Just two days before the southeast experienced torrential rains, severe weather and snow, officials with the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors convened last Thursday — along the way reinforcing commitments to make significant investments into the power system throughout the seven-state region.
Continuing to seek affordable, reliable and resilient energy generation and storage, TVA has now experienced all-time peak power demands in 2024 and 2025 — with potential for another considerable surge later this week.
Specifically:
+ $16 billion has been earmarked over the next several years to meet growing demands
+ Pending environmental reviews, nearly 5,500 megawatts of new firm dispatchable generation will be ready by 2029
+ And TVA is still planning to partner with other agencies in order to increase the nation’s nuclear supply chain, while advancing small modular reactor construction and deployment
Retiring TVA President & CEO Jeff Lyash noted the world’s “strongest economy” will set a global agenda, while innervating what’s become a diverse generation portfolio.
In the past five years, the combined gross domestic product of the seven-state service area has grown nearly 3%, outpacing the national average by a half percent, while unemployment is also down 0.3% in the area — but up 0.4% nationally.
With construction under way at Shawnee, Cumberland, Johnsonville and Kingston, nearly 10,000 megawatts of new solar energy is expected by 2035, and 1,400 megawatts of new natural gas units have already been completed in Paradise, Kentucky, and Colbert, Alabama, and other projects planned for Tennessee and Mississippi remain in preliminary stages.
Since October 1, TVA’s transmission crews have built nearly 100 miles of line and fiber throughout the valley — and have either replaced or installed protection, monitoring and isolation assets at 47 different locations.
Two new substations have come online at Blue Ridge, Georgia, and Artesia, Mississippi, and last month, Lyash said TVA reinforced its belief in America’s nuclear future by partnering with Bechtel, Sargent & Lundy and GE Hitachi for an SMR at the Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then applying for an $800 million U.S. Department of Energy grant.
