Tag Archives: Tennessee Valley Authority

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

July 21, 2011, KNOXVILLE, Tenn., (Coal Geology) – The Tennessee Valley Authority’s successful strategy to balance consumer demand for renewable energy through Green Power Switch with renewable generation from the Generation Partners initiative placed 10 local power companies among the top providers of solar power in the region and nation in 2010.

“That balance has been a key to success,” said Bob Balzar, TVA vice president for Energy Efficiency and Demand Response. “From the start, these two programs were designed to work together to stimulate small scale renewable projects in the TVA region, jump start the market for local renewable power, and provide customers with a low cost renewable option.”

The Solar Electric Power Association ranked Knoxville Utilities Board seventh regionally for total solar megawatts added in 2010 by their customers through Generation Partners and fourth regionally for watts per customer. Nashville Electric Service ranks 10th regionally for total solar megawatts added in 2010 by their customers.

Three member-owned cooperatives that distribute TVA power are in the national top 10 for total megawatts added last year by co-ops: Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corp. in Murfreesboro, Tenn.; North Georgia Electric Membership Corp. in Dalton, Ga., and Tri-State Electric Membership Corp. in Blue Ridge, Ga.

“One of the most important factors in all of TVA’s successful renewable energy initiatives has been the teamwork and cooperation of our distributor partners,” Balzar said. “They helped bring renewable power to the TVA service area.”

Balzar said Generation Partners’ growth in the past year has exceeded the pace of the voluntary customer participation in Green Power Switch. TVA is reviewing and developing new strategies for both programs in order to maintain a balance between the two initiatives, he said.

The focus will be on the original vision to promote small-scale generation projects and longer-term goals to ensure continued success and sustainability of TVA’s renewable energy programs. Streamlining processes and procedures, and potentially introducing new products and programs also will be considered.

TVA officials will work with power distributors, renewable developers, program participants and other interested parties before making any program changes. Until then, TVA will honor existing agreements and accept new projects under Generation Partners, which has been a successful initiative since its launch in 2003.

“Generation Partners is now producing 17 megawatts of renewable power with more than 50 additional megawatts under contract. This program has unquestionably spurred economic growth throughout the region, catalyzed the regional infrastructure for the solar industry, and supported a growing solar component manufacturing sector in the region,” said John Trawick, senior vice president of Commercial Operations and Pricing.

“These initiatives to produce clean, renewable power are part of our renewed Vision to be one of the nation’s leading providers of low-cost and cleaner energy by 2020,” Balzar said. “As the nation moves toward more low-carbon and non-carbon fuel sources, TVA is committed to being one of the nation’s leaders in low-emission power.”

For more information on the SEPA rankings, visit http://www.solarelectricpower.org/solar-tools/sepa-utility-solar-rankings.aspx.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, a corporation owned by the U.S. government, provides electricity for 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern states at prices below the national average. TVA, which receives no taxpayer money and makes no profits, also provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists utilities and state and local governments with economic development.

SOURCE Tennessee Valley Authority

CONTACT: Mike Bradley, Knoxville, +1-865-632-8860, or TVA Media Relations, Knoxville, +1-865-632-6000, www.tva.com/news

Web Site: http://www.tva.com

July 7, 2011, KNOXVILLE, Tenn., (Coal Geology) – The staff of the Tennessee Valley Authority has negotiated an agreement to buy, subject to TVA board of directors’ approval, the 968-megawatt Magnolia Combined Cycle Gas Plant in northern Mississippi from Kelson Limited Partnership, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kelson Energy Inc.

The three-unit, natural gas-fired electric generating plant is located on a 374-acre site in Benton County near Ashland, Miss., and has been a source of purchased power for TVA since the plant began operation in 2003. Kelson has owned the facility since 2005.

The closing of the transaction is also subject to approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, among other conditions.

“TVA continually evaluates our options to ensure a reliable, competitively priced supply of power for the people of the Tennessee Valley,” said Bob Irvin, senior vice president for TVA Strategy & Planning.

“The Magnolia plant offers a strong strategic, operational and financial fit for TVA and its vision to be a leader in low-cost and cleaner energy by 2020,” he said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed for competitive reasons. The purchase price will be less than half the cost of new construction.

