The Tennessee Valley Authority is seeking public input on a draft of its 2015 Integrated Resource Plan.
The IRP details various scenarios and strategies TVA may face through 2033 as it focuses on relying more on nuclear power and less on coal.
TVA produces an IRP every five years with the last one in 2011, but Vice President of Stakeholder Relations Joe Hoagland says fundamental changes in environmental policy and the utility industry have prompted an updated plan now.
“For example, since the economic downturn and recession, we’ve seen significant changes in load growth, typically utilities used to see 3 to 4% load growth per year," said Hoagland. "We’re now forecasting somewhere less than a half percent per year, which is a fairly significant change for something our size."
Hoagland says balancing a future in renewable resources while improving cost efficiency is one of the key components of the plan.
“Both energy efficiency and renewables and allow them to compete with all the other resources that we would consider such as gas and coal and nuclear, put them on the same level playing field," said Hoagland. "We think this is a huge step forward to really be able to plan for the future.”
Hoagland says the IRP addresses reducing carbon emissions as required by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, but doesn’t specify individual actions on a state-by-state basis.
"We look at everything from a very systematic point of view so we don't have the capability in the IRP construct to look state-specific," said Hoagland. "What we see in the results is that overall our carbon footprint is going down significantly over the period of the IRP in every one of the strategies and scenarios that we've looked at."
The comment period runs through April 27th, during which time TVA is holding public forums throughout the valley including one in Bowling Green April 22nd. Hoagland says a final draft of the IRP will be presented to the TVA board by August.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern states.