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We're back! Winter Storm Fern Recap

The Plugged In Podcast is back and better! This Week: our Winter Storm Fern recap, company updates, and a look ahead for Plugged In this season as we go beyond just EVs to share the stories, people and connections powering our communities. This podcast is about the members we serve, the communities we’re part of and how we’re all working together to bring good energy to life — while highlighting the impact our members and communities make every day.

From community partnerships and innovative programs to behind-the-scenes conversations with the people who power MTE, Plugged In combines expert insight and real stories to keep you informed, connected and inspired.

For more information: MTE.com/pluggedin

MTE's Electric Vehicle Programs & Educational Resources

• https://mte.com/DriveEV — Hub for all things electric vehicles at MTE
• https://mte.com/EVCarClub — MTE-sponsored car club for EV owners and enthusiasts interested in building a community in Middle Tennessee
• https://mte.com/EVReady — $50 incentive for MTE members or homebuilders installing level 2 chargers at their homes

Copyright 2026 Middle Tennessee Electric

And that became very clear to us during Winter Storm Fern.

We have a team of experts that are trying to get the power back on as quick as they can and in a very safe way.

And that's of the utmost importance.

But right alongside that is making sure that our members know what's going on so that they can plan.

And that's really hard when, when we have these big outages that we can't say, oh, we estimate it's going to be this long or this long.

This is unforeseen territory, and you all saw that firsthand.

Hi, I'm Amy Byers and I am here with Brandon Wagner.

And I want to welcome you to Middle Tennessee Electric's Plugged in podcast, where we bring good energy to every conversation.

So we've been on a hiatus for a while, Brandon, so it's good to be back in front of the camera and, and talking with our audiences again on this podcast.

We have.

This is our fourth.

Fourth season.

Fourth season.

And we took a little break.

We took a longer break than I thought we were going to take, actually.

I was hoping we would back be back at the first year, but we've had a lot of things happening and obviously with the ice storm kind of delayed us even a little more.

So.

But we're here.

We're back mid April and excited to be back together.

You know, one thing, the last time we were together, we talked about how we are going to change the podcast.

Right.

We're going to rebrand it and not.

And we're not abandoning our electric vehicles, but we power more than cars.

That's right.

So we're talking more about Middle Tennessee as a whole and the communities we serve.

Yeah, that's right.

And this power podcast, I think over the last few years, we realized there's so many stories that, that we're not sharing that we, as we were talking, we thought we need to share this on the podcast.

And it's been great for us to have a tool where something happens.

And we think, hey, we need to let our listeners know about this.

So this new version of the plugged in podcast is going to be able to do that, to share all the things that we're doing here that's, you know, we're here to serve our members in all the ways we're doing that.

But not only that, we're going to also talk about our members themselves.

I mean, this is our community.

You know, we're fortunate that we get to serve our community and highlight some of the stories that of our members that we think our listeners are going to want to hear.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And you know, before we get talking about the podcast, I want to talk a little bit about you.

So you know, everybody looks at you as the EV guy, but in reality that is not your day job.

That was a small part of the job and, and that has been handed off to another one of our teammates, which we will have on in a couple, in a, I think two more episodes down, we'll have, we'll have Heidi on and talk to her about EVs.

We're not abandoning EVs.

Right.

But you are our vice president of strategy execution and analytics.

That's a mouthful.

But basically tell us, tell us what that means.

Tell us what you focus on really in your day to day because it really ties in to this podcast and what we're doing here.

Yeah, I think I have the best job not just at the co op, but at, in the world.

I love it.

And it's because, well, for one, I get to work with amazing people like yourself and other, our other teammates, but also because our leadership is asked to be opportunistic about industry change and we are seeing a ton of industry change.

And so what I get to do every day is look at new technologies and different things are affecting our industry and figure out how can we leverage these to the benefit of our members.

And for a while, Electric Vehicle was a big focus because it was new and we were learning it and we wanted to make sure that we were encouraging our members to charge in a grid friendly way.

We've, we've done that.

