Tennessee Valley Authority
TVA's Mission and Vision
Our enduring mission
TVA has a rich history of improving quality of life and economic prosperity for people and businesses in the TVA service area. Down through the years, as times have changed, TVA has changed with them, updating and refining its focus to better serve its enduring mission in:
- Affordable electricity
- Economic and agricultural development
- Environmental stewardship
- Integrated river system management, and
- Technological innovation
Our renewed vision
While TVA’s mission has not changed, the environment in which TVA does business continues to evolve. Facing challenging economic conditions, tougher new environmental standards, the need to modernize its generating fleet and changing customer needs, TVA recognized a need to refine its strategic vision for the future.
In August 2010, the TVA board of directors adopted a renewed vision that will help TVA lead the Tennessee Valley region and the nation toward a cleaner and more secure energy future, relying more on nuclear power and energy efficiency and less on coal.
TVA’s renewed vision is to be one of the nation’s leading providers of low-cost and cleaner energy by 2020. More specifically, TVA intends to be:
- The nation’s leader in improving air quality
- The nation’s leader in increased nuclear production
- The Southeast’s leader in increased energy efficiency
Improving air quality
In support of its renewed vision, TVA has invested $5.3 billion already to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide at its coal plants about 90 percent from their peak levels. In 2011, TVA announced plans to idle 2,700 megawatts of its oldest and least-efficient coal plants and review other units. TVA is more than offsetting this idled capacity by expanding its fleet of cleaner natural-gas fired combustion turbines and increasing its investment in nuclear power.
Increasing nuclear production
TVA is completing Unit 2 at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in east Tennessee, which will add more than 1,100 megawatts of power to TVA's generating portfolio. The TVA board of directors also has approved the completion of Bellefonte Nuclear Plant Unit 1 in northern Alabama. When it begins commercial operation, the 1,260 megawatt reactor will be the largest in TVA's nuclear fleet.
Increasing energy efficiency
As it invests in new capacity, TVA is improving the energy efficiency of its facilities and helping customers get more value from their electricity dollar. TVA also is creating incentives to reduce peak power usage with electricity prices that vary depending on the season and time of day to reflect changing production costs. This will help consumers manage their energy use to take advantage of times when costs are lower.
A new path forward
The three priorities of TVA’s renewed vision define a new path forward for TVA’s energy future in which every TVA job and initiative will be linked to six focus areas:
- Cleaner air
- Greater energy efficiency
- More nuclear generation
- Low rates
- High reliability
- Responsibility
TVA’s renewed vision is a vital part of TVA’s overall strategic planning process, which includes strategic objectives, scorecards and initiatives – all designed to give TVA employees the clear line-of-sight they need to improve TVA’s core business. Another important element of this process is the integrated resource plan that TVA completed in 2011.
