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Advocates argue for transparency, participation in TVA’s Integrated Resource Plan

Advocates argue for transparency, participation in TVA’s Integrated Resource Plan
(Image by Markus Distelrath from Pixabay)

For the first time in the 90-year history of the Tennessee Valley Authority, several nonprofit advocacy organizations submitted a “Motion to Intervene” in the authority’s Integrated Resource Plan process, a comprehensive study that projects how TVA will meet demand for energy over the next 25 years.

In the motion, groups called on TVA to make its IRP process more open and transparent by hosting a public hearing and allowing relevant stakeholders to provide input into the plan. TVA’s next IRP is scheduled to be released in 2024.

“TVA’s reluctance to adopt a public Integrated Resource Plan process is truly a shame,” said Jake Duncan, Regulatory Director for Vote Solar. “Having worked in IRPs in other states, I’ve personally witnessed the transformative power of a public process, which not only enhances outcomes but also provides an opportunity for utilities to embrace clean energy and address energy justice concerns, benefiting everyone.”

TVA’s integrated resource plan will influence reliability, electricity bill affordability, air and water quality, and regional jobs over the next two to three decades. Unlike the case of most of its neighboring utilities and investor-owned utilities across the country, TVA’s IRP is not regulated by a public utilities commission, and impacted stakeholders in the region are not permitted to formally participate in TVA’s process unless selected by the utility to join its IRP working group.

Because TVA’s IRP process is unregulated, the motion to intervene was submitted as a comment, not as a court filing.

“Our country’s largest public power provider is concealing its long-term plans and failing the people it’s supposed to serve,” said Gaby Sarri-Tobar, energy justice campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “As energy prices go up and extreme weather looms, there’s absolutely no excuse for TVA to keep people in the dark about plans that will affect their lives for decades. These folks are paying TVA’s bills and they live with the health and safety costs of the fossil fuel status quo. It’s insulting to exclude them from the planning process.”

During the decade before COVID, TVA’s seven-state region saw almost no electric load growth. But post-COVID, the region has experienced vast economic growth, fueled by several factors. TVA’s base power rates have remained flat during the past four years while it made investments in the power system.

The TVA Board of Directors recently announced plans to invest $15 billion over the next three years to build additional generation and upgrade the existing system. TVA says it is focused on meeting growing electricity demand while maintaining energy security and moving to a net-zero carbon future.

Over the past 10 years, TVA has invested $25 billion in existing and new generation. Currently, TVA is adding 3,800 MW of new generation, with three new dispatchable units at Colbert, which came online in Julyas and an additional 1,250 MW that is scheduled to come online in 2023 and 2024 at Paradise and Johnsonville. TVA is also working to add more than 10,000 MW of new solar energy by 2035 and is adding its first battery storage facility in Vonore.

On the demand side, TVA said $100 million will be invested in energy efficiency and demand response programs to help lower energy bills and offset 30% of new load growth in the next 10 years.

Originally published in Power Grid International.

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