We've created some design, some rates that other local power companies in the valley have adopted.

But then we've gone on to other projects and some of them are very high tech.

As you know, we're, we're about to turn on 32 megawatts of batteries that are going to be a major resiliency improvement for our members and also a, it's going to have some effect towards rising costs that we, everybody's facing rising costs, even, even the electric company.

But yeah, this is a project that will help us combat that and, and hopefully have rate stability in uncertain times.

But then we also get into satisfaction.

You know, we're driven to make sure that we're doing what our members want us to do.

We exist to serve them.

And so we're constantly looking at what our members want from us and trying to be strategic in serving those needs as well.

So it's awesome.

I think I get to do the most wide ranging job Here.

And fortunately, we've been able to work on some pretty big projects that have been really impactful to our members, and some of those we'll share as the season goes along.

Yes.

I was going to say that's one of the things when we were okay sitting down and saying, okay, what is season four going to look like?

Who do we want to have on?

What do we want to talk about?

You know, there.

There's a lot of different ideas we have.

And, you know, we sat down with your team because you're the one looking at the.

At the data, you're the one looking at the surveys, you're the one really trying to get plugged into what our members are wanting.

And, and so sitting down with you was very valuable.

And certainly when you're talking about batteries, I mean, that's going to be a topic we'll have on.

We've got a lot of exciting.

Like, I'm so excited about this season, I'm going to say, and I don't want to give anything away, you just have to tune in to see what we've got going.

But it's going to be a good season.

Yeah.

And even just looking at what do we do day in and day out that our members interact with us, how do we improve it?

How do we make it the most seamless interaction with our members?

We know that having to take time out of your day to engage with us sometimes is maybe not the most thing you're looking forward to the most.

But we want to make it pleasant and easy and joyful, and we were working all the time and make it an improved experience.

So now on the flip side, I know that, you know, what you do is really more, way more important than anything I just shared because.

And we got a very strong dose of that with Winter Storm Fern.

We've known for a long time that our members want us to communicate to them, let us know, let them know what it is we're doing.

Right.

Especially in times of outages.

And that became very clear to us during Winter Storm Fern.

We have a team of experts that are trying to get the power back on as quick as they can in a very safe way.

And that's of the utmost importance.

But right alongside that is making sure that our members know what's going on so that they can plan.

And that's really hard when we have these big outages that we can't say, oh, we estimate it's going to be this long or this long.

This is unforeseen territory.

And you all Saw that firsthand.

But you guys did an amazing job of communicating to our members.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, I think, you know, for the communications team, I think I, I was probably only one dating myself, but I'm the only one that had been through a major, major ice storm before.

I had worked one of the first big storms I ever worked was the ice storm in 94.

So, you know, team had never been, you know, we've been through tornadoes, but ice storms are different.

You know, ice storms are a whole nother problem.

You know, it's going to be days and days, and it's days and days in extreme dangerous temperatures for people to be home alone with no electricity and that type of thing.

So it's a, it's a whole different mindset you've got to have going into this ice storm.

And, and you know, as, as we got together as a team, you know, we were thinking of, you know, we definitely got on a call session.

We wanted to make sure we were monitoring the socials, we wanted to make sure that we were getting messages out.

And Chris, our CEO, I mean, he had a very clear message for us.

It was in the wee morning hours, Sunday, I think it was like five something.

We get a message from Chris and he's like, it's starting, we're starting to see outages.

We need to have hourly messages.

And so we took that and pretty much, I mean, there were times we weren't on the hour, we were waiting for information or something would have happened and our members would call us out on it.

We're like, where's our update?

We're like, we're coming.

But we really did try to stick to that hourly.

But the fact that someone called us that said, hey, where's our update?

That means they were watching, they were listening and they were watching and they wanted that information.

And one thing that we had not.

Usually during an outage, you get tons of comments on post and typically we will, you know, in the past we've respond to kind of private messages where we can, but it's so overwhelming to respond.

And usually it's just one person trying to manage all that.

