Senate approves bill allowing outside‑county representation on large municipal electric boards

The Tennessee Senate passed Senate Bill 2,102 on third reading, a measure that requires municipal electric utilities that serve at least 50,000 customers outside their home county and at least 3,500 customers in an outside county to add one voting board member representing that outside county if the county chooses to appoint. Senator Taylor, the sponsor, said the bill is intended to ensure ratepayers outside a municipal boundary have representation on a utility board that affects their service.

Debate on the floor indicated the bill is likely to affect a single utility in its current form; Senator Yarbrough and others said the thresholds are structured so it would primarily reach Nashville Electric Service (NES). Critics described the proposal as “targeting” and a potential reduction in accountability to large urban ratepayers. Supporters, including Leader Johnson and Senator Pote, cited the 202X ice storm and constituent complaints about lack of local representation during outages as reasons to provide a governance remedy.

Senator Taylor said the measure does not change ownership or operations and stressed it is a practical way to give large outside customer populations a voice. The clerk announced the vote (Ayes 21, Nays 11) and the bill was declared passed. The floor record included multiple exchanges about proportional representation, the bill’s private‑act character, and the specific facts about which utilities would meet the thresholds.