The Magnolia plant is a modern, fully permitted generating facility with a proven operational history, located in the TVA service area and connected to the TVA grid. Combined-cycle gas plants efficiently use waste heat from the generation process to turn additional turbines to make additional electricity. They can provide intermediate generation to fill the gap between continuous and peak power needs. Magnolia will be TVA’s third combined-cycle gas plant, joining the new Lagoon Creek plant and the Southaven plant, which is jointly owned with Seven States Power Corp.  A fourth plant, John Sevier, is under construction and scheduled to begin operation in 2012 in northeast Tennessee. TVA also operates a fifth plant, Caledonia, which is under a long-term lease agreement.

Kelson Energy, based in Columbia, Md., is an independent power producer engaged in the business of owning and operating electric generating facilities.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, a corporation owned by the U.S. government, provides electricity for utility and business customers in most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia’.

(This release may contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and future performance. Although TVA believes that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, numerous factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.)

SOURCE Tennessee Valley Authority

CONTACT: Duncan Mansfield, Knoxville, +1-865-632-4660, TVA Media Relations, Knoxville, +1-865-632-6000, www.tva.com/news, or Investor Relations: Ann Storberg, Knoxville, +1-865-632-4425, TVA Investor Relations, Knoxville, +1-888-882-4975, www.tva.com/finance

Web Site: http://www.tva.com

May 25, 2011, KNOXVILLE, Tenn., (Coal Geology) – A solar power facility in Tennessee and a landfill gas-to-energy site in Mississippi have joined the Tennessee Valley Authority’s growing initiative for mid-size renewable energy generators supplying green power to TVA.

Sharp Manufacturing Co. of America’s solar site in Memphis and Waste Management Renewable Energy’s landfill gas facility in Houston, Miss., are TVA’s latest Renewable Standard Offer projects.

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

Started last fall, TVA’s Renewable Standard Offer pays renewable energy generators based on the time of day the power is produced and the demand on the TVA system. The initiative is open to generators with a capacity of up to 20 megawatts using biomass, methane recovery, wind or solar energy sources. No single technology can exceed more than 50 percent of the program’s total capacity of 100 megawatts.

The Renewable Standard Offer complements TVA’s Generation Partners program, which purchases power from smaller generators with a capacity of up to 200 kilowatts at varied rates.

The Sharp solar project in Memphis, with a capacity of 201 kilowatts, or 0.2 megawatts, is expected to begin producing electricity by early June. The power will connect to the TVA system through Memphis Light Gas and Water. Sharp also is a TVA Generation Partner and operates other solar generation facilities at its Memphis plant site.

Waste Management’s landfill gas facility will provide 1.6 megawatts of capacity from methane produced at the company’s Prairie Bluff Renewable Energy Facility. Generation at the site is scheduled to begin in March 2012. The power distributor is Natchez Trace Electric Power Association.

The Houston, Miss., project is Waste Management’s second Renewable Standard Offer site and the third overall in the TVA program. The company’s 4.8 megawatt-capacity landfill gas facility in Camden, Tenn., became TVA’s first program participant in January. It is scheduled to begin delivering power in September through Benton County Electric System in Camden.

All TVA Renewable Standard Offer projects are subject to applicable environmental requirements and securing transmission arrangements.

“These new facilities from Sharp and Waste Management are very encouraging additions to TVA’s newest renewable power initiative,” said John Trawick, TVA senior vice president for Commercial Operations and Pricing. “In combination with our Generation Partners, these projects represent positive growth in locally-produced renewable power for the TVA service region.”

To learn more about TVA’s Renewable Standard Offer, visit the TVA website at www.tva.com/renewablestandardoffer. To learn more about TVA’s Generation Partners Program visit www.tva.com/greenpowerswitch/partners.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, a corporation owned by the U.S. government, provides electricity for utility and business customers in most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia – an area of 80,000 square miles with a population of 9 million. TVA operates 29 hydroelectric dams, 11 coal-fired power plants, three nuclear plants and 11 natural gas-fired power facilities that can produce about 34,000 megawatts of electricity, delivered over 16,000 miles of high-voltage power lines. TVA also provides flood control, navigation, land management and recreation for the Tennessee River system and works with local utilities and state and local governments to promote economic development across the region. TVA, which makes no profits and receives no taxpayer money, is funded by sales of electricity to its customers. Electricity prices in TVA’s service territory are below the national average.

