The Nashville Electric Service Board on Monday unanimously approved an independent review of its response to January’s deadly Winter Storm Fern. The utility also announced that it will make a $1 million donation to the city’s storm recovery fund, among other actions.
“We are proud of NES’ response in restoring power to 230,000 households in 13 days — that was historic,” said board chair Delta Anne Davis Monday. “Yet in many ways we did not live up to the standards Nashville has come to expect from NES during their 87 years of service in the community.”
The sentiment was echoed by CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin, who said NES is “committed to learning from the storm.”
O’Connell says he’s in talks with state leadership about the utility’s future
“I'm asking the board members to help us execute on an independent after-action review that can be completed quickly,” Broyles-Aplin said. “I believe this action completed on an aggressive timeline is important while the last two weeks are fresh on all of our minds, and data is readily available, and also to help prep us for spring and summer inclement weather.”
“We need an unbiased report, one that focuses on facts and not politics, one that brings concrete and actionable findings back to us,” said vice chair Casey Santos. “Throughout this assessment, everything should be on the table, including our preparations, our communications, as mentioned, our operational response and our technology, so we can be prepared for the next storm or other emergency, improve our recovery time and improve service to our customers — service they expect and deserve.”
The board also approved a resolution that increases emergency expenditures from up to $500,000 to as much as $5 million per transaction for preexisting contracts that have already been authorized in response to the storm. Currently there are three contracts related to “external staffing support” that fall under those emergency expenditures, but according to NES attorney Laura Smith, more emergency expenditures may be paid out in the near future.
Broyles-Aplin said NES will suspend all electricity disconnects and late fees through June, allow flexible payment options throughout 2026 and provide additional online and call-center customer support options. She also said NES will immediately “enhance emergency management leadership … address communications outage information and outage map improvements … revisit estimated time of restoration practices [and] initiate evaluations focusing on strengthening system resiliency.”
Councilmember Emily Benedict speaks during an NES Board meeting, Feb. 9, 2026
Six people spoke during a public comment portion of Monday’s meeting, including two NES linemen and two Metro councilmembers — District 7 Councilmember Emily Benedict and District 19 Councilmember Jacob Kupin.
One of the linemen — BJ Heath, who has worked as a lineman for more than 20 years — spoke in support of his NES colleagues, including those at the top of the organization.
“I appreciate the [public] support of the linemen, and on the flip side, you can't appreciate linemen and bash the CEO and the management team,” Heath said. “We're all in this together. We couldn't complete the work that we completed without the equipment and tools that are provided by management, so I stand with our management team. … The entire company, we did a great job. We communicated well. We did as much as we could, as fast as we could, as safely as we could, and as quickly as we could to restore power to our customers, and I think we did a pretty good job.”
“This isn’t about [the linemen’s] effort,” said Councilmember Benedict. “This is about whether they were given the tools to succeed. When a third of a district is without power for two weeks, that’s not what residents call a good response.” Councilmember Kupin called NES’ response “a failure that needs to be addressed.”
NES vice president and chief customer and innovation officer Brent Baker
NES vice president and chief customer and innovation officer Brent Baker offered more insight into the technical challenges of the storm and how NES will move forward.
“We have a better model now of how to predict [storm impact intensities] — we will be enacting that in the future,” Baker said, adding that NES began working on a 10-year comprehensive storm-hardening plan in May of last year. The plan utilizes drone and lidar technology, especially when planning vegetation management.
“We did our first 500 miles in August to help us understand our trees a bit better,” Baker said. “We will begin evaluating even more what other tools need to be implemented in our system. There are tools that we use, but maybe not at the scale we will in the future. And no technology and no modernization will be left unturned.”
Over the weekend, NES announced the restoration of power to 99.9 percent of its customers after some 230,000 customers across 294 square miles were left without power from the historic winter storm. The storm resulted in the deaths of at least 29 people, five of whom were in Davidson County, and sparked political turmoil as state and federal Republicans threatened oversight. NES reported that the storm caused 787 broken utility poles, with more than 1,900 linemen working across the state. The utility utilized assistance from crews from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, Texas and West Virginia.
O'Connell notes utility will be 'held accountable' regarding power restoration efforts, issues executive order to form storm-response commission
Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced during a press conference Friday that he does not have the unilateral authority to fire the NES board, with that responsibility falling to the Metro Council. The council will hold its own storm-response meeting on Feb. 10, featuring officials from NES, the Office of Emergency Management, the Nashville Fire Department, the Metro Nashville Police Department, Metro Water Services and Metro Nashville Public Schools.
O’Connell previously said NES failed to “meet the moment” and was “unequipped to communicate” in a crisis. The mayor then issued Executive Order 58 — an order "establishing a Commission to Review Preparation and Response to the January 2026 Winter Storm." O’Connell said the commission will hold hearings and request the assistance of the Metro auditor, and is expected to return its initial findings within six months.
Officials with NES — whose grid now covers 700 square miles — have said Winter Storm Fern was the worst storm it has faced since the utility’s formation in 1939. That explanation has not kept thousands of Nashvillians from expressing their outrage at being kept in the dark.
