TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant
Control operators Chris Pugado, left, and Billy Horton work in the unit 2 control room of TVA’s Watts Bar nuclear plant Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in Spring City, Tenn. TVA plans for the nuclear plant’s second reactor unit to come online by the end of the year.
Standing next to one of the four turbine shafts inside the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Facility, Ken Cornett talks about the need for draining the 500-acre reservoir to complete repairs and updates on Friday.plant manager. TVA spokesman Scott Fielder, left, listens to the explanation by Cornett some 1,100 feet underground.Tennessee Valley Authority capitalized on lower fuel and interest costs and cuts in its operating costs to achieve record profits in fiscal 2015.
TVA said today it earned a record $1.1 billion, up from the $609 million the utility earned in the previous year. The 2015 results represent the fourth consecutive year of rising profits for TVA.
“We did see flat electricity sales in the past year, but higher revenues driven somewhat by the weather and rates combined with our lower fuel costs and reductions in O&M (operating and maintenance expenses) helped improve our net income,” TVA Chief Financial Officer John Thomas told the TVA board here today.
TVA sales in its 7-state region totaled more than $11 billion in the fiscal year that ended Oct. 1. Cheaper natural gas and abundant rains that helped boost hydroelectric generation helped cut fuel and purchased power expenses by $158 million.
TVA adjusts is rates, in part, each month to reflect its fuel costs. As a result, TVA customers paid slightly less for power in the past year than they did in the previous year despite a 1.5 percent base rate adopted in fiscal 2015.
Over the past three years, TVA has cut its annual operating expenses by about $600 million, Thomas said.
TVA was able to cut its operating costs and boost its net income even though it spent a record $3.6 billion in capital spending in fiscal 2015 to finish the Watt Bar Unit 2, install scrubbers at its Cumberland Fossil Plant and start or continue work on two new natural gas plants.
TVA debt was held at $26.1 billion, or $1.2 billion less than what was budgeted, Thomas said.
“Today our rates are very competitive and they are becoming more competitive,” TVA President Bill Johnson said.
The higher income helped TVA meet most of his Winning Performance goals for fiscal 2015. TVA will soon pay its nearly 12,000 employees a year-end bonus equal to 95 percent of the maximum goals.
Johnson said TVA met the financial, reliability and economic development goals for 2015 but failed to meet the safety targets for the year.