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TVA and Mountain Electric Cooperative Postpones Major Electricity Outage to November 10-11

By Tim Gardner

The Tennessee Valley Authority & Mountain Electric Cooperative has postponed a major power outage that was originally scheduled for Saturday, October 27, moving it to November 10.

The outage will begin at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night, November 10 and is anticipated to last for nine hours.

Work should be completed and electricity restored by 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, November 11.

The outage will impact 14,500 customers over much of Avery County including the following communities: Cranberry, Minneapolis, Banner Elk, Sugar Mountain, Grandfather, Montezuma, Linville, Pineola, Crossnore, Jonas Ridge, Newland and Linville Falls.

The outage is necessary to replace and repair high-voltage equipment at the Cranberry Substation.

Mountain Electric Cooperative was formed on April 1, 1941 by area farmers and residents. It owns and operates more than 2,290 miles of distribution line and over 24 miles of transmission 69 kV lines. MEC distributes electricity, generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, to more than 33,600 residential and business members.

The Mountain Electric service area includes primarily Johnson and Carter Counties in Tennessee and much of Avery County. Additionally, small portions of Watauga, Burke and Mitchell, NC counties and Unicoi County, TN are also served by the cooperative. The MEC service area population is approximately 45,000 and covers 700-square miles. The cooperative has several dozen full-time employees based out of three offices, its headquarters in Mountain City, TN, a district office in Newland, NC and a small branch office in Roan Mountain, TN.