A mischievous squirrel brought a chunk of Germantown to a standstill Monday morning, knocking out power for roughly 3,600 Nashville Electric Service customers and leaving homes and small businesses in the dark during a busy stretch of the day.
Crews with Nashville Electric Service traced the issue to a single animal that had interfered with equipment and tripped a breaker, and service was restored shortly before 11:20 a.m. The brief outage was a pointed reminder that even in a growing, wired-up city, wildlife can still bring the grid to its knees.
Nashville Electric Service told WSMV that “The crew found that a squirrel had tripped the breaker.” The station reported that a snapshot of NES’s outage map showed more than 3,600 people in Germantown without power around 10:30 a.m., and NES said service had been restored shortly before 11:20 a.m.
Critters and the grid
Animal incursions are a surprisingly routine headache for public-power systems. Data from the American Public Power Association shows that squirrels were the third-leading cause of sustained outages among more than 320 public power utilities in 2023, responsible for roughly 7,200 outages nationwide that year.
Local history of animal-caused outages
Germantown’s blackout is hardly Nashville’s first critter-related power problem. In August 2024, WSMV reported that a squirrel came into contact with equipment in West Nashville and left more than 4,300 customers without power, a reminder of how a single small animal can take down a circuit serving thousands.
How to report outages and stay safe
Nashville Electric Service asks customers to report outages by texting “OUT” to 637797, calling 615-234-0000, or using the utility’s interactive outage map, and to avoid downed power lines at all costs. For more details on reporting issues and staying safe around electrical equipment, visit Nashville Electric Service.
