The Tennessee Valley Authority says an environmental assessment determined a Finding of No Significant Impact that will green-light most local power companies (LPCs) across the Tennessee Valley to locally generate a portion of its own load to meet customer needs.
“TVA’s integrated resource strategy continues to bring greener power to the region while maintaining low rates and reliability. This option empowering local generation adds another avenue to grow distributed and renewable energy resources across the Valley,” says Doug Perry, senior vice president at TVA.
“Working with our local power company partners, we continue to bring new solutions to market that reduce carbon, meet changing customer needs and attract jobs into our communities,” he adds.
Currently, 140 of 154 LPCs have entered into 20-year long-term partnership agreements with TVA. These agreements allow LPCs to reduce the amount of energy they buy from TVA by generating up to 5% of their average energy needs. LPCs will then put the locally generated energy on their distribution system for customers’ use.
The final environmental assessment presents a revised preferred alternative that allows for 2.5 times more solar than was defined in the draft, which was open for public comment this spring. Through the flexibility provision, LPCs will collectively be able to deploy between 800 MW and 2,000 MW of distributed generation, based on resource type, if all 154 LPCs took advantage of the LTPA.
TVA touts nearly 60% carbon-free energy generation. TVA’s power system is the “greenest” power system in the southeast U.S. – having the highest percentage of clean generation among regional peers including nuclear and hydroelectric power.
Photo: TVA’s landing page
