TNMP Vegetation Management

Vegetation, specifically trees and vines can cause unplanned power outages in TNMP’s service territory. To help reduce outages and safety hazards, TNMP prunes, or removes, thousands of trees near power lines each year.​ 

Access to your property:

TNMP employees and contractors may need to access your property to prune or remove trees and to perform other work to repair or prevent power outages.

We will attempt to contact you before entering your property, but it may be necessary - particularly during an outage or an emergency - to begin work on your property before alerting you.

Section 5.4.8 of TNMP's retail delivery service tariff, which is approved by the state Public Utility Commission, provides further details. Download TNMP's tariffs.

Who’s Responsible:

  • TNMP proactively prunes, and when appropriate removes, trees for electrical clearance and prioritizes its schedule to focus on the areas where reliability is most at risk.  Work is performed by licensed contractors that are trained in safe utility vegetation management.
  • The customer is responsible for maintaining trees to prevent them from growing closer than 10 ft of the electrical lines. However, if your trees are already within 10 ft of the electrical lines, please contact TNMP at 888-866-7456 to have your trees assessed, or to have your service drop (the line from the pole to your house) disconnected.

How we trim:

TNMP adheres to Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) principles and ANSI 300 Tree Care Operations practices.  Other objectives include adherence to all regulatory and legal requirements, continuous environmental improvement, and adherence to ANSI Z133 worker safety practices. 

Utilization of these principles/standards will:

  • Promote continued tree growth (away from the lines).
  • Minimize the need for future trimming.
  • Cause the least amount of stress to the tree.
  • Reduce the likelihood of disease, decay, and excessive re-sprouting.

Appearance of utility pruned trees:

Debris Policy:

Storm / Emergency Debris Policy:

Because of the urgent nature of emergency work, crews will not clean up any debris following storms or emergency work. Removal of all debris is the responsibility of the property owner. 

Planned Maintenance Debris Policy:

Brush will be removed and chipped by crews. Block wood will be stacked and left on site.

Tree Planting:

  • Know where underground lines are located before planting a tree, shrub, or garden plant.
  • Call before you dig to arrange for underground utility lines to be located and marked.
  • Select the right tree for the location. 
  • Mature trees must be at least 15 feet from power lines.
  • Plant trees 10 feet or more from underground pad-mount transformers (green boxes sometimes seen in residential areas).
  • Tree roots can interfere with underground utilities.
  • Remove tall growing trees and replant with low-growing varieties to prevent future problems.

Wood chips:

TNMP offers free wood chips to our customers. Call 888-866-7456 

For More Information:

Please call customer service 888-866-7456.