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“Our
firm provided investment banking services to TVA, and over the
last four years we have developed a great partnership. We are
extremely proud to be one of TVA’s service providers. Our
partnership with TVA has put our firm on the map.”
—Ron
Blaylock, Chairman
& CEO, Blaylock & Partners LP, New York, NY
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But the best measure
of TVA’s progress on meeting the objectives of the Ten-Year Business
Plan is its price of electricity. TVA’s power prices are among
the most competitive in the nation, with residential prices paid by
consumers in the Tennessee Valley 23 percent lower than the national
average. TVA’s commercial and industrial prices are similarly competitive.
These competitive prices are achieved without TVA’s receiving any
federal funding for the operation of its power program. Based on these
prices, it’s not hard to understand why individuals and businesses
are choosing to reside or make investments in the Tennessee Valley.
TVA is competitive
today, and we are dedicated to remaining competitive in the future.
We plan to meet this goal through a combination of lowering fixed costs,
improving operating efficiency, optimizing capital spending, and increasing
power revenues through economic growth. TVA also must continue to provide
a reliable source of electricity to meet the needs of our customers
in a rapidly expanding economy in the Tennessee Valley. While specific
targets established in 1997 in the Ten-Year Business Plan have changed,
the plan still provides the blueprint to meet these challenges and to
keep TVA competitive.
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“Our
piping system had 16 bends, and wherever the ash hit the pipe,
it would wear out. Every week we had to replace a part of it.
The Economizer Transport Piping Team took most of the bends out
and changed the velocity. This has freed up people to work on
other jobs, and Operations doesn’t have to go every day to
check the line for wear.”
—Jerry
Ball (right), Steamfitter,
Cumberland Fossil Plant, Cumberland City, Tenn., with
his son and fellow team member, Daryl
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Fulfilling
the Commitment to Deliver Clean, Reliable Public Power
In
the spring of 1999 TVA established the Public Power Institute to help
fulfill TVA’s responsibility to sustain and enhance the environment
while continuing to provide low-cost, reliable electricity.
Located at TVA’s
site in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the Institute will develop and demonstrate
technologies, strategies, and policies for improving air quality and
sustaining a reliable energy supply for TVA and other public-power providers.
TVA is committing
up to $5 million in funding to the Institute during its first three
years to leverage investments from other institutions that support public
power.
“We hope the
Institute will stand as a symbol of the vision that public-power companies
such as TVA bring to the energy industry,” TVA Chairman Craven
Crowell said at a National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America, hosted
by Vice President Al Gore in Detroit in May 1999. “It’s a
vision that puts the public good ahead of the bottom line, and a vision
that values long-term benefits over short-term gains.”
The Institute will
serve as both a research laboratory seeking more sustainable power production
and as a public-policy clearinghouse for energy and environmental issues.
TVA’s commitment
to cleaner energy has always been inspired by the awareness that its
power program generates electricity “in our own backyard,”
Crowell said at the National Town Meeting. He also noted TVA’s
commitment to “place-based values” has led TVA to reduce pollution
in the seven-state region it serves. “If we carelessly pollute
our environment to produce power, we’ll suffer the consequences
in the air we breathe and the water we drink.
“The whole
concept of sustainable growth and development isn’t really new
to us at TVA. Environmental stewardship has always been one of the primary
values of TVA.”
Y2K
Compliance
The reliability
and availability of TVA power is vital to our customers. As of September
30, 1999, 100 percent of all mission-critical items being tracked in
TVA’s Year 2000 Program were completed and tested. In addition,
TVA is developing contingency plans to address potential unforeseen
problems, working with distributors of TVA power, interconnecting utilities,
other customers, and suppliers to minimize the impact of disruptions
that may occur along the supply chain. See Year
2000 Readiness for further information on TVA’s Year 2000 Program.•
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