Gallatin Electric Plans $47.7 Million in Substation Work as Council Approves Bonds

Gallatin's city-owned electric utility is getting ready for one of the busiest building stretches in its history. The Gallatin City Council voted 5–1 on October 6 to let the Gallatin Department of Electricity borrow up to $10.25 million, and the utility has $47.7 million in projects on its five-year list, FOX 17 News reported.

GDE President and CEO Mark Kimbell said the borrowing will not cover all of it. The utility serves Gallatin, Tennessee, the Sumner County seat next door to Hendersonville, and growth is the reason for most of the work.

The project list

GDE's five-year list, as Kimbell gave it to FOX 17:

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• Highway 109 North Substation: $14.8 million
• Nichols Lane Substation rebuild: $13.2 million
• Industrial Substation expansion: $6 million
• Distribution system improvements: $7.2 million
• Phase 2 office expansion: $6.5 million

The new north substation will sit on Albert Gallatin Avenue near Highway 109 and serve the north side of the city, which has had no backup power capacity. The Nichols Lane substation on the south side dates to the 1950s and needs to be replaced.

Kimbell has talked about the pair for a while. "Both substations need to be completed within about a two to three-year window to deal with the new loads in Gallatin," he told the American Public Power Association in 2024. In that interview he said the utility bought the north substation site before a subdivision grew up around it, and planned an enclosed switchgear building behind a block wall to keep it out of sight.

Building costs went up

Kimbell said Gallatin Electric went 37 years without borrowing before 2024. Running several big jobs at once, and higher prices, changed that. In 2014, GDE built its Industrial Substation for about $4.2 million. The Nichols Lane job is now pegged at $13.2 million.

Who pays

Customers will carry part of it. A 3.5% rate increase is planned for January 2027, about $4.60 a month for the average home, and it is expected to bring in about $2.5 million a year. Kimbell said half of that money will go to paying back the borrowing.

Developers pay too. Kimbell said they cover the full cost of electric line extensions to their projects plus an estimated share of substation capacity, a charge the utility calls aid to construction. New developments generally have to put electric lines underground, except main lines.

Councilmember Pascal Jouvence cast the lone no vote. "I can't vote yes for another bond caused by overdevelopment going to cause a raise on the rate of my constituent," he said at the meeting. Kimbell said some of the projects are needed because of growth, "but again, the projects will benefit all customers."

Sources

• Could Gallatin's growth lead to higher electric bills?, FOX 17 News
• Gallatin Department of Electricity's Mark Kimbell details substation projects, efforts to keep rates low, American Public Power Association