How many electric cooperatives are in Tennessee?

25 electric cooperatives reported bundled retail electricity sales to customers in Tennessee in 2024, according to EIA. The largest is Middle Tennessee E M C, with 344,295 customers.

How many municipal and public power utilities are in Tennessee?

60 — 60 municipal utilities — reported bundled retail sales in Tennessee in 2024. The largest is Nashville Electric Service, with 463,455 customers.

How do public power utilities and co-ops in Tennessee buy?

Municipal utilities and public utility districts are local government entities, so they generally follow Tennessee's public procurement laws, with purchases approved by a city council or utility board. Electric co-ops are private, member-owned nonprofits that set their own purchasing policies, though projects financed through USDA's Rural Utilities Service follow its rules. See how utilities buy.

Where does this data come from?

From the U.S. Energy Information Administration's table "2024 Utility Bundled Retail Sales – Total" (Table 10), based on forms EIA-861 and EIA-861S. It counts customers who buy both electricity and delivery from the utility.

Tennessee Public Power & Electric Co-ops: Full List

Key takeaways

85 community-owned utilities: 60 municipal utilities and 25 electric cooperatives reported bundled retail sales in Tennessee in 2024.
Together they served 3,660,552 of the state's 3,710,072 bundled retail customers (99%); 2 investor-owned utilities served most of the rest.
The largest public power utility is Nashville Electric Service, with 463,455 customers.
The largest electric co-op is Middle Tennessee E M C, with 344,295 customers.

Every public power utility and co-op in Tennessee

Ranked by bundled retail customers in 2024, with retail sales in megawatt-hours and average price in cents per kilowatt-hour. Names are as EIA abbreviates them. Filter by type or search.

Showing all 85 utilities

#	Utility	Type	Customers	Sales, MWh	Avg. price
1	Nashville Electric Service	Municipal	463,455	12,102,761	12.30¢
2	City of Memphis	Municipal	423,338	12,944,365	11.42¢
3	Middle Tennessee E M C	Cooperative	344,295	8,672,705	11.15¢
4	Knoxville Utilities Board	Municipal	219,297	5,881,448	11.02¢
5	City of Chattanooga	Municipal	189,171	5,563,882	10.86¢
6	Volunteer Electric Coop	Cooperative	128,502	2,566,400	11.20¢
7	Cumberland Elec Member Corp	Cooperative	112,512	2,879,963	11.53¢
8	City of Clarksville	Municipal	85,314	1,666,439	12.27¢
9	Duck River Elec Member Corp	Cooperative	85,185	1,962,845	11.92¢
10	Johnson City	Municipal	84,109	1,957,630	11.20¢
11	City of Lenoir	Municipal	77,358	1,874,592	11.17¢
12	Sevier County Electric System	Municipal	63,506	1,657,826	11.39¢
13	Upper Cumberland E M C	Cooperative	54,190	1,036,974	12.49¢
14	Southwest Tennessee E M C	Cooperative	52,353	933,005	13.16¢
15	Appalachian Electric Coop	Cooperative	51,366	972,706	12.38¢
16	City of Greeneville	Municipal	40,569	1,098,946	10.43¢
17	Sequachee Valley Electric Coop	Cooperative	39,284	856,061	12.07¢
18	City of Dickson	Municipal	38,982	848,035	11.30¢
19	City of Jackson	Municipal	38,719	1,646,901	9.44¢
20	Meriwether Lewis Electric Coop	Cooperative	36,758	1,160,937	10.40¢
21	Columbia Power System	Municipal	36,577	897,778	10.66¢
22	Fort Loudoun Electric Coop	Cooperative	36,287	683,548	12.13¢
23	Caney Fork Electric Coop, Inc	Cooperative	35,888	613,100	12.88¢
24	Gibson Electric Members Corp	Cooperative	35,847	821,946	11.74¢
25	City of Bristol	Municipal	34,442	861,447	10.81¢
26	City of Cleveland	Municipal	34,348	1,019,115	10.92¢
27	City of Alcoa Utilities	Municipal	32,727	673,322	11.95¢
28	Holston Electric Coop, Inc	Cooperative	32,487	774,102	11.27¢
29	City of Clinton	Municipal	31,346	805,273	11.11¢
30	Tri-County Elec Member Corp (TN)	Cooperative	30,507	553,670	12.42¢
31	City of Elizabethton	Municipal	27,053	512,889	11.46¢
32	City of Gallatin	Municipal	26,963	796,320	9.82¢
33	Powell Valley Electric Coop	Cooperative	26,536	536,119	10.09¢
34	City of Lexington	Municipal	23,584	426,452	12.03¢
35	City of Newport	Municipal	23,484	528,647	11.94¢
36	City of LaFollette	Municipal	23,354	440,763	12.58¢
37	Chickasaw Electric Coop, Inc	Cooperative	23,106	537,246	10.80¢
38	Maryville Utilities	Municipal	23,073	775,155	9.59¢
39	City of Paris	Municipal	22,824	563,197	10.01¢
40	City of Lawrenceburg	Municipal	21,838	487,965	12.16¢
41	Pickwick Electric Coop	Cooperative	21,500	377,562	13.09¢
42	Tennessee Valley Electric Coop	Cooperative	20,924	382,684	12.43¢
43	Weakley County Mun Elec Sys	Municipal	20,893	457,606	11.35¢
44	City of Cookeville	Municipal	19,787	557,496	10.64¢
45	City of Fayetteville	Municipal	19,465	474,795	11.17¢
46	Plateau Electric Cooperative	Cooperative	18,254	436,655	10.56¢
47	City of Oak Ridge	Municipal	17,831	489,721	12.09¢
48	City of Morristown	Municipal	16,509	924,127	9.44¢
49	Mountain Electric Coop, Inc	Cooperative	16,262	321,283	10.79¢
50	Carroll County	Municipal	15,571	479,095	9.24¢
51	City of Rockwood	Municipal	15,435	288,207	12.61¢
52	City of Pulaski	Municipal	15,323	430,278	11.80¢
53	Loudon Utilities Board	Municipal	14,637	548,721	9.42¢
54	Athens Utility Board	Municipal	14,126	636,585	8.92¢
55	City of Dyersburg	Municipal	12,075	372,946	10.18¢
56	City of Shelbyville	Municipal	11,746	358,813	10.33¢
57	Bolivar Energy Authority	Municipal	11,449	219,639	13.36¢
58	City of Dayton	Municipal	11,414	299,256	10.58¢
59	City of Harriman	Municipal	11,322	256,213	11.54¢
60	Tullahoma Board-Public Utils	Municipal	11,295	279,812	11.06¢
61	Benton County	Municipal	10,664	193,276	13.66¢
62	Forked Deer Electric Coop, Inc	Cooperative	10,142	157,068	15.19¢
63	City of Sweetwater	Municipal	9,870	249,322	11.24¢
64	City of Springfield	Municipal	9,144	288,207	9.30¢
65	Town of Erwin	Municipal	9,008	192,151	11.52¢
66	City of Milan	Municipal	8,534	179,983	11.86¢
67	McMinnville Electric System	Municipal	8,307	174,016	11.99¢
68	City of Winchester	Municipal	6,835	171,177	11.55¢
69	City of Ripley	Municipal	6,663	154,326	12.09¢
70	City of Lewisburg	Municipal	6,662	318,201	9.14¢
71	City of Union City	Municipal	6,483	310,097	9.29¢
72	City of Brownsville	Municipal	5,421	182,629	9.63¢
73	City of Etowah	Municipal	5,360	160,781	10.41¢
74	City of Covington	Municipal	4,713	222,161	9.61¢
75	City of Humboldt	Municipal	4,585	209,291	8.55¢
76	City of Mt Pleasant	Municipal	4,294	143,925	11.20¢
77	Tri-State Electric Member Corp	Cooperative	3,450	48,678	14.35¢
78	City of Sparta	Municipal	3,092	123,067	10.43¢
79	City of Smithville	Municipal	3,051	112,203	10.02¢
80	City of Trenton	Municipal	2,463	61,096	11.98¢
81	City of Jellico	Municipal	2,290	145,200	7.54¢
82	City of Newbern	Municipal	1,836	100,450	9.12¢
83	French Broad Elec Member Corp	Cooperative	1,070	9,708	14.87¢
84	South Kentucky Rural E C C	Cooperative	185	2,456	14.21¢
85	Cumberland Valley Electric, Inc.	Cooperative	78	734	14.31¢

