Nashville Electric Service officials and city department heads faced several hours of questioning from Metro councilmembers Tuesday night.
At a special-called joint committee meeting, councilmembers posed questions for NES and Metro department heads regarding the public utility's response and communications in the wake of January’s historic winter ice storm, which resulted in more than 200,000 business and residential power outages across Davidson County.
NES has received sharp criticism from Nashville residents over its handling of the storm response, which has also led to tensions between the utility provider and the mayor’s office.
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“I’m clear that we did not meet the expectations of our customers, particularly with how we communicated critical information,” NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin said during opening remarks Tuesday.
Councilmember Emily Benedict asked NES how many public relations and communications staff members the company has access to, with Broyles-Aplin noting three communications employees.
NES has contracted with marketing firm FINN Partners to handle communications in the wake of the storm, and Councilmember Courtney Johnston questioned how much the company had spent on crisis management. Broyles-Aplin responded by noting the utility would seek to provide that information to the council.
On Monday, the NES Board approved an independent review of the utility's response to the storm. Broyles-Aplins assured the council at Tuesday’s meeting that the review will be done by a company with no association with NES. She added that that while NES has not selected a vendor yet, it hopes for the review to be complete within 90 days.
Brent Baker, NES executive vice president and chief operations and innovation officer, said assessing individual damages — such as the number of broken poles and downed trees — required significant time and effort as the company began storm response.
Broyles-Aplin said that the ice storm was the costliest in NES’ history, resulting in between $110 million and $140 million in electric infrastructure damage. Prior to the storm, the cost to address Nashville's March 2020 tornado held the highest price tag at $26 million.
Several councilmembers also asked what NES might to do improve its critical referral program for residents who require electricity for medical devices. Broyles-Aplin said the company is working on revising and updating its list of those who require critical care and encouraged people to apply for the program online. Baker said the company discovered that certain nursing homes were not included on the list during the storm.
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Tree trimming was another frequently referenced topic at Tuesday night’s meeting, and Broyles-Aplin said the company fell behind on trimming in recent years due to a change in vendors and providers spending much of their time in East Tennessee for Hurricane Helene cleanup. However, she said the company was ahead of schedule in 2026 in regard to trimming.
In response to councilmembers’ questions, NES said it is studying the possibility of running power lines underground.
Doug Roberts, a local line worker, spoke during public comment, expressing concerns of “too many reactionary changes” being made by Metro in the wake of the storm.
“As most of us know, the worst decisions made are those made during a crisis,” Roberts said.
Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda criticized both NES and Metro departments for lack of translation services in their emergency response.
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
