Tennessee reel lots: buy, sell and pickup

Power in Tennessee comes through local systems

Tennessee's grid is unlike most. The Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal agency, generates the power and sells most of it wholesale to local power companies: city utilities and co-ops that own the distribution lines. EIA's 2024 list of top retailers shows that structure plainly. The City of Memphis utility is first, then Nashville Electric Service, Middle Tennessee EMC, TVA itself (which sells directly to some large industrial customers) and the Knoxville Utilities Board.

For reels, this matters because the distribution work, and so the empties, are spread across dozens of local systems rather than one or two big utilities. Every city utility and co-op has its own yard, its own contractors and its own pile of reels. Some are large, like those in the Memphis and Nashville areas. Many are small rural co-ops with a few dozen reels behind the warehouse.

Prysmian's Jackson plant

The one cable plant in Tennessee in the research behind this page is Prysmian's optical cable facility in Jackson, which makes loose-tube and drop cables. In August 2026 Prysmian announced about $100 million and 100 jobs there, doubling the plant's footprint.

Jackson sits on I-40 between Memphis and Nashville. Fiber cable from there goes out on reels across the region, and the empties land wherever it is installed. With the plant growing, expect more fiber reels in the yards of Tennessee contractors and the builders working in neighboring states.

Three Tennessees, three freight pictures

Tennessee is close to 440 miles across from Memphis to Bristol, so a lot in one end of the state can be nearer to buyers in another state than to buyers in the other end. A Memphis lot might suit a crew in north Mississippi best, and a Chattanooga lot a buyer near Atlanta.

Who in Tennessee has reels to sell

Many Tennessee co-ops have built fiber networks of their own over the past several years, often alongside their power lines. That leaves them with both kinds of reel: heavy nailed reels from URD and primary cable, and lighter reels from fiber. We take both, and we write them up separately.

• Local power company and co-op yards, after line extensions and rebuilds
• Electrical contractors on commercial, industrial and warehouse jobs around Nashville and Memphis
• Fiber builders staging rural BEAD and co-op broadband work
• Distributors holding returned or excess reels
• Manufacturing sites that took in cable for plant expansions

Sizes that turn up in a Tennessee co-op yard

A typical local power company yard here holds a spread. Small reels with 24 to 36 inch flanges come from service drops, street lighting and building wire. Mid-size reels, 42 to 54 inches, come from secondary underground and smaller primary runs. The 60 to 72 inch reels carried primary URD or three-phase feeder cable, and anything bigger usually came from a substation or transmission contractor.

Each band sells to a different buyer. Electricians and small contractors want the small and mid sizes, often in twos and threes. Utility contractors and cable re-spoolers want the 60s and 72s in numbers. Writing a lot up by size lets us offer each band to the people who need it, rather than pricing the whole yard at its weakest reel.

The last column is our general description of where each size comes from, not data from Sonoco.

BEAD in Tennessee

NTIA's June 2023 BEAD table gave Tennessee $813,319,680.22. Much of the remaining unserved area is in the hills and hollows of the east and the Cumberland Plateau, and in rural West Tennessee. Fiber construction in rough country means a lot of handling: cable cut, re-spooled and moved between segments. A crew doing that needs empty reels with drums big enough for the cable, and they need them near the work.

If you're building and short of reels, send us the cable diameter and the footage you're handling. We look for a Tennessee or nearby lot first.

Getting a truck to a Tennessee yard

Metro yards in Nashville and Memphis are easy to reach but sometimes tight inside the gate. Rural co-op yards usually have room to turn a 53-foot trailer but may sit at the end of a narrow county road. East Tennessee job sites can be on steep grades where a shorter truck is the only safe choice.

Winter is usually mild in the west and middle of the state, but ice storms happen, and the mountains in the east get snow that can slow a pickup. We don't set dates we can't keep; we confirm a pickup once the truck and the road are both ready.

1. 01

   Tell us the town

   And the nearest interstate exit if the yard is rural.

2. 02

   List the sizes and counts

   Flange x traverse x drum for each group, from the reel stencil.

3. 03

   Show the condition

   Photos of the pile and of any split flanges or broken staves.

4. 04

   Describe the loading

   Forklift, loader or nothing; we plan the truck around it.