Charting the Future of Energy

TVA’s Integrated Resource Plan Sets a Stakeholder-Informed Foundation for Meeting Future Energy Demand

After months of hard work, hard pivots, and multiple iterations, TVA’s Board of Directors recently approved the 2026 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which provides the strategic direction for TVA to continue to meet the energy needs of a rapidly growing region.

This strategic blueprint ensures that TVA meets energy needs with affordability, reliability, and resilience, in line with TVA’s least cost planning requirements. In the report, TVA identifies 11-32 gigawatts of additional generation capacity that will be needed through 2040.

The IRP was shaped by evolving industry trends, regulatory shifts, and stakeholder input. Its nimble, modular framework allows for various scenarios and strategies, whose myriads of combinations create a wide range of potential outcomes.

The IRP creates and captures would-be futures in one comprehensive document.

“It’s like a compass,” said Hunter Reed, 2026 IRP Project Manager. “The name of the game is breadth when it comes to scenario analysis. We also worked very closely with the IRP Working Group throughout the entire process. This group was instrumental in helping identify our scenarios and strategies, challenge assumptions, and review results.”

Public and stakeholder feedback is an important, and intentional, component of the IRP process, with multiple avenues and opportunities employed to gather this feedback. Listening is a pillar of this process – and it’s an active listening. It’s absorbing comments, incorporating feedback, and ensuring transparency remains at the heart of the work.

“Stakeholders play a significant role in this IRP,” said Amy Edge, Senior Director of Stakeholder Engagement. She emphasized the importance of collaboration. “They helped us finetune the scenarios and sensitivities. We adjusted some elements based on that feedback. We never compromised on our commitment to stakeholder engagement through this process, even when things got bumpy.”

TVA actively sought input from local power companies, environmental groups, community leaders, elected officials, and the public. This engagement shaped the analysis, highlighted opportunities for additional evaluation, and ultimately helped shape recommendations.

TVA typically updates the plan every four to five years, and monitors key signposts – such as load growth, gas prices, and regulatory conditions – to determine when a new IRP is necessary.

“It has some built-in flexibility given the agility necessary as the utility industry continues to evolve,” Edge said.

Reed described the IRP as a tool to help us navigate the future: future energy resources, regulatory changes, cost changes to fuel, and economic cycles. All these factors help guide growth, but meeting the energy needs of the region at the lowest possible cost remains the North Star.

“The benefits of a balanced portfolio are resilience, reliability, and protection from fuel cost shifts,” Edge said.

Stakeholder input reflected passionate viewpoints across generation types, and TVA’s approach is to integrate all perspectives for holistic solutions.

“It takes a balanced portfolio,” Reed said. “On the hottest days of summer and the coldest mornings of winter, different plants and generation types work together. Solar is valuable, but intermittent. Large nuclear supports baseload needs. Flexible gas plants and storage assets meet intraday swings.”

Despite pauses and adjustments, the completed IRP reflects broader, foundational tenets.

“We stayed true to least cost planning,” Edge said. “We stayed true to our mission of energy, environmental stewardship, and economic development.”