TVA News

03/21/2024

The Tennessee Valley Authority, which has helped develop the nuclear programs at Chattanooga State and hires many of its graduates, donated $10,000 to the college program Wednesday.

Laurel Crawley worked as a bartender for 12 years in Chattanooga. It was a job where she heard some of her customers talking about opportunities in the nuclear field.

03/16/2024

An East Tennessee man has become an archivist of TVA's impact on local communities.

East Tennessee is the heart of energy research and development for the country, and as this part of central Appalachia has altered for the federal government, its communities have both benefited and paid the price. Self-taught historian Leo York has worked to keep account of those impacts to his Eas...

03/16/2024

The Tennessee Valley Authority should decide by this summer whether it will demolish, sell or revamp its biggest office complex as the federal utility looks to downsize its office facilities in Chattanooga.

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The Tennessee Valley Authority offices in downtown Chattanooga are seen before dawn April 5. The federal utility's Chattanooga Office Complex sits 9.3 acres bordered by Market Street to the east, Chestnut Street to the west, 11th Street to the north and 12th street to the...

03/12/2024

The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday approved a legislative proposal to require the Tennessee Valley Authority to disclose the salaries of its employees.

03/09/2024

For the third time in the past three years, two Tennessee congressmen from opposite political parties have come together on legislation to try to promote more transparency by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a liberal Memphis Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a conservative Knoxville Republican, are often on different sides of political issues in Washington just as they represent different sides of Tennessee.

02/27/2024

TVA may soon boost its production of a key component of America's nuclear arsenal at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tennessee.

Staff file photo / Both cooling towers release steam at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tennessee. Since 2003, the nuclear plant has helped produce tritium, a key component in America's nuclear arsenal, for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the military is planning on b...

02/22/2024

The power of the atom was harnessed for the first atomic bomb in the then-secret city of Oak Ridge during World War II, and eight decades later, a new study shows East Tennessee remains part of the nucleus of America's nuclear industry.

02/22/2024

Less than three months after the TVA shut down its Bull Run Fossil Plant, the abandoned coal operation may soon become a test site for a key component of nuclear fusion energy seen by its proponents as "the holy grail" for future clean energy.

Tennessee Valley Authority / TVA's Bull Run coal plant, shown here in 2008, was shut down Dec. 1. Part of the site will be used by Type One Energy to build its Infinity One stellarator to help advance commercial fusion energy. Less than three months after the Tennessee Valley Authority shut down its...

02/17/2024

After nearly seven decades of electricity generation — and the nation's worst coal ash spill at the site more than 15 years ago — TVA has concluded it should shut down all nine of the Kingston coal units in the next three years.

Staff photo / Water v***r streams from the top of a scrubber tower in 2012 in Harriman, Tenn., at the Kingston Fossil Plant. A final environmental impact statement released Friday recommends the nine coal units at Kingston be shut down by 2027 and replaced with natural gas, solar and battery storage...

01/31/2024

TVA has awarded the first contracts to buy up to 600 megawatts of solar power and 20 megawatts of battery storage to be built during the next four years, according to the utility's quarterly financial report released Tuesday.

Staff File Photo / An array of solar panels help generate power in Chattanooga. TVA has awarded contracts to purchase up to 600 megawatts of solar power. Nearly two years after making America's biggest appeal yet for carbon-free energy, TVA has awarded the first contracts to buy up to 600 megawatts....

01/26/2024

America's biggest public utility isn't public enough with its power plans for the future, according to environmental and citizen groups who conducted their own "people's hearing" on TVA's future power plan Thursday in Nashville.

01/23/2024

Despite opposition from environmental groups, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved plans to build a natural gas pipeline to supply a power plant TVA plans to build near Clarksville, Tennessee.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved plans to build a natural gas pipeline to supply a power plant the Tennessee Valley Authority plans to build near Clarksville, Tennessee, at the site of TVA's biggest coal plant.

01/23/2024

The Tennessee Valley Authority set an all-time system peak of 34,524 megawatts Wednesday, and on Saturday, the second all-time peak was reached at 34,284 megawatts.

The Arctic blast that lowered overnight temperatures to single digits for several days across the Tennessee Valley last week pushed power consumption to record highs as the 10 million customers of the Tennessee Valley Authority turned up their electric heat pumps, furnaces and heaters to stay warm.

01/18/2024

With temperatures falling below zero degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the Tennessee Valley on Wednesday, TVA set a record for power demand at 34,526 megawatts Wednesday morning, according to preliminary power figures released by TVA.

With temperatures falling below zero degrees in parts of the Tennessee Valley, TVA delivered a record amount of electricity to keep homes and buildings warm Wednesday morning even as frigid temperatures and icy roads outside claimed the lives of at least seven Tennesseans this week.

01/16/2024

Electric and gas utilities in Chattanooga are activating their interruptible power agreements with major industries to curtail consumption, but utility officials said they don't expect more power outages like what Winter Storm Elliott brought 13 months ago.