You know, where it took the whole team to manage our social media during that storm.

And one thing we did different is we tried so hard to respond or like every single comment on our post where we could.

Now we responded to almost a thousand messages.

That's not like that's responded, that's not counting the likes.

And we shut Facebook down three times.

So if we didn't respond to you.

That might have been during the period where Facebook shut us down.

They limit you because they think it's like a.

They felt we were spamming people because we were responding to so many messages.

So that was like.

But, but we made sure when that happened, the next hourly posts were like, listen, Facebook shut us down so we can post, we can still post, but we can't comment for three days.

So I'm sorry, you know, so.

And then once we could start doing it again, you know, we would try to go back and comment on some.

We just wanted to make sure that our members knew we were listening and it was really important because there was a point and I want to tell you, all those days bleed together.

So I may be wrong about this, but I think it was Sunday where the, the website quit working.

It was so overwhelmed.

People going to the outage map, going to the website, trying, you know, the phone system kind of locked up.

You know, of course our it and I think that's what people don't realize is the linemen are the heroes.

I mean they are.

I'm not arguing that at all.

But there are so many, all the teams back behind it.

I think someone even said you need to train everybody there to get out and work on the lines.

And I'm like, everybody here's working.

You know, we all have our role to play during these.

And so, you know, it was on it.

And so both of those situations were rectified fairly quickly.

But at that point social was really it, you know, and so it was manning that and it was the stepping up of our team that I was just so proud of, proud of them.

You know, it was like we had our own call times, you know.

And you know, for example, you know, I'm, I do, I'm the media person.

So when the press reaches out, it's to me.

So if I'm on my own call time for social, say I was on call from 10 till 2 and the media reaches out to me.

Well I, you know, I've got, that's now my priority.

And so it was just the person that was on call before me, you know, she jumped right in.

You know, it was like we never got off call.

I think we all were working, you know, talk about the linemen working in shifts and working 16 hour days and we were, we were doing that as well because you couldn't, one person couldn't manage it.

We all had to chip in.

Even if we were not on call, we were all answering those messages and we Learned a lot.

And what we learned the most was how appreciative our members were.

The messages that we were getting.

I mean, these are people that spend without power for three days, right?

They were not even complaining.

They were like, so.

And if someone did complain or the members were like, you know, they were defending us to where the person would pull their post.

You know, I mean, it was just.

It was amazing to see in it.

And I think, you know, a lot of times people put stuff on social and they don't realize that it.

How it affects real people, you know, because these are real people.

We were.

We were staffing that.

It was the people in your community, your neighbors.

And reading what was written was so encouraging.

And I know for a fact that our linemen would go home at night and, you know, you go to bed and you scroll.

What they were scrolling was our Facebook page, and they were reading all those messages, and they were just, like, ready to get up the next morning and hit it and get it again.

So, you know, big, big day, thanks to our members.

And definitely lessons learned to us is that it doesn't always have to be good news.

We can tell you bad news, which we were telling them, hey, the lights aren't coming on.

Go find shelter.

We can tell you bad news.

As long as we're honest and we're transparent.

I think that's all people want from us.

Yeah.

And you spoke to that part of the lineman that can get up in the morning, even after they're tired and go, because it's part of who they are.

They want to serve, and it's a calling.

But I think all of us at MTE felt that at some level, communications felt it at a very high level because you spoke right into what's important to you.

And I know you probably won't share this, but we've had several other utilities that have reached out saying, we want to know how you all did this.

And so something that we've talked about in the past is we want to be leaders in our industry.

And part of that is because we want to make our members proud of us and lead the effort on the line of things.

So I appreciate you all doing that because certainly it was recognized by the members, but also our peers in the valley and then even across the country.

I think, you know, one thing that.

That I tried to do and.

And I know my teammates did as well, because, I mean, honestly, we have an emergency crisis plan, communications plan.

We have a emergency action plan for our team.

When ice storms hit, we all.

We Have a plan, and we practice the plan.

But this was kind of an unprecedented territory.

