Brisk winds across the Illinois plains began blowing power into the Tennessee Valley this week when TVA connected with an Illinois wind generator capable of generating 300 megawatts of power.
The Streator Cayuga Ridge wind park in Livingston County, Ill., owned by Iberdrola Renewables Inc., is the first of seven wind suppliers the Tennessee Valley Authority has contracted with for renewable power from the Midwest. Collectively, the new wind generation should supply power to 325,000 homes.
“Activation of this new wind-power source is an important milestone in our plans to expand TVA’s clean and renewable energy options,” TVA Senior Vice President John Trawick said.
Stocks recover from recent slide
A dose of good economic news sent stocks sharply higher Wednesday and erased the Dow Jones industrials’ big plunge of last week.
The Dow rose 148 points to return to where it stood before last week’s tumble that briefly took the average down nearly 1,000 points. The Nasdaq composite recorded a 2.1 percent gain.
Analysts say the rebound reflects growing confidence that Europe’s debt problems are contained for now.
If there is an adage that very well expresses the American entrepreneurial spirit, it is “more for less”; producers know that to stay competitive what they offer consumers is “better, faster, cheaper” i.e., more for less.
Throw TVA in the mix and you get just the opposite. Don’t you know TVA would be crowing about such a good deal they got for 300 megawatts of wind power? Electricity from Illinois, or even as far away as North Dakota cannot be competitively priced.
TVA has put itself in a box on this one; if they can buy electricity delivered to Virginia for less than they are producing it now, it’s time for TVA to start collapsing its territory (or selling off parts of it) and just become a power broker (shades of Enron!)
However, and this is the likely story, TVA must pay a premium for that far away electricity. And as always, always, it is the ratepayer who gets stuck with TVA’s gross mismanagements.
TVA is so secretive about its dealings that it’s like the old saying about increasing rates, “you’ll know it when you see it” on your light bill.
TVA has not put out a murmur of the wind power cost. And now that a federal judge says CEO Kilgore must be deposed in several lawsuits on the Kingston disaster, it will be lockdown for real.
Ernest Norsworthy http://norsworthyopinion.com
P.S.
For my latest article on the TVA see http://norsworthyopinion.com/Outrageous.aspx
EN
Or login with:
New Account