Ripley Power and Light’s electric transmission and distribution system serves about 6,000 industrial, commercial and residential customers in Ripley, Henning, Gates and Halls. Our power arrives at three delivery points (substations) from TVA at 161,000 volts. Transformers at our substations step down the voltage to 13,200 volts. Smaller transformers outside your home decrease voltage again to 240 volts before it arrives at your home.
We have built our electric system to have ample capacity for future customer growth.
Besides providing electric service, we also install and maintain street lights and traffic lights on our system. Learn more.
Reliable Service
Ripley Power and Light monitors our electric system 24 hours a day to bring you reliable electric service. Our state-of-the art computer technology alerts us when problems occur on the system. We also monitor approaching bad weather to know when to put extra electric crews on alert or to call them in when trouble occurs. American Public Power Association’s RP3 Designation Program rates utilities’ performance and reliability. We are proud to say we have held the highest award since 2016.
Dimming Lights
Dimming lights could indicate a loose connection inside or outside your home. If your lights are dimming, give us a call at 731-635-2323 (Ripley) or 731-836-7595 (Halls) and we’ll check it out.
Blinking Lights
When your digital lights blink, it most likely means our system’s protective equipment is operating correctly.
If a short circuit or fault occurs on a power line, the circuit breaker at our substation will momentarily cut off and open back up again. This momentary loss of power used to go unnoticed, but much of today’s electronic equipment – like the digital clock on your microwave or alarm – is more sensitive to short interruptions in power.
Most power interruptions are shorter than a second. They often are caused by tree limbs brushing against power lines, a nearby lightning strike, animals or anything that causes a short circuit in the flow of electricity.
This short circuit puts the circuit breaker into action. It will momentarily open to turn off the flow of electricity and then close to turn it back on again. If the fault is still there after three tries, the circuit breaker will shut off the electricity. This process prevents further damage to the system as it shuts off power to the affected area and isolates the problem until it can be fixed.
You can help prevent the irritation of having to reset clocks after a momentary outage by buying appliances with battery backup. You also may want to consider installing surge protection devices on your sensitive electronics.
It may be irritating to reset those clocks, but it’s also a reassurance that our equipment prevented a longer outage.
Power Outages
Though our electric system is designed and monitored to provide reliable service, interruptions in power do occur occasionally. The most common causes of power failure are squirrels or other animals in our equipment, tree limbs falling on power lines, bad weather and vehicle accidents that affect utility lines and equipment.
Our electric monitoring system alerts us to power outages and helps us pinpoint the causes of the outage. Still, we rely on our customers to report outages.