By Dave Flessner
dflessner@timesfreepress.com
The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to boost its total debt obligations by another $779 million next year, bringing the utility's total borrowing and long-term obligations to $26.9 billion by September 2011, according to budget documents released today.
In the White House budget proposal for next year, TVA said it will borrow another $635 million next year for continued construction of a second reactor at its Watts Bar plant and borrow another $916 million for other new generating capacity, including much of the cost of an $810 million gas-fired plant being built at the John Sevier Fossil Plant near Rogersville, Tenn.
TVA plans to complete construction and start power generation at its Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor in 2012.
The fiscal 2011 budget plan released by the White House today estimates TVA's total debt obligations, which were at $25.2 billion last fall, will rise to $26.9 billion by September 2010 and to $26.9 billion by September 2011.
TVA's debt is edging closer to the $30 billion cap set for TVA by the U.S. Congress in 1979. But according to the Office of Management and Budget, $2.3 billion of TVA's debt obligations included in the $26.9 billion total involve long-term leases and prepaid power purchase agreements that are not counted against the statutory debt cap.
TVA's long-term debt peaked at the end of fiscal 1996 at $27.7 billion.