NES to Reevaluate Tree Trimming, Consider Burying Power Lines After Winter Storm

Nashville power company CEO says they will study the costs of undergrounding power lines to improve storm resilience.

Published on Feb. 7, 2026

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Nashville Electric Service (NES) CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin announced the company will reevaluate its tree trimming efforts and study the feasibility of burying power lines in its service area after Winter Storm Fern left over 230,000 customers without power for over a week. Broyles-Aplin said NES is conducting an independent review of its storm response to identify areas for improvement, and is exploring ways to provide financial assistance to impacted customers.

Why it matters

The extended power outages caused significant hardship for Nashville residents during the winter storm, raising questions about NES's preparedness and prompting calls for the utility to take more aggressive steps to harden its infrastructure against extreme weather events. The potential move to bury power lines could improve long-term grid resilience, but would come at a significant cost to ratepayers.

The details

NES brought in nearly 2,000 contracted line workers from 12 states to assist with power restoration, but faced criticism over the time it took to onboard the mutual aid crews. Broyles-Aplin acknowledged the company learned valuable lessons from the process and believes it can be done faster in the future. The CEO also thanked the hundreds of NES customer service and support staff who worked around the clock during the storm response.

  • Winter Storm Fern left over 230,000 NES customers without power.
  • By Friday, NES had restored power to 99.9% of its customers.
  • On Saturday, Broyles-Aplin met with line workers to thank them for their efforts.

The players

Teresa Broyles-Aplin

CEO of Nashville Electric Service.

Nashville Electric Service

The public electric utility that provides power to the Nashville, Tennessee metropolitan area.

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What they’re saying

“We are determined to learn and improve for future storm response. We want to get an independent review of the entire storm response to ensure that we know where the gaps are and we know how to how to improve and be the best that we can be for you.”

— Teresa Broyles-Aplin, CEO (WSMV)

“Honestly, we're re-evaluating tree trimming, looking at ways that we can we can be more aggressive with tree trimming. We follow best practices in that area, but I'm certain there are things we can do differently there.”

— Teresa Broyles-Aplin, CEO (WSMV)

“We're going to do an undergrounding study and just see what would it cost, what would it look like, if we undergrounded things in Nashville.”

— Teresa Broyles-Aplin, CEO (WSMV)

What’s next

NES is already working on an after-action review to identify ways to improve its storm response, and will be exploring options to provide financial assistance to customers impacted by the extended outages.

The takeaway

The extended power outages caused by Winter Storm Fern have prompted NES to reevaluate its tree trimming practices and consider the feasibility of burying power lines, in an effort to harden its grid infrastructure and improve resilience against future extreme weather events.