reasonable price. Other vendors charge much more,” Watson said. “Once we get it installed, we can make it a tool to show customers where there are outages.”
Ward 4 alderman Patricia Merriweather asked if the outage is reported only if a customer calls in.
Mayor Charles Terry said customers have to call HSUD to report an outage that is used to create the outage map.
“It will be much more effective in communicating with rate payers,” Watson said.
The board of aldermen approved purchase of the customer outage management system from CSA.
Watson said he received three bids to repair leaks in the seams in the roof at HSUD.
Interior acoustic ceiling tiles will also have to be replaced.
Three companies offered quotes, GS Contractors, a minority small business contractor from Collierville, Tenn., Summit General Contractors and Mercer Remodeling and Repair in Holly Springs.
Alderman Andre Jones made a motion to table the matter for executive session because of an issue involving a contractor and the board approved the motion to table.
Watson asked to hire tree trimming experts to work in the Ashland area. He said Jeff Atwell, with Atwell & Gent, recommended getting tree trimming experts to get work done in the Ashland area.
Superintendents, including George Humphreys, recommended starting work at the Ashland Substation and proceed with elevation experts. The work will be paid out of a $500,000 legislative appropriation to the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Watson said there remains $430,000 left in the fund, and that money will pay to cover a large area using elevation service tree experts.
HSUD would add $35,000 of its own money to do the work.
The board of aldermen approved the measure by a vote of 4-0 with Ward 2 alderman Andre Jones abstaining. Watson said about 75 to 100 miles of right-of-way could be cleared with the funds.
During Department Reports, Watson and Harris covered a number of topics related to HSUD.
Watson said that reports of outages over the weekend and damage to equipment at the substation rumored were not true.
Most power outages were restored around mid-morning, he said. Water had gotten inside the Ashland Substation and frozen breaking a switch, causing an outage of 45 minutes to an hour.
The Tennessee Valley Electric Power Association has a mutual aid agreement with Southern Electric to stand by with crews in case of ice and snow problems over the weekend of Friday January 24 through Sunday noon.
Watson said most of Southern Electric crews are dedicated to Entergy for the period but Southern Electric said it will pull in crews from out of state, if needed.
Open complaints to the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Public Service Commission totaled 75 and HSUD is working with TVA to close those complaints out.
HSUD employees are working with any new service request. And outdoor light crews are working in the Potts Camp area to close out a large back log, Watson said.
TVA is helping test 200 meters. A third of those being tested were those swapped out for faded meters. Those tests are routine maintenance items. Watson provided updates
on expenditures for contractors:
• Southern Electric has been paid $1.4 million to date.
• C&M Bush Hogging has been paid $650,000.
• Killen Construction has been paid $438,000.
• $425,000.
• Jolly Meter Reading has been paid $90,000.
• lease payments on five trucks were paid.
Billing is catching up.
Watson said currently HSUD is three weeks behind on bills for the December usage. The bills were late going out because TVA had identified a problem in May 2025 and CSA has to calculate the corrections of all bills causing a delay. TVA had requested the delay.
Mayor Terry said HSUD’s current status with payment to vendors and TVA are under 30 days.
“Everything you approved to pay has been paid,” Terry said to aldermen.
HSUD currently owes $15 million to TVA and HSUD was able to pay all of March invoices.
“We will look to see what we can pay in June invoices,” he said.
HSUD is improving cash flow and billing is current so the goal is to be able to pay TVA as much as it can, Terry said.