The Tennessee Valley Authority’s decision to keep its two largest coal-fired power plants open indefinitely was popular among TVA customers.
More than 10 million people and businesses use electricity produced by TVA, but the federally owned utility has only 215 actual customers, according to its most recent annual report. They are the 153 local utilities and 62 large users, including seven federal agencies, that rely on TVA as a wholesale electricity supplier.
The customers are typically quieter about TVA decisions than environmental groups, which criticized the decision to keep running coal plants that emit greenhouse gases. But several managers of local utilities and a representative of a major industrial customer encouraged the utility’s board of directors to keep coal plants.
Nearly all of TVA’s record $13.7 billion in revenue last year came from selling wholesale electricity to the 215 customers, who are concerned with the reliability and price of power above all else.