Nashville, Tennessee Power Outage Today

How reliable is Nashville Electric Service (NES) service in Nashville?

Nashville Electric Service (NES) is a city-owned utility with 452,888 customers. In 2024 its customers averaged 0 interruptions and 0 minutes (0 minutes) without power.

For comparison, Tennessee as a whole averaged 279 minutes and the United States 614 minutes. That puts Nashville Electric Service (NES) below the state average, which is better.

Among the 52 utilities in Tennessee with at least 5,000 customers that report to the federal government, Nashville Electric Service (NES) ranks 1st for the fewest outage minutes (1 is best). Nationally, 100% of the 926 utilities of that size reported more outage minutes in 2024.

These are the figures the utility itself reported to the US Energy Information Administration (Form EIA-861, 2024) and describe the whole service territory, not one street. Your own address can be better or worse.

Storm season and outages in Nashville

NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 693 storm reports for Davidson County from 2015 through 2026, most often thunderstorm wind (477), hail (76), flash flood (58), and lightning (27). The busiest full year was 2016 with 109 reports and the quietest was 2022 with 24, so the risk changes a lot from one year to the next.

Reports peak in July (133 since 2015), followed by June and April. October is outside those three months, so an outage now is less likely to be weather-related.

NOAA’s own narratives name power outages in 35 storm episodes in Davidson County since 2015, most often in May. That count is a floor, since the database records outages only when a spotter or agency mentions them.

What the most common storm types in Nashville do to the grid:

• Thunderstorm wind. Straight-line wind pushes trees and limbs into distribution lines. These outages are usually local, a street or a neighborhood at a time, and crews clear them circuit by circuit.
• Flash flood. Floodwater reaches ground-level transformers, meters and low-lying substations. Utilities may shut power off ahead of the water on purpose, and wading near flooded equipment can electrocute.
• Hail. Hail rarely cuts power by itself, but it often arrives with the wind and lightning that do, and it breaks solar panels, windshields and exposed utility equipment.

Storm reports that name Nashville

Within Davidson County, 205 NOAA storm reports since 2015 name Nashville as their location or in their description: thunderstorm wind (145), flash flood (32), hail (8), and flood (6). That is about 30% of the county’s reports. Reports naming Nashville are most common in July. The busiest full year was 2016 with 35. These reports record 7 deaths and 173 injuries in total.

In NOAA’s own words, storms that left Nashville without power:

• April 16, 2026 (thunderstorm wind): “Nashville Electric Service reported 42,000 power outages due to 22 broken poles and 77 downed lines across its service area.” Source: NOAA Storm Events Database
• July 30, 2024 (thunderstorm wind): “Severe thunderstorm winds downed power lines in Nashville, leaving about 1300 customers without power.” Source: NOAA Storm Events Database
• June 3, 2024 (thunderstorm wind): “Approximately twenty large trees were downed, some of which also brought down power lines and blocked streets in the Inglewood neighborhood of east Nashville.” Source: NOAA Storm Events Database

Who a power outage hits hardest in Nashville

67% of occupied homes in Nashville are heated with electricity (US 41.3%). In a winter outage those homes lose heat the moment the power fails, and electric furnaces and heat pumps are too large to run from a portable generator. Warm layers, blankets and a plan for where to stay matter more here than in a gas-heated city.

Residents aged 65 or older are 12.7% of the population in Nashville, below the US share of 17.2% and 11% report a disability (US 13.3%). These are the households most likely to depend on powered medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines and refrigerated medicine. If someone in your home does, ask Nashville Electric Service (NES) whether it keeps a priority or medical-needs list, and register before the next storm rather than during it.

About the housing: 28.4% of the housing in Nashville was built before 1970 (US 35.5%); 19.4% of homes are in buildings with 20 or more units (US 10.3%), where an outage also stops elevators and water pumps, which matters for upper floors and anyone who cannot use stairs; 47.6% of households rent (US 34.8%), so many residents depend on a landlord to restore building systems and cannot add a generator or battery themselves.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 (housing, heating fuel, age and disability tables).

Backup power and electricity use in Nashville

The average Nashville Electric Service (NES) home used about 1,021 kWh a month in 2024 (US average 892 kWh), an average draw of 1.4 kW around the clock, and paid about 13.5 cents per kWh (12.4 in the state, 15.8 nationally), roughly $138 a month.

A generator must never run indoors, in a garage or near a window; generator and food-safety rules are in the power outage guide linked below.

If the power is out in Nashville

About 670,820 people live in Nashville, the largest of the 10 Tennessee cities on this site. Report the outage to the utility so a ticket exists for your address, then check Nashville Electric Service (NES)’s outage map for an estimate. If neighbors have power and you do not, report it again: the fault may be on the line to your house alone, which is a separate repair.

Nashville power outage map

Nashville Electric Service (NES)’s outage map has the official restoration estimate for your address; the count above comes from residents. Food and generator safety: power outage guide.

Nashville power outage questions