The Pennyrile Electric Cooperative is making progress in their projects funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA loaned last year the cooperative $35 million for the construction of 148 miles of power lines, improvements on another 100 miles of line and a new substation in Todd County to support the Novelis aluminum plant.
Cooperative Vice President of Engineering John Wheeler says the cooperative may end up extending the timeline of the loan so that the projects are completed in mid 2021.
“We’re in our second year of our five year--well it’s actually our four year plan but we’ll probably extend it out to five years. But we’re about forty percent along on the plan,” said Wheeler.
Wheeler says the cooperative plugs historical numbers into a computer program to determine where to build and upgrade line. The investment comes from the USDA’s Rural Utility Service.