MEWS Celebrates 75th Anniversary
On June 11, 1942, Mayfield Electric & Water Systems became a Distributor of TVA power and a Public Power Utility. At this time the average customer used 65 Kilowatt hours each month. Today, the MEWS average customer uses approximately 957 Kilowatt hours a month. In 1942, Mayfield Electric & Water Systems served 2,800 homes, and today serves over 5,800 electric customers. MEWS is constantly evolving to be a proactive utility that provides the services of electric, water, wastewater treatment & fiber to its customers. MEWS believes that a utility should be an innovator and leader in their community offering the most advanced & reliable technology, affordable utilities and the best possible customer service.
Throughout the last 75 years, the electric system has made remarkable changes in our lives. Electricity has brightened our homes/workspaces, revolutionized businesses, industries, schools and the entire community.
One of the many advancements MEWS has made is the installation of an AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) system in 2009. The new meters have many advantages and are designed to bring benefits to the consumers. Advanced Metering Infrastructures provide customers with innovative equipment that provides the customer with daily consumption monitoring, alarms for increased safety and reliability, more accurate meter readings, and the potential to save consumers money.
In 2014, Mayfield Electric & Water Systems improved electrical reliability by removing two substations and utilizing the capacity of our newly completed distribution substation on the corner of South 16th and US HWY 45 South. During the upgrade, MEWS replaced 14,000 feet of open-wire secondary lines with new, more reliable triplex lines. At the same time the areas surrounding Fuller Street and Water Street substation locations were converted from 2400 volt to 7200 volt equipment to reduce line loss, increase capacity, and decrease load volume on circuits. The Fuller and Water substations which were built in the late 1940’s were removed leaving Mayfield with one single and reliable TVA delivery point.
Another major accomplishment started with a streetlight pilot project in 2015 and will end with a change out of all street and security lights by fall of 2018. MEWS replaced the HPS (High Pressure Sodium) and MV (Mercury Vapor) streetlights with advanced LED (light-emitting diode) streetlights. The crisp bright light makes the streets safer for the citizens of Mayfield, whether walking or driving, by decreasing poorly lit areas between poles. The long life expectancy of the new technology make the LED fixtures more attractive. LEDs can last up to 50,000 hours while previous bulbs could last as little as 5,000 hours. The reduced maintenance cost on the more reliable fixtures will lower operating cost for MEWS.
Mayfield Electric & Water Systems is also committed to providing a safe abundant supply of water to meet the growing needs of our community. Water towers play a key role in a municipal water system and renovations are crucial. Mayfield Electric & Water Systems constructed a new 1 million gallon ground-storage water tank in 2011 to help accommodate the growth of the city. This ground water tank helps relieve the other two elevated tanks and makes sure that the city of Mayfield is consistently served with clean water at an adequate pressure.
In 2016, each water tower’s interior and exterior were sandblasted, cleaned, and painted. As you have probably noticed, the city of Mayfield’s logo was placed on all three water tanks.
Your public wastewater treatment plant plays a vital role in protecting the water cycle. Wastewater treatment plants remove most pollutants from wastewater before being released into waterways. In 1954, Mayfield built a modern sewage disposal system, which provided Mayfield with adequate sewer service for the growing town. Even though wastewater treatments have been practiced for 100 years, it wasn't until the 1970’s that national standards were set for clean water.
Again in 1992, Mayfield Electric & Water Systems constructed a new wastewater plant, which still operates today. Over the past 25 years, MEWS has made many improvements to our wastewater treatment facility. One being the construction of the Todd Lift station which carries 50% of Mayfield’s wastewater to the treatment plant.
Among the constant advancements that have been made throughout the water and wastewater treatment centers. One advancement that MEWS is proud to utilize is SCADA (System Control and Date Acquisition). This technology monitors the drinking water, elevated storage tanks, and wastewater pump stations 24/7. The system assist MEWS in notification if there is a problem throughout our water distribution/wastewater collections system. Allowing our crews to respond, hopefully before customers notice any interruption in service.
In 2004, Mayfield Electric & Water Systems entered into the internet market with wireless broadband services initially out of necessity. MEWS had several facilities throughout the city of Mayfield that needed to have more affordable access to internet. After extensive research, MEWS management realized they could build a wireless system to service our facility’s needs as well as serve current MEWS customers with internet. That solution was much more cost effective in the long term than paying one of the larger internet service providers for less service. Over the years, we are proud to say MEWS’ communication system has evolved with changing technology to include fiber services. In an effort to improve our own utility monitoring systems for Electric, Water, and Wastewater, MEWS installed fiber to all of our lift stations, tanks, warehouses, and our substation. As a result, we have started a pilot project which will deliver fiber to the home. Fiber is available in certain areas where MEWS currently has a mainline fiber available. MEWS also offers fiber to businesses within the city of Mayfield. This continues to be a relatively slow process, due to limited staff working on installations while maintaining our current wireless system. As we build out new areas in town MEWS will be going door to door to notify potential customers.
Mayfield Electric and Water Systems is committed to providing our customers with the highest quality electric, water, wastewater, and internet services at the lowest feasible price. We continually strive to provide our customers with a public utility of which they can be proud of.
