The Tennessee Valley Authority has the ability to make both fossil-fuel advocates and green power proponents mad. It must be doing something right.
On Thursday, the federal utility decided to close two of its coal power plants over the next four years, vexing President Donald Trump, who had lobbied to keep them open, and their home-state congressional representatives in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Only 14 months ago, frustrating clean energy advocates, TVA declined to move forward on a project that would have brought the Tennessee Valley wind energy across a proposed 700-mile-long power line from the windy areas of Texas and Oklahoma.
When the federal utility makes long-term decisions on power generation, it must balance what it believes its power needs will be with the cost of the power (and its administration and delivery). Board members and power generation officials rely on research to help them make the decisions, but they also must be minor fortune-tellers.
In the case of the coal plants, the board felt its nuclear, natural gas and renewable energy sources would be sufficient to fill the utility’s needs for what is currently a declining power market. The energy produced versus the cost to produce it did not tip the balance scale on the positive side for the long-term future.