Fiber Mapping May Shape the Valley’s Energy Future
For more than 90 years, the partnership between local power companies (LPCs) and TVA has shaped the quality of life in the Tennessee Valley. Safe, reliable, affordable energy has driven economic development, creating jobs, and has provided an unsurpassed level of comfort, convenience and security. For most of that time, the power system has strictly been a one-way system, with TVA generating electricity and LPCs distributing it to homes and businesses.
Today, however, the Valley’s electric grid is entering a new era that will rely on a two-way flow of energy and the use of critical data to help LPCs and TVA integrate more solar, battery storage, electric vehicle (EV) load, microgrids, controllable thermostats and other responsive demand technologies. To achieve the possibilities of a two-way power system, the ability to communicate and share data systemwide may be the linchpin of success. In particular, a robust, interconnected fiber network is increasingly emerging as mission-critical infrastructure — the backbone that can allow dozens or hundreds of distributed energy resources (DERs) to coordinate, respond rapidly and keep the system stable.
When a cloud passes over a solar array, or hundreds of Evs begin charging after a holiday, the local distribution system can swing in seconds. To keep voltages within bounds, prevent reverse power flow, and maintain power quality, utilities must be able to see and act in near-real time across the network. That means sending and receiving many gigabits of data, with minimal latency and reliability. Traditional copper, microwave or shared commercial networks may not prove reliable at scale, whereas fiber designed with the right architecture in place can support the seamless, high-speed communications backbone needed for modern utility operations. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Communications Technologies white paper underscores the need for communication networks that can deliver low latency, predictable quality of service and security capabilities as inverterbased resources grow. (The white paper can be found at the Department of Energy’s Energy.gov.1) To help identify where there are gaps and which Valley LPCs may need additional support in building out their fiber networks, whether to deliver high-quality broadband to their communities, more fully engage in the two-way power system, or both, TVPPA’s Fiber Deployment Advisory Group (FDAG) is undertaking a fiber-mapping effort. The FDAG project will bring together and expand on work that LPCs across several districts in the Valley region had taken up as far back as 2016.
The conversation around fiber interconnections in the Valley didn’t begin in one place or at one time. While the Western District had already seen activity centered on fiber aggregation, the Southeast and Appalachian Districts were quick to follow, teaming up to understand how they could link their adjacent districts. By the time representatives from those two districts gathered at Lenoir City’s headquarters in 2016, the room was full of LPCs — some with mature fiber deployments already interconnecting, others just beginning their first builds. Erik Brinke, Director of Administrative Services and External Relations at Blue Ridge Mountain EMC (BRMEMC), who has been involved in these efforts since the beginning, said of the collaboration efforts, “At that time the room was packed with LPC’s all at various stages of fiber deployment. Since then, the two Districts have remained engaged in the discussion, and the commitment to map and interconnect continues. Early maps of the Southeast and Appalachian Districts were created, but at that time many significant gaps still existed between LPC fiber networks. Surprisingly, even at that time we discovered that the Districts were already interconnected in many areas. Many of the Southeast and Appalachian LPC’s were already sharing or selling services to one another. Those LPC’s who were more mature in their fiber deployments had proceeded to interconnect, while others struggled to begin building their first miles of fiber. Fast-forward to 2024 and we realized that this effort should be revived as so many more LPC’s have fiber across the two Districts. We knew we needed to identify those new routes and capabilities, and thus the renewed effort to jointly map the Districts.”
Brinke also praised the cooperatives of Mississippi for the early and advanced work on developing a middle-mile fiber network to expand interconnections. In fact, Mississippi’s electric cooperatives took their commitment to providing affordable broadband services to the next level, establishing MS Fiber, a middle-mile wholesale fiber provider composed of 17 member-owners, each of which is an internet service provider (ISP). These ISPs are the broadband subsidiaries of the Mississippi electric cooperatives that chose to offer broadband services to their respective cooperative members. Early on, the Mississippi ISPs realized the key to long-term success and reliable service must include controlling their own destiny and owning the wholesale internet pathways.
Brad Robison, CEO of Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association and President of MS Fiber, said: “Each of our goals is to provide affordable and reliable broadband service, and we did not want our ability to serve our customers to be totally reliant upon outside, investor-owned companies, many of which directly compete with our respective ISPs to provide our only direct internet access (DIA).”
Robison pointed out that the Mississippi cooperatives treat their fiber networks like they do electric distribution networks. The obligation to provide internet is much the same as the duty to provide reliable power. “If it is down, we get it fixed, and we need that same reliability with our wholesale provider.”
