Today, August 16, NES is proud to celebrate 85 years of powering Middle Tennessee.
NES was founded on August 16, 1939. At the time, Nashville’s population was approximately 167,000 people. During the first ten years of our utility’s existence, our NES team adjusted to a variety of landmark electrical advancements, including the metal conduit, flexible armored cable and watt-hour meters. In addition to learning new technologies in the field, the NES team continued to serve Middle Tennessee as it grew to nearly 261,000 people. At this time, all documentation was kept on sheets of paper, written by hand.
NES has continued to support Nashville as it has grown into the city we know today, serving more than 2.1 million people in the Nashville Metro area. NES was there to turn on the lights for the first time at many Nashville destinations, including the Nashville Symphony (1946), RCA Studio B (1957), Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (1961), Opryland USA (1972), and the Bluebird Cafe (1982). Outside of the dome, our team has also been an integral part of the Nashville community by volunteering, developing partnerships with organizations advancing Middle Tennessee, and donating hundreds of thousands to organizations such as the United Way of Greater Nashville and the PENCIL Foundation, which help cultivate strong leaders throughout Middle Tennessee. Members of our team have been regularly recognized on 40 Under 40 boards, leadership councils, and honored through individual and company-wide awards. NES is among only four percent of all public utilities in the country to receive the Reliable Public Power Providers Diamond Award, the industry’s highest honor for providing safe and reliable electricity for customers.
We have also been there to power Music City during its most difficult times. Since 1939, Nashville has seen many natural disasters and tragedies, from severe floods to EF-3 tornadoes and snowstorms, to extreme high and low temperatures, to a bombing in Downtown Nashville. Throughout it all, our goal has always been to keep our communities secure and comfortable by providing safe and reliable power.
Today, we are proud to serve all of Nashville and Davidson County and parts of the six surrounding counties, covering 700 square miles. We are committed to designing and maintaining nearly 5,900 miles of distribution and transmission lines daily. Whatever the event, our employees are integral to our operations. We answer 2 million+ customer calls per year, manage countless financial processes, build and maintain an intricate IT system, cultivate a team of outstanding coworkers, and much, much more.
As we look forward to our next 85 years, we thank our customers and employees. For more than eight decades, you have trusted us to power your businesses, homes and communities. That is not something we take lightly. This year, we will continue to find ways to meaningfully engage in our community, explore cleaner ways to power our communities, and most importantly, continue to provide Music City with safe and reliable power.
Join us in celebrating 85 years of powering Music City on our social media channels all year long!
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