MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Friday’s massive power outage in parts of West Tennessee brings back bitter cold memories of when many MLGW customers lost power around Christmas of 2022.

So, just how prepared is MLGW today, and what impact will Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer facility have on the power grid in Memphis?

Back in 2022, the cold weather, ice and snow, which downed trees and power lines, caused massive outages. MLGW even issued rolling blackouts to try and conserve energy.

This week, MLGW president and CEO Doug McGowen told the utility’s board an aggressive tree trimming program around power lines continues, along with the replacement of outdated infrastructure. 

“Our team is prepared for the winter,” MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowen said this week. “We can’t control the weather, we can’t control the ice, but we can control all things that affect our system. So, we’re getting better every year and we’re well prepared going into the season.” 

But in light of a few recent outages and the announcement this week that Elon Musk will be expanding his XAI Colossus supercomputer facility in Memphis, can the utility handle any additional strain on the power grid?

Memphis Light, Gas and Water said Friday they don’t anticipate any strain on the system.

Regarding the XAI expansion, MLGW says, “We look forward to learning more details about the expansion of xAI and the new companies coming to Memphis and Shelby County that were announced today. MLGW is proud to have played an important role in xAI’s launch in Memphis and the potential for new economic development.

“The projects announced recently represent significant, additional growth and requires thorough study using a federally mandated process that examines the impact on capacity and reliability of generation, transmission and distribution.  We have not received detailed plans about all the utilities necessary to support these projects. Until we do, we reserve further comments. 

“MLGW is proud to catalyze new growth in Memphis and Shelby County, while at the same time ensuring the reliability of services for our existing customers.”

City Councilman Dr. Jeff Warren says he’s hearing MLGW is negotiating a plan with xAI that could be beneficial to the utility and maybe reduce some demand.

“What I’m really excited about that they’re doing is, they’re actually buying power from MLGW and they are storing it in battery storage, for when there is an outage, they don’t require any of the grid,” Warren said.

City Councilwoman Jerri Green says she remains cautiously optimistic about the impact of the xAI expansion.

“But we are going to have to continue to make sure that they go through federally mandated processes that before MLGW adds any more to the grid they continue,” Green said. “They’re mandated to have reliability for its customers. So, there’s a lot of hoops to still jump through and information to come.”