And even on ice storms, you know, I said, I worked the first ice storm in 94.

There was no social media in 94, you know, so.

So it really was a learning as you go.

And it was that I think we all felt like.

And this was my.

When I answered a message, I answered it as, this is my parents calling me, wanting to know what happened, what's going on, and I want to answer it the way I would answer it for them.

So I'm talking to somebody I know instead of trying to make it polished or not polished.

I mean, we want to be polished, but I mean, you know what I'm saying?

I want to communicate to you.

You're our neighbor, you're our friend.

This is how I would want it.

Just tell me like it is.

Tell me what's going on.

Let me prepare.

And I think that's how we really went into it.

And I do think we hit that.

You know, it's hard.

We are a humble organization, so we don't really want to pat ourselves on the back, but I think that, you know, what we did during that really stood out to our members, and we've set a bar that we now have to match.

You know, I mean, that's something, too, as we're going forward is we've set a precedent for ourselves.

Like, we've never done it this way before.

So when we have these storms and when we have, you know, tornadoes, you know, we get those a lot more than we get these ice storms.

I mean, we've got to act in that same way and make sure that we're being transparent, being open, being honest and communicating.

Yeah, well, and that's, you know, we.

We hold ourselves to a high standard because we know our members hold us to a high standard, and we want them to hold us to a high standard.

You know, we're.

We love to challenge ourselves and achieve it, and then that.

That's part of being someone who wants to serve.

But it does mean a lot when they recognize it.

And the encouragement, encouraging messages and different ways members have showed their appreciation.

I know, we've all appreciated that.

Yeah.

And, you know, as we were talking about being transparent, I'm going to pull it back to the podcast a little bit.

Is, you know, we are looking at how.

How can we communicate in.

In all sorts of ways so that we're hitting all the members, because not everybody's on social media.

Right.

Not everybody even watches the news anymore.

People.

You don't necessarily have, you know, two, four and five stations where you're watching the news, you're streaming things or you're getting your news somewhere else.

You know, it's like how to hit all these people.

So we are really trying to figure out, you know, how best to communicate our message.

And, and really we're hoping this podcast can, can really continue what we started with the transparency and the open communication.

Through the podcast we're going to be able to, people can meet our team, meet the people behind the power, meet, you know, pull back the curtain.

Let's, let's talk about what's really going on here.

And, and not only that, but in, in the ways we part the people we partner with and, and a lot of things like that.

Yeah, because ultimately we are, we are a different organization than what most people deal with.

We are not for profit member owned cooperatives.

Those that are listening, they're not our customers, they're our members and they, we work for them.

And so we, we figured, you know, if we work for them, we better let them know what we're doing.

And then also we have, we have ways for them to reach out to us to let us know what's important to them.

So we try to be mindful of that, but we have ways for them to do that.

But this year in the podcast, this season we'll be covering and I'm just going to have to read this because you read it, but I know Amy, you've done a lot of good work as far as figuring out what, what is it that we need to highlight.

Some of those topics are the people that power mte, our community partnerships that we have in place, the innovation and technology that we're working on.

Those are the batteries.

You talked about batteries.

A lot of different really cool projects.

The people that we power, not just people that, that power the community, but also the people that we're powering and what they're doing that's benefiting our, our community.

The power of co ops in general.

I, I, you know, I think people know we're a co op but, but.

Do they know what that means?

That's the question.

I've worked here for almost 15 years and it's still, you know, it, the more I learn about it, the more I appreciate it.

Our programs and services, we, we're doing a lot and we're trying to do more every year for our members, outage restoration efforts that we're doing and the processes we go through on that.

And of course we're going to Continue.

Talking about leaving liquor vehicles.

That'll always be a feature for us.

Yeah.

And you know, those are just a few.

But if, again, the point of this is to get information our members want.

So if you want something specific, we want to hear from you.

If you email communicationste.com I will make sure to check that.

And you know, we'll, we'll have a podcast on it at some point because we really do want this to be what the people want.

