Explore top business stories of 2014
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Since electricity was discovered and harnessed more than a century ago, its usage has grown along with the economy.
But energy efficiency and conservation is breaking apart much of the link between electricity consumption and economic output.
As America's biggest public power utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority and its staff recognized that new reality during 2014.
TVA doesn't expect to return to its pre-recession power consumption peaks for another decade, despite above-average economic growth in the 7-state Tennessee Valley. As a result, TVA scaled back its building plans, scrapped much of its aging coal-fired generation and cut its staff this year to the lowest level in more than a half century.
TVA cut 2,000 jobs, or about one of every six positions, during 2013 and 2014 as part of a 3-year effort to cut $500 million a year from its operating budget. Although most of the job cuts came from retirements and attrition rather than layoffs, the leaner TVA staff will cut nearly $200 million in payroll expenses in the Tennessee Valley, including more than $50 million in the Chattanooga area where much of TVA's power operations are headquartered.
Bill Johnson, who was hired as TVA CEO two years ago, said TVA needed to do more to bring its operating costs in line with competitors and its building plans in line with changing consumer power usage.
"Over the next decade, our fleet (of power plants) will transition to one of much more no- or low-carbon emitting generation and more energy and efficiency response," Johnson said Tuesday.
Energy-efficient furnaces, appliances and factory equipment are cutting energy use even as consumers continue to add more smart phones and electronic devices.
An even bigger disruption in the energy markets hit home in 2014 with the plunge in the price of gasoline and natural gas. New fracking technologies opened up more American oil and gas reserves, flooding the market with fossil fuels and cutting their wholesale price nearly in half from June to December.
Chattanooga motorists are ending 2014 with gas priced nearly $1 a gallon below what it was a year ago, saving the typical motorist nearly $700 a year in fuel expenses.