TVA Power Facts

TVA’s generation and transmission system enjoyed another successful year in fiscal year 2006, selling more than 176 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to customers and earning revenues totaling $9.2 billion.

For the seventh year in a row, TVA’s transmission system delivered power to customers with 99.999 percent reliability.

In July, TVA’s power system was tested by four consecutive days of peak demand above 31,000 megawatts, including an all-time TVA record demand of 32,008 megawatts on July 18. Our power system’s performance throughout the year is a tribute to our employees’ dedication and effort in fossil, nuclear, hydro, bulk power trading, transmission, and all parts of the TVA system.

Fossil fuel plants produced about 64 percent of TVA’s total generation in fiscal year 2006.

Nuclear power produced about 29 percent of TVA’s generation, and hydropower produced 6 percent.

TVA’s hydro system produced 6 percent of TVA’s generation and played an important role in helping to meet demand on peak days. In addition, TVA optimized river flows to provide cooling water that helped keep fossil and nuclear plants available during July and August peaks.

TVA’s combustion turbines and renewable energy program, Green Power Switch, also contributed to TVA’s generation mix.

Fossil Power Highlights

Net generation by the fossil system was 100.2 billion kilowatt-hours in 2006, the second highest in TVA history.

Thirteen fossil units set continuous-run records in 2006. On Nov. 30, 2006, Shawnee Unit 6 established a national record when it surpassed 1,017 days of continuous operation.

TVA’s Bull Run Fossil Plant was ranked the most energy-efficient coal-fired power plant in the nation for a second consecutive year by Electric Light & Power magazine, a national utility-industry magazine. Bull Run has been ranked as the most efficient coal-fired plant four of the last five years and has ranked among the nation’s top 10 most efficient plants every year since 1996.

TVA invested $182 million in clean-air equipment during fiscal year 2006, including scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-fired plants. TVA will have invested $5.8 billion to reduce emissions when its current clean air commitments are completed.

TVA has seven scrubbers in operation to remove sulfur dioxide emissions. The most recent began operating at Paradise Fossil Plant in October 2006. The Unit 3 scrubber is the largest single module in the United States and reduces sulfur dioxide emissions from the unit by more than 95 percent. Three more scrubbers are under construction, one at Bull Run Fossil Plant in Tennessee, expected to be operational in 2009, and two at Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee, expected to be operational in 2010. When these are finished, more than half of TVA's coal-fired capacity will be equipped with scrubbers, and sulfur dioxide emissions will be reduced by 80 to 85 percent below peak 1977 levels.

With this year’s addition of a new selective catalytic reduction system on Kingston Unit 9, TVA now has 21 in operation. Also, in 2005, TVA installed Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (“SNCR”) systems on two units to demonstrate long-term technology capability. TVA continued operating these two new SNCR installations through the 2006 ozone season. Early in 2006, TVA began testing a High Energy Reagent Technology (“HERT”) on three units for potential future application. HERT is similar to SNCR, and has lower capital costs than SCRs. Initial testing was successful, and as a result, in 2007, TVA will install this technology on two coal-fired units that were previously targeted for SNCR installations to demonstrate the HERT technology on a potentially permanent basis. These and other measures have reduced summer nitrogen oxide emissions by 81 percent since 1995.

In the fall of 2006, the TVA Board approved the acquisition of two combustion turbine facilities, primarily for use during periods of peak power demand. The Marshall County facility located in Kentucky has a winter capacity of 742 megawatts and can burn fuel oil or natural gas. The Gleason facility located in Weakley County, Tennessee has a winter capacity of 555 megawatts and burns natural gas only. TVA completed the acquisition of both facilities in December 2006.

Nuclear Power Highlights

TVA’s three nuclear power plants – Browns Ferry in Alabama, and Sequoyah and Watts Bar in Tennessee – produced more than 45.3 million megawatt hours during the 2006 fiscal year.

The Sequoyah site produced almost 19 million megawatt-hours of electricity, the most ever by the site in a fiscal year, and a TVAN fiscal year record for two-unit operation. Sequoyah marked its 25th anniversary in July 2006.

Watts Bar Unit 1 marked its 10th anniversary of safe and reliable operation in May 2006.

Platts Nucleonics Week, an industry publication, reported in September 2006 that Browns Ferry and Sequoyah had the 2nd and 4th lowest O&M costs, respectively, in the industry in calendar year 2005. Watts Bar ranked 10th for the single-unit sites.

Browns Ferry Units 1, 2 and 3 Operating Licenses were renewed in May 2006. The renewal allows continued operation of the units until 2033, 2034 and 2036, respectively.

Work to restart Browns Ferry Nuclear Unit 1 continued on schedule for completion in May 2007. It is expected to be the nation’s first nuclear unit to come online in the 21st century, and will add 1,150 megawatts of emission-free, low-cost base-load power to the TVA system.