And again, you know, I've talked, we've talked about, we have a great lineup for this season.

So we did get a little late start.

We're going to do six episodes and then we're going to take a little break for summer and then we'll come back in October with the rest of them.

So.

But we, we have, we have a lot of good content.

The next one we have, I would encourage everyone to tune in.

They'll drop, as they did before every other Friday.

And the next one we have will be Chris Jones.

So we're going to start right in with the people Power mte and we're going to start at the top.

So that's going to be a great, a great interview because he is, he, you know, you talked about being service oriented and that type of thing and you know, those things start at the top and they trickle their way down.

So he really leads the charge and sets the example for us.

So we're going to talk to him.

So I'm excited about that one.

And then we've got some other stuff we don't, we just, we'll see where it goes.

But we've got a lot of, a lot of things in the wings.

But before we stop, is there anything else that you wanted to bring up before we move?

No, I mean, I'll be excited about next episode.

Chris is the epitome of a servant leader and I feel like we're very fortunate to learn from him.

Yeah, I, I don't, sometimes I don't even feel like I work for him.

I feel like he's always serving us.

So appreciated the example he gives and,.

Well, and what he did.

I think during the, the ice storm, he's listening, he's very busy during all that.

And every day, you know, at the end of the day, like five o', clock, you know, we would get a video from him really talking one on one to our members and I think that set a good tone for what we were doing.

And you know, you can tell he was feeling everything he said, you know, it was, it was it was good.

But before we sign off, I do have one more question for you.

I've asked you this before, I'm going to ask you again.

And I know that all our EV Car club members that are listening want to know the answer to this.

What is the update on your Austin Healey Sprite that you are trying to make an EV vehicle?

Yes.

Well, you know, we talk about holding each other accountable.

Thank you for doing that in a very public way.

You're welcome.

Now my, my father in law and I are, we've, the car's painted, everything is, and we've had some trouble securing some pieces down.

But I actually, I was over there just the other day and he's got everything and he told me let's, let's plan a week off before the kids get out of school.

And he said we'll have it done.

So we're that close.

Well, so does that mean that at the next Supercharged Cruise Inn in Williamson county in the fall that we may have the debut?

It should, I don't know if it can drive that far, so you might have to, I may have to, may have to put it on a trailer or something.

But that's the goal and I'm excited.

It's a, like a British honor green, like a little British spy car.

So I'm really proud.

I've seen, I've seen the shell.

You know, we did a podcast out there with it a few years ago, so.

Well, I'm excited to see that.

And you know, as we go forward with this podcast, you're not going to be with me every time, but you will be making appearances from time to time.

I'm not letting you off the hook.

Yeah.

So you'll be joining us for several.

Episodes, but yeah, you know, for those that maybe not aware, I, I told Amy I want to sit in and just watch the recording too when I can't be on it.

So I appreciate all that you've done to make this podcast a success.

I, I, I will, I will miss our time together.

But of course Amy and I get to work together a lot on other way in other ways.

So.

Yeah, well, it's, it's been great and again, I apologize for our long hiatus and, and the delay in getting started, but super excited about how we're starting and, and what we're doing and I will tease this a little bit.

We're actually getting a podcast studio.

Yes.

And I was very hopeful.

We're in a conference room now, but I was very hopeful we would have it.

But I just didn't want to wait anymore.

I was like, we can't wait anymore.

So we're going to have to do a few episodes in here.

But I'm hoping in the next month or so we're going to be in our studio and that's going to be easier for us because we have to set up all the cameras and all the lights.

And by we, I mean Jacob, our great videographer.

But so I know he's super excited that we are going to be in the podcast studio.

So hopefully, and I think maybe the we'll probably do two more episodes in in here and then hopefully we'll be in the studio.

But anyway, for, for more information, say first of all, thanks everybody who listened today.

And for more information about MTE, you can go to mte.com if you have any questions about anything that was talked about today or if again, if you have a specific topic you want us to cover, be sure to email us@communications te.

And until next time, plug in and keep bringing good energy.