MLGW contracts with Utility Partners of America

MLGW has contracted with Utility Partners of America (UPA) to help repair gas and water meters that are not registering use. 

Contractors will need to access the meters on customers' properties. They will knock on doors upon arrival. If a customer is not home, contractors will access the meters if possible. If not accessible, they will leave a number for customers to schedule a second visit. 

UPA contractors will have marked vehicles and carry MLGW badges.

POSSIBLE SCAM ALERTS: Contractors do NOT need to enter customers' homes. Contractors will NOT ask for any kind of payment.

MLGW anticipates completing the delayed billing work by January 2024, and making permanent repairs to the approximately 38,000 affected meter registers by December 2024.

For more information visit our website.

Delayed Billing FAQs

 

MLGW is releasing utility bills to customers who may not have received a bill in months as a result of faulty gas and water meter parts. This has raised questions, and we have answers! Please visit: mlgw.com/DelayedBillingPDF.

Memphis is the #1 City in the U.S. for clean drinking water

Memphis is THE PLACE for water according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency ranks Memphis as the #1 City in the U.S. for clean drinking water. Read more. 

Pull the plug on utility scams

From The Best Times

I borrowed the title of this column from an alert Memphis Light, Gas and Water issued about a scam the BBB has warned about for years. Most consumers know better, but some let their emotions get out in front of their common sense and fall for it.

In February, a Memphis woman got a call from a person claiming to be with MLGW, saying she was delinquent on her bill and threatening to cut off her power if she didn’t make a payment immediately.

Caller ID said “MLGW” and the person was so intimidating that she ultimately wired $2,900 in six separate payments. Sometimes the crooks will demand payment using gift or prepaid debit cards, a money transfer app, or even cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

In just one week last year, we received 37 reports to our BBB Scam Tracker service about the scam. It was during the high heat of the summer and, worried about losing their air conditioning, 25 of the people paid the scammers. All were seniors.

The scam isn’t unique to MLGW and Memphis. If you Google “utility scam” you’ll see pages and pages of warnings from utilities, BBBs, regulators and the media.

And it isn’t just consumers who are targeted. The owner of a well-known restaurant in Memphis got a call telling him he had one hour to pay a past due bill of $1,062. When he asked to speak to a supervisor, he was given an 800 number that was answered “MLGW” by someone who sounded suspiciously like the original caller.

He didn’t fall for the scam, but a Bossier City, Louisiana, business owner did. Just before the start of the Valentine’s Day weekend, the owner of a chocolate candy shop got a call purportedly from her local utility telling her she had 40 minutes to pay a past due bill or have her power cut off. She paid using a pre-paid debit card, but like the Memphis consumer, the crooks called back saying she needed to make another payment. She did, but finally realized it was a scam after receiving a third call.

MLGW says it will never call and demand money over the phone. While MLGW mails cut-off notices to customers and uses auto-dialers alerting them that payment must be made by a certain date to avoid cutoff, it will never ask customers to call a 1-800 number or buy a prepaid debit card. Residential customers should call 901-544-6549 and business customers should call MLGW’s Commercial Resource Center at 901-528-4270 if they have concerns.

The BBB would add:

Be suspicious of callers who demand immediate payment for any reason.

Be wary of any caller who asks you to make a payment with a prepaid debit card, a gift card, wire transfer or cryptocurrency. Scammers prefer these payment methods because there’s nothing you can do to get your money back.

Never give out personal or financial information to anyone who emails or calls you unsolicited.

Report any scam to https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker.

Heath Consultants Performing Gas Surveys

In the interest of protecting life and property, MLGW is required by law to routinely survey all gas services for leaks. This survey is over the full length of the gas service from the street to the gas meter.

For more than 20 years, MLGW has contracted with Heath Consultants, a national company with offices throughout Tennessee, to perform these surveys of our gas system.

Heath employees can be identified by their MLGW safety vests and MLGW identification badges. If a Heath worker is unable to reach your gas meter, call the number on the yard sign near your mailbox to set up a return visit.

Appointments are made for the first Monday of the month. In the event a holiday falls on the first Monday, appointments are made for the second Monday of the month. Workers are unable to complete the leak survey in the rain or if we have excessive amounts of rain.

Please help ensure the safety of our community by working with Heath Consultants to grant access to gas meters and conduct a complete leak survey of your gas service.

 

 

 

5-Year Reliability and Resilience Work Plan

Memphis Light, Gas and Water is on its way to making our electrical system more reliable and resilient. How? It is a three-step approach says MLGW President CEO Doug McGowen.

• Step 1 – A baseline assessment to figure out what’s out there and what’s broken. In the last 18 months, MLGW has responded to 800,000 customer outages. To put that into perspective, that is the same number of outages as there were in the 10 years between 2012 and 2022. A baseline assessment will let us find everything that has been broken in those 18 months so we can fix it.
  
• Step 2 – Putting in a 5-Year Reliability and Resilience Work Plan which includes improvements listed in the 2020 MLGW Way Forward plan: old poles, transformers and switches are being replaced; MLGW has contracted three tree-trimming crews to get us back on a three-year tree-trimming cycle; and MLGW is upgrading all its substations and putting more modern construction standards into place.
• Step 3 – Moving to a smart grid. A smart, “self-healing” grid will automatically detect outages and re-route power to customers who can receive it, drastically reducing the amount of time for damage assessment and helping crews respond quicker.

We are already on our way to meeting these goals. Infrastructure improvements are underway, and completion of the 5-year Reliability and Resilience Work Plan will help set us up for future success with MLGW 2045.

Click here to watch the July 21 Power Hour in Bartlett and listen to President McGowen lay out plan details and explain what's next.

Water for Life event

Several MLGW volunteers participated recently in the "Water for Life" event at Shelby Farms on July 30, part of the 2023 KY/TN Water Professionals Conference in Memphis.

To the delight of children and adults, our team of volunteers brought and displayed MLGW's "magic water fountain" and demonstrated a basic simulation of how water gets filtered before consumption. 

MLGW's booth had two experts from the Water Lab, among the group of volunteers. 

As giveaways, children received Power League Superhero "Water Mane" activity books, while adults received water-related conservation and consumption information.