SOURCE Tennessee Valley Authority

CONTACT: Mike Bradley, Knoxville, +1-865-632-8860, TVA Media Relations, Knoxville, (865) 632-6000, www.tva.com/news

Web Site: http://www.tva.com

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

May 11, 2011, CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., (Coal Geology)- The Tennessee Valley Authority is working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to address issues related to concerns about the performance of a valve at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama. TVA noted that it found and reported the problem, repaired and tested the valve and that the NRC agrees that the plant is operating safely.

The valve is part of a residual heat removal system, which helps keep reactors properly cooled during routine operations and in the event of a fire or other emergency. The NRC issued a “red finding” related to the valve’s performance, which denotes high safety significance.

“TVA found the problem and fixed it,” Chief Nuclear Officer Preston Swafford said. “A manufacturing defect in the valve stem threads, which are designed to screw into the valve disc, were determined to be too small.  We made repairs and reinstalled the valve. It has worked properly during tests, and it worked properly again last week when the plant really counted on it after the severe weather that recently hit Alabama.”

Swafford said the NRC indicated Tuesday that this violation would not affect Browns Ferry’s return to service when repairs are completed to the area’s tornado-damaged network of power lines, which prompted the plant to safely shut down last Wednesday.

Swafford said TVA is “considering our options” in responding to the NRC finding. A “red” finding under the NRC’s Reactor Oversight Process results in increased NRC inspections and oversight at Browns Ferry.  The NRC inspection findings are evaluated using a safety significance scale with four levels, ranging from “green” for minor significance, through “white” and “yellow” to “red” for high significance.

The “red” finding was the culmination of a seven-month process to determine the safety significance when one of two independent residual heat removal valves failed to immediately open when placed in service during an October 2010, Unit 1, Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant refueling outage.

“Obviously we’re disappointed with the NRC’s findings on this matter,” Swafford said.  “The safe operation of all our units is our primary concern, and we take any regulatory report of a violation very seriously.”

The valve and the entire residual heat removal system are important parts of the plant’s overall safety system. Browns Ferry is currently upgrading its fire protection program to the NRC-endorsed performance based standard (NFPA 805).

“We’ve worked hard at Browns Ferry to address a number of fire risk concerns, and moving to the NFPA 805 requirements will further help us improve that fire risk margin,” Swafford said.  “We have multiple redundant safety systems in place to assure proper performance and safe operations in the event of fires or other emergencies.”

He noted that TVA also is upgrading other systems to make the equipment that uses the valves less critical to the overall ability of the plant to safely shutdown in the event of a fire or other emergency.

“TVA regularly performs comprehensive and detailed analyses on the safety systems at Browns Ferry,” Swafford said. “Even without the repairs, we believe the valve would have performed as designed in an actual operational event. Our forensic analysis demonstrates that the problem was related to a manufacturing defect, not human performance.”

The Tennessee Valley Authority, a corporation owned by the U.S. government, provides electricity for utility and business customers in most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia – an area of 80,000 square miles with a population of 9 million. TVA operates 29 hydroelectric dams, 11 coal-fired power plants, three nuclear plants and 11 natural gas-fired power facilities that can produce about 34,000 megawatts of electricity, delivered over 16,000 miles of high-voltage power lines. TVA also provides flood control, navigation, land management and recreation for the Tennessee River system and works with local utilities and state and local governments to promote economic development across the region. TVA, which makes no profits and receives no taxpayer money, is funded by sales of electricity to its customers. Electricity prices in TVA’s service territory are below the national average.

SOURCE Tennessee Valley Authority

CONTACT: Ray Golden, Chattanooga, +1-423-751-8400, or TVA Media Relations, Knoxville, +1-865-632-6000, www.tva.com/news

Web Site: http://www.tva.com