Because of Tennessee's unique utility structure, neighbors can face very different consequences for not paying their power bills during the coronavirus outbreak.

Back on March 31, the Tennessee Public Utility Commission issued an order to cease disconnections and shutoffs.

That's good news.

The bad news is that the list of utilities the order applies to is very short. Only three electric companies — Appalachian Power Company, Entergy Arkansas and Kingsport Power Company — were covered. (More confusingly, Applachian Power and Kingsport Power Company are actually the same company).

The Tennessee Public Utility Commission only controls for-profit, investor-owned utilities. There is no centralized authority in Tennessee for regulating municipal, cooperative or nonprofit utilities — aka public power. The majority of Tennesseans get their electricity from public power.

Outside of the Kingsport area, the state is served by member-owned cooperatives and municipal utilities that are loosely regulated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which sets local rates. Things like late fees, payment plans, connections, disconnections and reconnection policies are all set locally. Every co-op and municipal power company is structured differently.

"In most states, the utility commission would have jurisdiction over everybody or most everybody," explained a spokesperson for the Tennessee Public Utility Commission. "But because of the structure of Tennessee, I'm sure most customers are confused."

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Public electric utilities are communicating with each other but aren't required to act in the same way.

"We're doing some collaboration with other providers," said Tiffany Martin, director of customer experience for the Knoxville Utilities Board. "But there hasn't been an effort per se to pull all the utilities together."

Knoxville Utilities Board chose to suspend disconnections. Lenoir City Utilities Board, which supplies much of West Knoxville, has not. Some electric utilities might not even have a stated COVID-19 policy. Rural co-ops might not even have websites.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has extended a $1 billion line of credit to defer wholesale power payments to local power companies. The agency has also given additional regulatory flexibility to local utilities, enabling them to halt disconnections.

"This situation is going to play up financial uncertainties on individuals and businesses, those uncertainties are going to flow up local power companies." said Jimmie Hopson, a spokesperson for TVA. "We realized we needed to do the right thing."

"To extend a financial security blanket, if you will, to the local power companies that will free them to do what they need to do," he continued.

But so far, the response has been inconsistent. To cut through the confusion, Appalachian Voices and Sierra Club volunteers compiled a database of how local power companies were responding to COVID-19.

"We've yet to see a national or statewide moratorium protecting residents from losing their power during the COVID crisis," Bri Knisley, an organizer for Appalachian Voices, said in an email. She explained that because of this, volunteers and other partners worked to identify how electric utilities are responding.

We mapped these responses and added several investor-owned or small, rural, out-of-state utilities that cover areas within Tennessee. We wanted as comprehensive a picture as possible of disconnection policies within Tennessee.

Disconnection policies vary widely. Many utility companies do not state a policy, instead opting to handle each customer case-by-case. That does not mean that you can’t try to call your local co-op to work something out. In that case, there just aren’t any guarantees.

"Our position is, if you have trouble paying your bill, call your co-op," said Trent Scott vice president of corporate strategy for the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association, a trade association for cooperative power companies. "You will find people who can help."

It’s also not clear whether utilities are still charging reconnection fees, connection deposits or other monetary compensation to reinstate or start service. Very few companies have an “immediate reconnection” policy. The data was not otherwise not widely available on utility company websites or disclosed outside of conversations with customers.

Appalachian Voices, Energy Alabama and more than a dozen other organizations sent an open letter to the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, a professional organization for publicly owned utilities, calling for leadership and transparent guidelines for local utility companies during COVID-19. Tennessee Valley Public Power Association demurred.

"We have every confidence that the decisions made with their local stakeholders are designed to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on the consumers and community they serve," wrote Doug Peters, Tennessee Valley Public Power Association President and CEO.

There is a tension here that might not be obvious. Public power actually means "publicly owned." These utilities are part of local governments or directly owned by their members in the case of coops.

Public utilities were set up to provide essential services for local people and be accountable to those people. This has not always worked as planned. But that is why activists and advocates are calling on them to step up.

"The coronavirus pandemic has underscored just how indispensable electricity is for residents facing threats to their health and livelihoods. No individual or family in the Tennessee Valley should be at risk of losing their power, especially in a region served by public utilities," emailed Knisley.

Note: This article originally contained incorrect names and organization. It has since been updated with the correct names and organization.

Email Vincent Gabrielle at vincent.gabrielle@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @vincentdgabriel. If you enjoy Vincent’s coverage, support strong local journalism by subscribing for full access to all our content on every platform.