Cookeville purchasing a new outage management system, which officials say will improve communication and response times for utility customers.
City Manager James Mills presented the request on behalf of the Energy Department, recommending a service agreement with Hometown Grid. Mills said the outage reporting system provides immediate feedback to customers and will work well with the city’s new automated meter reader infrastructure.
“The system will provide unlimited outage reporting, notifications to all on-call personnel, and outage maps for customers to access,” Mills said. “It also integrates with our advanced metering infrastructure. As you know, we are well over 50 percent towards the installation of advanced meters.”
Mills said the system will also give customers the ability to report gas-related issues directly through the platform. The cost includes a $2,000 upfront fee, $2,500 per month, and 4.5 cents per message, call, or voicemail. Mills noted the city currently spends about $18,000 annually on answering services alone.
“So you get a lot more bang for your buck under this,” Mills said. “On behalf of the Energy Department, I would request your approval to enter into a service agreement with Hometown Grid.”
Council members voiced strong support for the system. Council Member Eric Walker highlighted the system’s convenience and transparency to customers.
“When your power goes out, you’re going to be able to hop on, you might already have this number saved, you might have it on your phone, you’ll be able to jump on there, put in a request,” Walker said. “It’s gonna get your name, your phone number, you can tell it to text you what the status is of this repair, and then there will be a map that pops up that shows that your repair has been recorded, they know about it, and that they’re on their way out to try to fix it.”
Walker said the system will remove the need to call and wait on the phone to get an answer about your power outage. Council Member Ali Bagci said it will also free up the police department.
“In addition to that, too, it frees up, because a lot of times we have a rollover to our police department, and that frees them up so they’re not having to field phone calls as well,” Bagci said.
Following the discussion, the council unanimously approved the agreement in a 4-0 vote.