Public power vs. co-ops in Tennessee

Public power utilities — municipal utilities, public utility districts and state-owned utilities — are owned by the communities they serve and governed by a city council or elected board. They buy much like local governments: through public bids, board approvals and published budgets.
Electric cooperatives are private, not-for-profit utilities owned by their members, who elect the board. Most buy power from a generation and transmission (G&T) co-op and make purchasing decisions through their own policies, often faster than public agencies.

Both publish their plans: watch board and council agendas, budgets, capital improvement plans and rate filings. Our utility funding tracker and rate case & IRP tracker show where the money is coming from.

Selling to Tennessee utilities

Start with the right person. Line, engineering, metering, IT and member-services managers usually define the need; the general manager or CEO and the board approve large purchases.
Use the networks. State public power and cooperative associations, joint action agencies and G&T co-ops shape purchasing and share vendor experiences.
Expect small teams. Many of the utilities on this list have only a handful of staff, so phone outreach and a clear reason to talk matter.

Read our guide to how public power, co-ops and water utilities buy, or see the largest public power utilities and largest electric co-ops nationally.

About this data

Source. EIA's "2024 Utility Bundled Retail Sales – Total" (Table 10), from forms EIA-861 and EIA-861S. Average price is EIA's revenue divided by sales.
Bundled customers only. The table counts customers who buy both energy and delivery from the utility, so it excludes distribution-only utilities and customers who buy energy from another supplier in retail-choice areas.
Community-owned utilities only. This page lists municipal, public utility district, state-owned and cooperative utilities. Investor-owned and federal utilities are left out.

Sources

U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2024 Utility Bundled Retail Sales – Total (Table 10): eia.gov

Public power utilities and electric co-ops in Tennessee.