TVA and Energy

TVA helps make the Tennessee Valley a better place to live through its work in energy, the environment, and economic development.  As the nation’s largest public power provider, TVA delivers reliable and competitively priced electric power that gives businesses and families in the region more opportunity to prosper. 

• TVA’s power system is one of the most reliable and efficient in the nation, and it pays its own way, receiving no taxpayer dollars.
• In fiscal year 2009, TVA sold more than 163 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and earned revenue of more than $11.2 billion – an 8 percent increase over 2008.
• TVA provides world-class service at the lowest feasible cost.
  • TVA residential rates are below the national average.
  • TVA has a strong commitment to energy conservation programs that help consumers use energy wisely.
• In May 2008, the TVA Board approved principles promoting greater reliance on energy efficiency, demand response measures and renewable energy resources to help meet demand on the TVA power system.
• TVA has joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee, and others in a comprehensive solar-energy and economic-development program called the Volunteer State Solar Initiative. The U.S. Department of Energy has approved up to $62.5 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for the initiative, designed to advance job creation, education, research and renewable-power production in Tennessee.

Fossil Power

• TVA’s power production portfolio includes 11 coal-fired power plants that represent a combined 14,469 megawatts of net summer dependable capacity.
• In 2009, the coal-fired plants generated nearly 76.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, accounting for about 46 percent of TVA’s generation over the year.
• Additions to TVA’s natural gas-fired combustion turbine fleet over the past two years have added 3,200 megawatts of dependable summer capacity to the TVA system. 
  • In the summer of 2008, TVA’s combustion-turbine fleet achieved a reliability record of better than 99 percent.
  • A four-unit site in Brownsville, Tennessee, purchased in April 2008, added 474 megawatts of summer peaking power capacity.
  • The Southaven Combined Cycle Plant in DeSoto County, Mississippi, also added in April 2008, provides an additional 792 megawatts of summer peaking capacity. 
  • In May 2009, the TVA Board approved construction of an 880-megawatt gas-fired power plant in northeast Tennessee.

Nuclear Power

• TVA operates six nuclear units at three sites with a combined net summer capability of 6,671 megawatts. These units generated over 53 billion kilowatt-hours in 2009, an increase of 3 percent from 2008.
  • TVA’s nuclear units provided about 32 percent of TVA power in 2009.
  • In its second year since restart, Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 1 continued to be an important addition to the power system, saving TVA’s customers about $800 million in purchased-power costs.
  • TVA has resumed construction of Watts Bar Unit 2 near Spring City, Tennessee, which is scheduled to begin service by 2013.
• TVA continues to pursue NRC approval to build and operate two Westinghouse AP 1000 reactors at the Bellefonte site. The application was developed as part of the NuStart consortium's efforts to demonstrate a streamlined construction and operating license process.
• In March 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reinstated the construction permits for Bellefonte Nuclear Units 1 and 2 in north Alabama, a step requested by TVA as it explores the option of completing the units to meet future demand.  Any decision to complete the plant would be made by the TVA Board.

Hydropower

• The TVA hydro system consists of 113 units at 29 hydroelectric dams and one pumped-storage plant with a combined summer net generating capacity of 5,500 megawatts.
• TVA’s hydro system generated 11.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in fiscal year 2009, which was 71 percent higher than the previous year. The increase was due to a lessening of drought conditions in the Valley region in 2009.

Clean and Renewable Energy

• In 2008, approximately 37 percent of TVA’s generation was from clean energy sources. TVA defines clean energy as that resulting from low- or zero-carbon-emitting resources, including renewables, nuclear power, and demand reduction. TVA projects that low- and zero-carbon-emission sources will comprise at least 50 percent of its generation portfolio by 2020.
• TVA defines renewable energy as generation that is sustainable and often naturally replenished. TVA has about 3,900 megawatts of renewables consisting of conventional hydro, wind, solar, methane, and biomass co-firing sources.
• In 2008, the TVA Board approved the purchase of up to 2,000 megawatts of clean and renewable energy by 2011.
• TVA’s Green Power Switch program offers consumers a choice to buy renewable energy. The program has more than 12,000 residential and 500 business subscribers. TVA’s Generation Partners program gives homeowners and businesses an opportunity to own and generate their own renewable energy, which TVA buys at a premium price.
• In 2008, the TVA Board approved Energy Efficiency and Demand Response guiding principles to slow the growth of energy demand by providing opportunities for residential, business and industrial energy efficiency. The goal is to reduce the growth in peak demand by up to 1,400 megawatts by 2012. In 2009, EEDR reduced summer peak demand by 208 megawatts, surpassing its goal of 189 megawatts. More than half of the reduction resulted from a limited test program that pays participating commercial and industrial facilities to reduce the power they use at specific times.
• TVA conducts research that addresses intermittency, cost and sustainability issues associated with clean and renewable energy technologies.

 

Page updated Dec. 10, 2009