Jackson Energy Authority considered several resolutions when its Board of Directors held their monthly meeting, Tuesday.
Some of the more impactful issues approved were:
- Relocation of a unit substation from Westwood to Christmasville which allows improved service for increasing residential load in the northeast area, reduces lengthy distribution lines and reduces exposure in the industrial areas south of Interstate 40. The Westwood substation load was transferred to the newer Hospital substation recently and this move improves the overall electricity delivery service.
- Purchase of new Internet Edge Switches for the Telecom division which will replace technology that has reached its end of life. The new equipment will provide additional support to JEA’s internet connectivity for home and business use as well as extend support through the vendor for a period of 5 years.
- JEA approved some adjustments to the final contract on the rehabilitation of the 119 East College Street building which will house its Human Resources and Information Technology areas. This project is very close to completion.
- The board also agreed to move forward with issuing taxable bonds for the Wastewater System to potentially save $800,000 to $1,000,000 over the life of the notes. Given current low rates, JEA determined that refinancing of prior tax-exempt bonds from 2012 into taxable bonds in today’s market presented a cost savings that was beneficial to rate payers. Certain parameters of this particular 2012 tax free bond issue do prohibit the issue of new tax-free bonds for the purpose of refinance prior to March 2022.
“Senior management also provided some follow up to information requested by the board in relation to the TVA contract, but no additional action was taken at this time,” said Monte Jones, chairman of the board,” JEA will continue to gather information related to its contract and plans to visit with TVA at a future board meeting.”
(PHOTO: Monte Jones, chairman of the board, Jackson Energy Authority)
