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TVA employee
Kim Pilarski conducts research for TVA’s ongoing wetlands
project.
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TVA is a regional
development agency that manages the natural resources of the Tennessee
River system to produce maximum benefit for the people of the Tennessee
Valley. TVA’s challenge is to balance its responsibility for supplying
low-cost, reliable electric power with the demands on water and public
lands.
Balancing the competing
demands on the river system is vital to protecting the region’s
natural resources and supporting its sustainable development. TVA has
six distinct areas of responsibility: navigation, flood control, power
supply, land use, water quality and recreation. All are possible because
the resources are managed as an integrated system to optimize the river’s
potential and to return multiple benefits to the public and the environment.
- Twelve watershed
teams are a vital part of TVA’s stewardship efforts throughout
the 42,000 square-mile Tennessee River watershed. Their efforts yield
tangible results as illustrated by state fish and wildlife agencies’
reintroduction of the indigenous lake sturgeon into waters from which
it had long been absent, a project made possible by improved water
quality.
- With input from
stakeholders, TVA issued its first
Annual Environmental Report, which will serve as a benchmark for
stakeholders to track TVA’s future performance in integrated
resource management.
- See
descriptions of TVA’s current environmental initiatives.
The Public Power
Institute
The TVA Board participated in the ribbon cutting for the Public Power
Institute (PPI) this year. PPI’s mission is to develop and demonstrate
new ideas and technologies that support public power’s role as
a power producer, leader in environmental responsibility and promoter
of efficient energy use. During the first year of operation, the Institute
has accomplished several milestones.
- Introduced the
first U.S. program for accreditation of a green power pricing program
with regulated and publicly owned utilities.
- Installed TVA’s
first microturbine, which supplies power to the PPI headquarters in
Muscle Shoals, Ala., and a separate installation at the Huntsville
Utilities Board.
- Established
more than 125 public benefit and technology partnerships with national
organizations such as the Department of Energy, American Public Power
Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the
Environmental Energy Studies
Institute.
- Provided national
leadership in the development of the President’s Biomass Vision,
Roadmap and Strategic Plan.
- Established
a simple, easy-to-access Web
site that provides a point of entry to TVA for entities interested
in helping build alliances that promote improvements in energy production,
delivery and use while reducing environmental impacts.
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TVA’s
system of reservoirs, including Douglas Dam in East Tennessee,
provides recreational opportunities that attract millions of visitors
to the Valley each year.
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Green Power SwitchSM
TVA facilitated a team of environmental groups, 12 power distributors
and TVA-wide representatives to become the first in the Southeast to
offer consumers the opportunity to underwrite the production of power
from cleaner, renewable resources such as solar, wind and landfill gas.
The program, Green Power Switch,
began as a one-year market test and reflects TVA’s commitment as
a public utility to develop low-impact energy sources. The first renewable
resources include three wind turbines near Clinton, Tenn., and 10 solar
sites projected to be in service before January 2001.
Clean Air Initiatives
During fiscal year 2000 TVA expanded its efforts to protect the environment
even beyond those required by law.
- TVA has spent
more than $2.5 billion on air-pollution-control equipment at its 11
coal-fired plants. These investments have reduced TVA’s sulfur
dioxide emissions by two-thirds and lowered nitrogen oxide (NOx)
emissions by one-fifth since 1976.
- To further reduce
emissions of nitrogen oxides, TVA is installing 18 selective catalytic
reduction (SCR) systems on seven of its fossil plants. By 2005, the
SCR systems, with a projected cost of between $800 and $900 million,
will reduce NOx emissions during the summer ozone season
by 75 percent compared with mid-1990 levels.
- TVA modified
the 16 combustion turbines at Johnsonville Fossil Plant and four turbines
at Gallatin Fossil Plant to burn natural gas in addition to fuel oil.
This gives TVA the flexibility to purchase the lowest cost fuel and
reduce NOx emissions when natural gas is being used.
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