Your Energy Matters

We’re alerting customers about a recent telephone scam, asking customers to pay their bills over the phone. 

The caller claims to be a utility employee and asks for immediate bill payment by credit card or prepaid money card. If the targeted customer does not cooperate, the caller threatens to disconnect the person’s electric or natural gas service.

Any customers who have been impacted by this scam should report it to their local police department.

We’ve been working closely with local authorities and offer the following SAFE advice to our residential and business customers:

-- Secure your personal information: LG&E and KU will never call and ask for credit or debit card numbers or other personal information.

-- Always remember you have bill payment options: LG&E and KU offer customers a variety of official payment options.

-- First check with LG&E and KU if you’re suspicious: Customers who receive a suspicious live phone call, an email or letter should call LG&E and KU who will always verify official communications. LG&E customers should call 502-589-1444 (outside Louisville at 1-800-331-7370); KU customers should call 1-800-981-0600.

-- Elect to speak to an LG&E and KU representative: As a courtesy, LG&E and KU do make computer-generated calls to remind customers if their payment is late, and the call includes an option for customers to select if they want to make their payment by phone.

Although the latest scam targets customers by phone, we encourage customers to always obtain positive identification in the event someone appears at their door stating they are there on the companies' behalf.

Authentic LG&E and KU ID badges — whether issued to an employee or a contractor — show the companies’ logos. An employee ID card always has the employee's name and color photograph on the front as well.

Sometimes there are legitimate service-related reasons why we may need access to a customer's home, but in-person contact at a customer's home never involves collecting payment for a monthly bill.

Happy Falcon Friday!

Our young peregrine falcon chicks, which hatched just a few short weeks ago at our Mill Creek Station, are beginning to stretch their wings. Check out the video below and visit our falcon cam for a real-time look at the chicks' activity in our nesting box.

Our friends at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources tell us that even after the young falcons take flight they'll continue to come back to the nesting box as a home base for a few months. Of course, as they get bigger, space inside the box is becoming more limited.

Imagine living in a one-room apartment with three other rowdy roommates...that's sort of like our nesting box at the moment. 

Our employees and generating facilities across Kentucky have been helping increase the peregrine falcon population since the early 1990s. Raptors such as peregrine falcons are near and dear to our hearts, and it's an honor to now be able to share with our customers our love for these birds up-close.  

Since late March, more than 24,000 viewers from 52 countries have watched Kentucky’s first peregrine falcon web camera while the falcon chicks hatched and grew from inside the falcon nest box at our Mill Creek Generating Station.


Today, the good folks with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources briefly removed the four chicks from the nest and banded them. 
The unique color bands allow biologists to identify individual falcons and track their success. The leg bands have different colors and number codes, which are inputted into a database along with the bird's gender, date of hatching and nesting place. This database is available for all departments of fish and wildlife in North America as a way to track the falcons.

Check out the photos and video below of the big day, and stay tuned to the falcon cam in the coming days as our young chicks take flight!





                                                                                                               

With more than $13 million invested in a public-private partnership to make Louisville the home of a new, one-of-a-kind agricultural product development facility at the Mill Creek Generating Station, LG&E and KU and Charah, Inc., along with state and local officials, reiterated today their commitment to innovative and beneficial use of coal combustion byproducts.

Earth day was an ideal time for today's event, which featured speakers such as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul; Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer; House Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins; Victor A. Staffieri, chairman, CEO and president of LG&E and KU Energy and Charles Price, president and CEO of Charah, Inc.

The Charah, Inc. SUL4R-PLUS^® Product Manufacturing Facility is the first facility of its type and represents a unique partnership between us and Charah. This new facility will recover approximately 300,000 tons of gypsum annually to create a unique sulfur product that will be sold to and distributed by agricultural companies.

Today's announcement follows a late November groundbreaking event at Mill Creek when we announced plans to spend approximately $940 million in clean coal technology at the station. All total, over the next five years, we'll invest approximately $6 billion in our system.

SUL4R-PLUS® product, in its unique patent-pending pelletized form, will help meet the increasing demand for sulfur by the regional farming industry. While synthetic gypsum has been used in agriculture applications in the past, Charah is the first to pelletize the byproduct, making sulfur application easier for the farmer.





Here's what the speakers at today's event had to say about the new facility:

"Innovative projects like this show how coal has and will continue to be a major contributor to the economic vitality of Kentucky and of the U.S., not just in the energy sector, but in science and innovation and now agriculture," McConnell said. "This first-of-its-kind facility will help improve our environment while creating 20 quality jobs in the process."

"Since 1980 because of the clean air investment by the utility industry in coal-fired generation, we have an astounding 83 percent decrease in the amount of sulfur emitted into our air. Charah and LG&E's approach with this project is simple: invest in clean air, but ensure our farmers have this vital nutrient for their crops," Comer added.

"It's exciting to have this ground-breaking facility in our Commonwealth and it demonstrates how innovation and collaboration can pay long-term dividends for Kentucky and the environment," Adkins said.

"This pioneering facility is a perfect example of entrepreneurial success," said Paul. "With coal being the largest source of electricity generation in Kentucky and worldwide, it is exciting to see this innovative project, which will expand the use of coal byproduct, benefiting our environment and creating jobs."

Mill Creek currently produces nearly 600,000 tons of gypsum per year. At full capacity, more than 50 percent of Mill Creek's gypsum will be beneficially used. The new facility will recycle byproducts to benefit the environment, provide lower costs to our customers and create an innovative agricultural product.

The facility is expected to create 20 new jobs when at full capacity by 2014.

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution earlier this week honoring linemen for their work in keeping the power on and designating today, April 18, as ‘National Lineman Appreciation Day.’

The bill serves two main purposes – it “recognizes the efforts of linemen in keeping the power on and protecting public safety” and “supports the designation of April 18, 2013 as National Lineman Appreciation Day.”

At LG&E and KU, our line techs take great pride in keeping the lights on. When Mother Nature throws her worst at us, our men and women give their best, working 24/7 to restore customers' power safely and as quickly as possible.

Line techs are unsung heros. They have a deep commitment and care for our customers. Their devotion to the job also extends to helping others in times of need, too. Through our mutual assistance program, our line techs and field personnel travel far and wide to help utilities in other states restore power when hurricanes, ice storms and other inclement weather events wreak havoc.

As severe weather threatens our area this week, rest assured that our line techs will be ready to respond, regardless of the time or day.

We want you to be ready and safe, too. Visit our storm page to view our online outage map, download our outage map app and for important safety information.     

Until next time, keep using energy wisely...and thank a line tech!

It’s a gorgeous day in the Bluegrass, but storms are looming in the west and are scheduled to hit parts of Kentucky late tonight, rolling east into Thursday night. In inclement weather, we’re prepared, are you? Visit www.lge-ku.com/storm to view safety tips, access our online outage map, and download our free outage map app. A recent post on our blog also offers helpful tips on how to prepare for spring storms.

Stay safe out there!