Cooperative · Tennessee · EIA 19898
Volunteer Electric Coop
Cooperative · Tennessee · 126K customers. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's EIA Form 861, reliability for 2023 shows SAIDI 1057 minutes/customer.
Reliability verdict
Volunteer Electric Coop shows below-average chronic reliability in 2023: 430 minutes SAIDI excluding major events (1057 minutes including them) across 126K customers.
- 1057 min
- SAIDI 2023
- 6.37
- SAIFI 2023
- 430 min
- SAIDI ex-MED
- 126K
- Customers
Chronic reliability judged on SAIDI excluding major event days when reported (IEEE 1366). Source: EIA Form 861 · August 2026.
Signature read: long interruption minutes vs the 911 utility cohort (>258 min tercile cut).
What long-outage Volunteer Electric Coop filings show
Volunteer Electric Coop is a member-owned electric cooperative operating in Tennessee under EIA identifier 19898. It reports service to approximately 126,279 customer accounts and generated about $0.27 billion in annual electric revenue, with a service footprint spanning 70 ZIP codes. Being member-owned, this cooperative answers to its ratepayers rather than outside shareholders, a structure that tends to influence how rate cases and capital spending get decided.
In 2023, the average Volunteer Electric Coop customer experienced 1056.7 minutes of power interruptions, the industry-standard SAIDI metric (System Average Interruption Duration Index). Excluding major weather events from that total, that is substantially above the 120–180 minute national benchmark, indicating either storm-prone geography, aging infrastructure, or extended restoration windows. Over the same period, SAIFI (outage events per customer) was 6.37, putting the typical customer at roughly 6 distinct interruptions that year. Once major event days (hurricanes, ice storms) are excluded, SAIDI comes down to 429.5 minutes, and the spread against the headline 1056.7 indicates how much weather, versus routine infrastructure, drove the outage total.
The EIA dataset includes 4 years of continuous reporting (2020–2023) for Volunteer Electric Coop, which lets you see whether reliability is trending up or down rather than judging from a single snapshot. Over that span, SAIDI rose from 271.5 to 1056.7 minutes, possibly reflecting tougher weather years or grid upgrades that have not caught up yet.
Based on this utility's own EIA Form 861 reliability record -- baseline (major-event- excluded) outage duration, total outage duration, and outage frequency -- each benchmarked against every reporting utility nationwide. Not a measure of electricity rates or customer service, which this portal does not track.
1057 minutes per customer per year
Annual minutes without electric service (2023)
SAIDI by year (2020-2023)
Minutes per customer-year · EIA Form 861
Year-by-year SAIDI for Volunteer Electric Coop from the same EIA filings as the table below. Lower is better; major-event years can spike the headline figure.
Volunteer Electric Coop SAIDI trend
Volunteer Electric Coop vs the nationwide SAIDI distribution
Where this utility's headline SAIDI sits among every EIA Form 861 utility with a reported figure
1,057 Higher than most fewer outage minutes than 6% of 911 utilities
Utilities nationwide, banded by latest reported SAIDI (minutes)
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more utilities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. EIA Form 861 reliability filings · August 2026
Price vs. reliability
Where Volunteer Electric Coop sits on price vs. reliability
Among the 781 U.S. utilities large enough to report both revenue per customer and a recent outage record, Volunteer Electric Coop charges more per customer than 22% of them, and is more reliable (lower SAIDI) than 7% of them, placing it in the quadrant where it pays less and is less reliable. Revenue per customer and outage minutes are independent figures: paying more does not guarantee fewer outages.
Revenue per customer: $2,114/year · Latest SAIDI: 1056.7 minutes/year.
SAIDI 2023 breakdown: 1056.7 minutes
Reliability Trend (2020–2023)
| Year | SAIDI (min) | SAIDI nMED | SAIFI | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 271.5 | 52.1 | 2.742 | 119,943 |
| 2021 | 516.3 | 320.4 | 5.130 | 121,898 |
| 2022 | 523.4 | 402.5 | 4.561 | 124,256 |
| 2023 | 1056.7 | 429.5 | 6.370 | 126,442 |
SAIDI nMED = SAIDI without major event days. Source: EIA Form 861.
Service Area
Volunteer Electric Coop serves 70 ZIP codes in Tennessee.
Frequently Asked Questions
How reliable is Volunteer Electric Coop?
Volunteer Electric Coop had a SAIDI of 1056.7 minutes in 2023 including major weather events, but 429.5 minutes excluding them (the industry-standard measure of routine reliability, so the gap traces back to a major storm that year, not a chronic issue). Excluding major storm impacts, this trails the national average, indicating below-average reliability.
What type of utility is Volunteer Electric Coop?
Volunteer Electric Coop is classified as a Cooperative serving Tennessee.
How many customers does Volunteer Electric Coop serve?
Volunteer Electric Coop serves approximately 126,279 customers in Tennessee.
How has Volunteer Electric Coop's reliability changed over time?
Volunteer Electric Coop has 4 years of reliability data (2020-2023). SAIDI has remained relatively stable over this period. Review the trend table above for year-by-year detail.
Utility Profile
- Type
- Cooperative
- State
- Tennessee
- Customers
- 126,279
- Annual Revenue
- $0.27B
- EIA ID
- 19898
Explore
Utilities with similar EIA profiles
Two cross-state peer sets for Volunteer Electric Coop. Same-state SAIDI neighbors stay in Read-with below; these neighborhoods are nearest other-state utilities with at least 10,000 reported customers.
Similar customer count
Nearest utilities by Form 861 customers (126K here), outside Tennessee.
Similar chronic SAIDI
Nearest utilities by latest SAIDI minutes (1056.7 here), outside Tennessee, excluding the customer-peer set.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Form 861 annual electric power industry survey · ZIP service territory: OpenEI. Disclaimer: informational only, not professional advice. See full disclaimer · methodology.