TVA will spend another $2.3 billion on capital projects next year to complete a second reactor at the Watts Bar nuclear plant, install pollution controls on its coal plants and make other upgrades even as the utility plans to cut operating expenses by $600 million.
But TVA President Bill Johnson told a Congressional panel Wednesday that TVA is committed to staying beneath the $30 billion debt cap set by Congress for TVA. The utility plans to cut its operating budget by $600 million less than what it was last year. TVA's statutory debt is estimated to be $24.9 billion and outstanding debt and debt-like obligations are estimated to be $26.9 billion at the end of 2016.
"We are committed to effectively managing our level of debt and debt-like obligations," Johnson told a House water and energy subcommittee."In 2014, TVA made the final scheduled payment to fulfill the statutory requirement to repay $1 billion of Congress' original appropriations investment in building TVA's power program. TVA will continue to make payments to the U.S. Treasury as a return on the remaining power program appropriations investment."
U.S. Rep.Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, praised what he called "Johnson's impressive track record of reducing costs.
"We are concerned with the agency's overall financial health since the agency carries a rather large debt load," he said.