TVA’s downtown Chattanooga facility.The Tennessee Valley Authority, which has long relied upon coal and nuclear power to generate most of its electricity, expects energy efficiency and natural gas to meet most of its power needs in the next generation.
For the first time in its 82-year history, America’s biggest government-owned electric utility doesn’t expect to start building any major new power plants for at least the next two decades. After finishing the Unit 2 reactor at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant by December, TVA won’t need any more baseload capacity, according to a draft Integrated Resource Plan unveiled by the agency on Monday.
TVA expects to continue to shut down coal-fired generators, which once supplied nearly two-thirds of the agency’s power, and replace that power with more natural gas-fired generation, either built or bought by TVA.
Additionally, TVA expects energy efficiency to continue to offset the need for additional power, although environmental groups Monday urged the utility to do even more to encourage conservation and efficiency.
“We really don’t see an immediate need for any new large baseload capacity beyond what we already have underway,” TVA Vice President Joe Hoagland told reporters Monday.