ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. (WTVF) — Cheatham County leaders unanimously passed a resolution Monday calling on local state lawmakers to create or expand utility oversight and give counties outside Davidson a voice on the Nashville Electric Service board.
The vote came after this winter's ice storm left many residents frustrated with their power providers.
At the commission meeting, residents shared their experiences with prolonged outages and longstanding reliability concerns.
"Our house, for over 8 days, never got over 50 degrees," one resident said.
Another resident, Deborah Doyle, described a longer pattern of problems.
"We have had 30 years of consistent power outages," said Debroah Doyle, an Ashland City neighbor.
“We would like to be affiliated and customers of CEMC or another power service," Doyle said.
Other neighbors in Cheatham County are also working on solutions to the power issues so many experienced.
Ashland City resident Perry Keenan pushed forward the resolution to the county commission, which asks local lawmakers to introduce or support legislation that would establish a statewide regulatory body — or expand an existing one — to oversee complaints from the public to their utility companies.
"If they go to their local board and they feel like that it's just falling on deaf ears, that they've got someone that they can kick it up to at the next level," said Perry Keenan, an Ashland City Neighbor.
It’s legislation Keenan could end up voting on down the line.
Keenan is the former mayor of Pleasant View and is running in the Republican primary for the Tennessee House seat for District 78.
He said tracking those complaints people submit to their power companies could also help identify areas where outages are a recurring problem.
"That gives a regulatory board a chance to come back and say, oh maybe we need to come back and look a little more closely at this, because we keep getting these consumer complaints," Keenan said.
The resolution also urges local lawmakers to support legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly that would push for each county NES serves to have some form of representation on the board.
"Other counties that NES works with outside of Davidson, they have no representation on that board whatsoever," Keenan said.
Keenan said he wants every county to have a seat at the table, regardless of how much of the population NES serves there.
The resolution passed unanimously — a moment Keenan said he was proud of.
I reached out to NES for comment. The company responded with the following statement:
"While 87% of our customers reside in Davidson County, we serve customers in six surrounding counties and value their input. The after-action review will provide a strong basis for how NES can improve and serve all customers better.”
I also reached out to two local lawmakers in Cheatham County who currently serve in the General Assembly about this story. I will add their responses below when I hear back.
This story was reported on-air by journalist Robb Coles and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at robb.coles@newschannel5.com.
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