Melissa Williams, melissa.williams@sierraclub.org
KNOXVILLE, TENN. — The Tennessee Valley Authority today released a draft plan for how the federal utility proposes to generate electricity for its customers over the next 20 years, a day after the board of directors voted to phase out coal at its Bull Run plant in Tennessee and at its Paradise plant in western Kentucky.
Outgoing TVA CEO Bill Johnson told board members at their meeting Thursday that neither plant is financially viable because they cost too much to run, rarely operate, and aren’t needed for grid reliability.
The federal TVA Act mandates that the utility do "least cost planning" to deliver "the most reliable, least cost power, system-wide." As the utility continues to shift away from dirty and outdated coal, the current draft plan forecasts an increase in renewable resources and battery storage.
Sierra Club was the only environmental organization with a seat on TVA’s 2019 IRP Working Group, a task force of TVA's distributors, industrial customers, government officials, and energy experts who met regularly to give input on the plan as it evolved.
Public meetings will be held on the draft plan starting Feb. 19 and ending March 26. The public can offer comments until April 8. The TVA Board of Directors will vote on a final version of the energy plan sometime this summer.
In response to today’s filing, Al Armendariz, deputy regional director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, released the following statement:
“We appreciate the professionalism of the TVA staff and for their work to run a data-driven process over the past several months. We’re also glad to see projected growth in the use of renewable energy and in high-tech battery storage to meet load demands in the Valley.
“The IRP is a highly detailed plan and we will be evaluating it carefully in the coming days before submitting recommendations on changes that will reduce costs to electricity customers and lower emissions even more.
“As we expected, the economic analysis shows that adopting renewable energy, especially solar, and introducing new clean resources like battery storage, are consistent with a least-cost approach for keeping electricity prices low.
“Recent announcements to add solar projects in Tennessee and Alabama show that businesses are interested in bringing jobs to the TVA territory and boosting the local economy if the utility is a national leader in these innovative technologies.
“This long-term energy plan a provides a roadmap for how TVA will meet the region’s future energy demands. It’s important those needs are met in a more reliable, equitable and environmentally responsible manner. And we encourage the public, especially families and businesses that want TVA to accelerate cleaning up its electric grid to get involved in this IRP process.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.