After Confusion, NES Bill Passes the Tennessee Legislature

A bill that would expand the Nashville Electric Service board and give Williamson County a seat at the table passed both the House and Senate this week after it was held up in a conference committee.

Confusion surrounded the bill in the 114th General Assembly’s final days and hours as it headed to the conference committee, a small appointed group of representatives and senators who came to a compromise to advance the bill.

Two versions of the bill initially passed both chambers earlier in the week but weren't reconciled until late Thursday afternoon, the final day of the 2026 session. The Williamson Scene previously published a story that the bill had passed both chambers, but that reporting has since been updated to reflect that. 

The bill applies only to municipal utility companies with a population of more than 485,000 people, and adds board representation from a county outside the utility’s home county only if that county has more than 3,500 customers. This means the legislation would impact only Davidson and Shelby counties — specifically, NES and Memphis Light, Gas and Water.

If the legislation is signed into law, NES would see the addition of four new board members, expanding the body from five to nine members. One new seat will be appointed by the county mayor from each of the following: Wilson, Williamson, Rutherford and Sumner.

MLGW currently has a five-member voting board with two non-voting advisory board members, with the bill to expand the board to seven voting members.

Notably absent from the conference committee was House sponsor Rep. Clark Boyd (R-Lebanon), who was assigned to the committee. He was also absent from the subsequent House vote to adopt the conference committee report, which passed in a 64-22-2 vote on Thursday.

Nashville Democrats have characterized it as another takeover bill that doesn’t actually fix any issues that NES had leading up to and during Winter Storm Fern. Republicans have used the phrase: “No electrification without representation.”

The bill and conference committee report was instead presented on the House floor by Rep. Kevin Vaughn (R-Collierville), who was also appointed to the conference committee.

“Nowhere else in the state has this many underrepresented individuals with regards to no voice, with regards to the service of their provision of utilities,” Vaughn said. “What we're trying to do is we're trying to increase the voice of rate payers. It just so happens that the two largest counties are the largest areas within the state and the biggest concentration of this, and so we'll start here and hopefully solve that problem.”

The bill also includes a one-year moratorium on annexations related to electric cooperatives, from Sept. 1, 2026, through Sept. 2, 2027. The moratorium reads in part: “The purchase or transfer of cooperative electric distribution properties and service rights must be completed by mutual agreement between the municipality and the cooperative.”

“I want to make it clear there's nothing fair about 12 percent of the ratepayers having a 45 percent voice on the board,” Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) said.

“I've got more ratepayers in my neighborhood than Wilson County's got in the whole county. This is ridiculous. I don't know what this is trying to prove, other than it's just a power grab for no reason, and it’s almost laughable. I guess we’ll see you in court.”