Partnerships and Perseverance

TVA Crews Transition to Monitoring Power Lines in Freezing Conditions

 Ice and transmission lines? Not the best of friends.

With the recent low temps and bitter wind, ice accumulated in the western portion of TVA’s region. In some cases, this led to power interruptions, but TVA teams worked 24/7 to identify issues using drones and helicopters while on-the-ground crews systematically restore problem areas.

This storm was different, according to Daniel Tate, general manager, east maintenance, with Transmission Field Operations.

“Our crews are working in ice conditions with hundreds of downed trees,” he said. “Unlike a tornado, where it comes and goes, freezing conditions hit with the winter storm and then persist with continual icing.”

And working in the ice – it’s not exactly a cake walk.

“It’s difficult to work in the ice," he said. “It took three hours to reach a switch to isolate a downed power line to even begin a repair, due to downed trees and icy conditions. And these crews are working in the cold and then going home to the cold in the same neighborhoods without power.”

Power is Online, But Are You Connected?

The biggest culprit for a power outage? Trees falling on power lines. Ground crews and a chainsaw typically do the trick, but with more than 16,400 miles of transmission lines, it takes time.

The second biggest culprit is ice accumulation on frozen equipment. For example, the static wire that pokes out of the top of transmission structures – also known as an overhead ground wire – is designed to protect power lines from direct lightning strikes. When frozen, the static wire can sag or snap, making contact with the electrified phase conductors and causing the transmission line to go offline.

But there’s good news.

From Sunday to Wednesday, Jan. 25-28, 2026, TVA’s crews restored more than 70 connection points, 28 of those with sustained duration outages, where TVA’s electrical system connects with your local power company. (Learn more about How Electricity Gets to You.)

After Winter Storm Fern, all TVA infrastructure impacting local power company connection points is back in operation.

The Job is Done, But the Work Continues

Once TVA’s work is done, that doesn’t automatically mean power is restored in residential areas.

“I wish people knew how much coordination is required to restore power in a system like this,” said Stuart Balliew, senior manager of Transmission Operations. “We make the power and deliver it so far – then it’s up to the local power companies. But none of us do this alone.”

TVA is in constant communication with its partners, such as neighboring utilities and impacted local power companies and local agencies.

“Even after power restoration on the TVA side, we call the local power company to ensure they are ready to take on power,” Josh Shultz, general manager of Transmission Operations, said. “It’s not just a flip of the switch. Oftentimes they can’t test their repaired lines until our power lines are back up. There’s a process to ensure power is safely restored.”

“We help each other,” he said. “We had a neighboring utility help us restore a substation with multiple delivery points in Batesville, Mississippi, and next time it’ll be us helping them. It takes that kind of partnership – operator to operator – to restore power as quickly as we can.”

Power of Perseverance

Now that power supply is fully restored, TVA’s crews will go back to inspecting lines with helicopters and drones as freezing conditions continue. They’ll also stay on call in case local power companies need help repairing lines in urban and residential areas.

“In the next week, we’ll focus on inspecting transmission lines with heavy icing, check for ice-heavy, encroaching trees and re-inspect critical lines that carry high loads as we work to prevent future power interruptions,” Tate said.

“Folks out here working have a lot of pride in what we do. To get the lights back on means a lot, and we are more than ready to do the work.”

The winter storm may be over, but extremely cold temperatures will remain all week.

People can help by conserving energy, which helps ensure there’s more power to go around when power demand is at its highest.

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