MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Video shows the FedEx Forum going black, but Memphis, Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) claimed Downtown Memphis never lost power.
“The power did not go out,” Gale Jone Carson, spokesperson for MLGW, said. “However, because of the blip in the system it did cause an 18 minute delay in television time.”
Carson said MLGW is still working to get to the bottom of how and why the surge happened.
“There was no outage on the map shown because there was not an outage. There was just a blip– a surge,” Carson explained.
In addition to the glitch in their system, MLGW investigators said someone stole copper wire from their facility.
However, it is not clear if those two things are connected.
This happened after two massive outages last year in Downtown Memphis that are still fresh on minds.
WREG took concerns to the City Council to see what they are doing to make sure something like this does not happen again.
“To a citizen, any outage is more than enough,” Councilwoman Patrice Robinson said.
Robinson chairs the MLGW Committee and is a former employee of the utility.
She has been in contact with the company after Sunday’s incident and claimed it is doing all it can to make improvements.
“We are working with them everyday trying to protect our citizens and ensure that we get the best service for our dollar,” Robinson said.
Downtown is on its own power grid, and lines run underground.
MLGW said the system is reliable even if situations such as this happen when Memphis is on a national stage.
“I didn’t see it as an embarrassment,” Carson said. “I’m sorry there was a delay in the television showing of the game. However, the game went on.”