With temperatures in Chattanooga expected to drop Wednesday morning to their lowest level in the past decade, the Tennessee Valley Authority is appealing to customers to conserve on their electricity use between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Wednesday when TVA expects power consumption in the Tennessee Valley....

01/13/2024

The Tennessee Valley Authority is bracing for the coldest weather since Winter Storm Elliott forced the federal utility to impose rolling power blackouts just before Christmas 2022.

01/11/2024

The Tennessee Valley Authority said it may delay the closure of its biggest coal-fired power plant if federal regulators don't soon approve a gas pipeline project needed to supply a new natural gas plant.

(AP Photo/TVA, Ron Schmit) White plumes of water v***r rise from the two stacks of the emission scrubber system in 2002 at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Cumberland Fossil Plant near Clarksville, Tenn. The Tennessee Valley Authority said it may delay the closure of its biggest coal-fired power pla...

01/05/2024

After six years of above-average rainfall in Chattanooga, the National Weather Service said 47.24 inches fell in Chattanooga during 2023, down from the 58.25 inches of rain the previous year.

Last year was Chattanooga's driest in seven years, with rainfall nearly 7.7 inches below normal.

01/03/2024

Three years after shutting down what was once one of TVA's biggest coal plants in Kentucky, the Tennessee Valley Authority activated three new natural gas combustion turbine units over the weekend on the same site near Drakesboro, Kentucky.

TVA / Three new natural gas combustion turbine units began power production Sunday at TVA's Paradise plant in Western Kentucky Three years after shutting down what was once one of TVA's biggest coal plants in Kentucky, the Tennessee Valley Authority activated three new natural gas combustion turbine...

12/28/2023

While fuel prices have fallen from record highs in the summer of 2022, the new year will begin with higher energy costs in Chattanooga.

12/15/2023

With electricity demand expected to rise more rapidly in the future, TVA projects it will need to boost its power production over the next two decades even as the federal utility shuts down its remaining coal-fired power plants.

With electricity demand expected to rise more rapidly in the future from electric cars, data centers and overall economic growth, the Tennessee Valley Authority projects it will need to boost its power production over the next two decades even as the federal utility shuts down its remaining coal-fir...

12/14/2023

The Roane County Commission will honor the memory and labor of workers who cleaned up the Tennessee Valley Authority's 2008 Kingston coal ash spill by funding a historical marker and through a proclamation that Dec. 22 will be a day to honor the workers.

12/12/2023

TVA has improved its power performance at all three of its nuclear plants, boosting its overall capacity factor at the plants above 90% this year.

Growing up on a lake in Canton, Ohio, where hockey was a favorite sport, Tim Rausch skated his way onto a North American travel hockey team and once hoped to be a winger in the National Hockey League.

12/08/2023

The U.S. Department of Energy wants to power its biggest research lab with carbon-free electricity by 2030 and has begun talks with the Tennessee Valley Authority to figure the best way to get such green energy in the future.

12/07/2023

The Tennessee Valley Authority is planning to build a natural gas plant in central Mississippi to meet its growing power load and make up for the coal plants the utility is shutting down across its seven-state region.

12/06/2023

The Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing the Clinch River site to build America's first new generation of small modular reactors that a top Biden administration official said will be needed to curb global climate change.

A half century after pulling the plug on an earlier nuclear reactor design, the Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing the same Clinch River site to build America's first new generation of small modular reactors that a top Biden administration official said will be needed to curb global climate cha...

12/03/2023

Although the Tennessee Valley Authority says it has made its power system most resilient for cold weather, power cooperatives in the Tennessee Valley say they remain worried about more power limitations or rolling blackouts like those that cut TVA power during Winter Storm Elliott last December.

A year after rolling blackouts hit the Tennessee Valley for the first time, a new study on America's power grid says electricity demand continues to grow faster than new generation, threatening to create more power outages during cold winter days ahead.

12/02/2023

Critics say the executive-level jobs aren't necessary and were created as part of a multimillion-dollar campaign by TVA to help persuade Memphis Light Gas & Water and other power companies to continue buying their wholesale power from the federal utility.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is paying each of the four regional vice presidents it added to the federal utility two years ago more than a quarter million a year in salary and bonuses, according to pay levels for the executives disclosed in response to a lawsuit on behalf of the Institute for Publ...

11/30/2023

TVA last week distributed more than 125,000 calendars to residents, businesses, schools and churches located within a 10-mile radius of its three nuclear plants to detail emergency steps that might have to be taken if there was a nuclear plant accident.

Nuclear power provides the biggest share of electricity generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority and could supply even more power in the future as the federal utility phases out its coal-fired power plants within the next 12 years to curb its carbon emissions linked with global climate change.

11/15/2023

More than 10,000 employees of the Tennessee Valley Authority will have extra reason to be thankful during Thanksgiving week when TVA pays its workers a record amount of performance pay.