Many Hands Make the Lights Work
Jeff Chastain led the crew that fixed Alexian Village’s blown transformer.

When a transformer failed at a retirement community, our crews went into action. Even though the equipment wasn’t our responsibility.

Most transformers on our electric system are EPB’s responsibility, part of the equipment owned by the city. But that isn’t always the case, and when a customer-owned transformer failed at a retirement community, we responded. With night approaching fast, we wanted to work faster, to make sure that power was restored for every resident.


Alexian Village is a retirement community overlooking the spectacular Tennessee River canyon, from high atop Signal Mountain – and one of the few EPB customers who own all of the power equipment on their property, from the poles to the equipment outside individual apartments and homes.

But when a transformer failed, and no company in town had a replacement, we did not want the residents to have to wait.

Our Fiber Optics division found out about the situation first, and alerted Operations. We dispatched a crew to restore service as quickly as possible – and when they arrived, the residents were in the yard, watching and waiting. When power came back on, they applauded the linemen for their efforts!



But the story doesn’t end there. Because doing the right thing for our customers often ends up as the right choice for our company.
Crew members included Kerry Bowman, Brian Pankey and J.B. Case (left to right).

Thanks to this outstanding example of customer service, the management team at Alexian Village praised EPB to their parent company. Our teams went “above and beyond,” they said, in responding to the outage.

This level of service, they argued, was indicative of EPB – not only how we treat customers, but our character, what kind of company we are. Why would they not want to work with such a company, at every opportunity?

The parent company agreed! And so, within weeks, Alexian Village agreed to transition the video, telephone and Internet service for the entire campus to EPB Fiber Optics.

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