Scott Hendrix, CEO of Tombigbee Electric Power Association and Vice President of MS Fiber, stressed the importance of LPCs designing and building their own fiber systems, pointing out that such a process ensures the quality of the project and means that LPCs can maintain their fiber networks to ensure capacity, reliability and redundancy in ways that would be impossible if relying on investor-owned companies. “Personally, I feel it is more reliable to depend on, and be partners with, our fellow coop ISPs in Mississippi — and potentially others across the Valley — rather than outside service providers that do not share our same quality of service standards,” said Hendrix. “It is a matter of legacy and destiny … imagine if in 1933, LPCs had the ability to own and control TVA, to work together to control both distribution and transmission. That is what MS Fiber does for the Mississippi ISPs.”
Robison and Hendrix emphasized the wide-ranging benefits that fiber interconnectivity brings to systemwide collaboration and grid stability across the Valley. Robison noted that for MS Fiber, as well as its member ISPs and their parent cooperatives, active participation in broader fiber-mapping initiatives is essential to identifying opportunities for partnership and shared progress.
“Whether it is the ability to gather and share electric data for load, generation or system needs or to allow for communication between substations, interconnectivity is important. Why not also look at it from the perspective of cross-utilization between coops and ISPs. We can better the grid and better our access to the major data hubs around the country at the same time,” Hendrix said.
Speaking to FDAG’s plan to develop a comprehensive map of fiber connectivity across the Tennessee Valley, Robison had this to say: “Such comprehensive mapping, will allow the stakeholders the ability to examine possibilities of connectivity throughout the Valley for all [the] benefits of building a more robust and connected broadband network, plus those dealing specifically with collaboration with TVA such as load management, outage response and grid modernization efforts.”
BRMEMC’s Brinke shares that perspective. “In order for us to capitalize on our interconnections and capabilities, we must first identify where and with whom those strengths exist. In addition, as we confirm our fiber coverage, we will also, and maybe more importantly, identify where it does not exist. That will allow us to address potential weaknesses in our communications networks, determine where assets are constrained, and potentially find ways to share in the costs to mitigate these weaknesses. Let’s consider a realistic example or two. If Blue Ridge Mountain EMC does not currently have a redundant, multi-home path to a regional POP — that is a ‘point of presence’ or access point to the internet at large — then the fiber mapping project could help us identify available infrastructure within nearby LPC’s that might help us create that redundancy. We may discover as a result of our mapping efforts that Murphy Electric Power Board, Tri-State EMC, Volunteer Energy, Ft. Loudon Electric Coop or Cleveland Utilities, all neighbors of BRMEMC, has infrastructure in close proximity to our fiber infrastructure, and with a relatively short build we could mitigate our redundancy issues.”
Expanding from a local to a broader Valley-wide focus, Brinke shared how systemwide mapping will allow identification of the most efficient pathways to multiple POPs and create potential new revenue sources for LPCs who allow their Valley partners to navigate those alternate paths. Of course, he also pointed out, the benefits of mapping and developing a more interconnected fiber network far exceed simply giving customers a seamless broadband experience.
Advanced communications networks are critical to supporting the Valley’s emerging two-way power system, according to Brinke. “In order for us to meet many of the objectives outlined in TVA’s DER Integration & Enablement Committee’s plans, we will need to map both the LPCs’ and TVA’s fiber assets and determine where interconnections may be created to enable a secure, robust communications network between TVA’s DSO desk in Georgetown and participating LPCs. Load management and system-wide collaboration only become feasible if real-time visibility of LPC and systemwide data exists that is both secure and sturdy enough to withstand any system conditions. Again, the fiber mapping project is one of the earliest steps that needs to be taken on the road to the required integration, data transfer and system monitoring capabilities between TVA and the LPC’s,” he stressed.
FDAG’s renewed commitment underscores how far the effort has come — from scattered projects to a coordinated regional push — and why mapping and interconnection remain essential to unlocking the full potential of DER integration, reliable load management and Valley-wide grid stability.
As the Valley’s energy future takes shape, it’s clear that the power lines that carried electricity for generations must now be paired with the fiber lines that carry data. Building out and interconnecting those networks will not only help LPCs deliver broadband access and economic opportunity to their communities, but also provide the critical communications backbone needed to manage load, integrate DERs and collaborate seamlessly with TVA. In many ways, fiber is becoming to this new era what transmission lines were to the last — critical infrastructure that ensures reliability, resilience and shared prosperity across the Tennessee Valley. When it comes to grid stability and community growth, fiber is no longer optional — it’s essential.
1 www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/Grid%20Communication%20Technology_FINAL_ optimizedv3.pdf