With demand growing at about 2 percent a year, a detailed scoping, estimating, and planning study is under way for the possible completion of Watts Bar Unit 2; and TVA is continuing to explore the feasibility of building a new nuclear plant at its Bellefonte site in North Alabama as a member of NuStart Energy Development, LLC. NuStart is a consortium preparing an application to be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a combined construction permit and operating license for an advanced design reactor plant at Bellefonte.

TVAN won two Top Industry Practice awards for the Generic Substitution process and the Blended Low Enriched Uranium (BLEU) project, and a Global Energy Award for the BLEU project. The Generic Substitution process provides for pre-approved component and piece-parts substitution that efficiently supports plant needs around the clock. The BLEU project recycles surplus out-of-specification, highly enriched uranium supplied by the Department of Energy (DOE) into fuel for Browns Ferry.

River Management Highlights

Thanks to TVA's integrated operation of the Tennessee River system, net generation by TVA dams and the Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Plant was 9.9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity during fiscal year 2006, a decrease compared to the previous year because of lower-than-normal rainfall and runoff. While generation was down, the hydro system still played an important role in helping to meet demand on peak days. In addition, river flows were optimized to provide cooling water that helped keep fossil and nuclear plants available during summer peaks.

Because of their rapid response time, the hydro units are scheduled and used for peaking power, when the value of power is typically the highest; for a number of ancillary services such as load following (the process of adjusting generation to meet demand); and for system stabilization.

TVA has completed 52 of 94 scheduled hydro power-train modernizations. This improves efficiency of the units and increases output. The program is expected to be completed in 2018.

Flood damages were minimal during fiscal year 2006 due to the continued dry conditions. Since 1933, average annual flood damages avoided are about $207 million in the Valley and more than $21 million along the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Barge traffic on the Tennessee River Waterway is about 53 million tons each year. Shipping bulk goods by barge rather than by truck or rail reduces transportation costs for Valley businesses by some $550 million each year and compels other types of shippers to keep rates competitive, saving shippers another $500 million annually.

Seventy-one marinas have now joined the TVA Clean Marina Initiative, up from 54 in 2005. The program recognizes marinas that adhere to practices of responsible waste management and overall environmental compliance in their operations and by their boating customers.

During FY 06, TVA stabilized 6.34 miles of critically eroding shoreline with priority given to significant archaeological resource sites and potential partnership opportunities. More than $340,000 was leveraged from partners for the stabilization projects.

Green Power Switch Highlights

In fiscal year 2006, 85.1 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy was generated at Green Power Switch solar, wind, and methane gas generating sites.

Green Power Switch Generation Partners, a program that provides incentives and support for the installation of solar and wind generating facilities, added 13 new power distributors in 2006, bringing the total number of participating distributors to 35. Under the program, a qualifying generation source is installed by a customer served by a participating power distributor. The entire output of the generation source is purchased by TVA as a Green Power Switch resource. The customer then receives a credit on his or her monthly power bill for the generation sold.

Under the program, a qualifying generation source is installed by a customer served by a participating power distributor. The entire output of the generation source is purchased by TVA as a Green Power Switch resource. The customer then receives a credit on his or her monthly power bill for the generation sold.

Power System Operations Highlights

TVA’s transmission and system operations organizations had one of their strongest years ever in fiscal year 2006, ensuring a reliable power supply for the TVA region and surrounding states.

Sixteen of the 20 highest daily peak demands ever recorded on TVA’s system occurred during the 2006 fiscal year. These included the highest-ever peak demand on July 18 when TVA supplied 32,008 megawatts while our customers experienced no unscheduled interruptions. TVA met new monthly peaks for six different months in 2006. In August, TVA realized the highest total monthly power sales ever recorded.

TVA completed its seventh year in a row of 99.999 percent reliability in 2006. Load Not Served, which measures the duration and size of customer interruptions, was just over four minutes across the system – second best ever recorded by TVA. In addition, the frequency of customer connection point interruptions and the reliable delivery of power purchased from outside the TVA system were the best in TVA history. Once again, TVA met 100 percent of its schedule commitments for placing new customer projects in service.

In addition to providing reliable electric service for its own seven-state region, TVA is recognized by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) as one of four Reliability Coordination offices in the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council (SERC). In its role as Reliability Coordinator, TVA is responsible for bulk transmission and power supply reliability and provides reliability coordination services for Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., Big Rivers Electric Corporation, East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Inc, Electric Energy, Inc., Kentucky Utilities Company and E-ON U.S. These territories combined encompass 199,000 square-miles in parts of 11 states – from the Carolinas to Oklahoma – with 35,000 miles of transmission line and a population of almost 11 million.

TVA received another highly successful audit report in fiscal 2006 from NERC and SERC on TVA’s operational readiness and compliance with reliability standards. These groups – recently authorized by federal law to establish and enforce transmission reliability standards throughout North America – previously identified five examples of excellence in TVA’s reliability programs (tying TVA with another transmission provider for most examples in North America). Three additional examples are pending from the 2006 audit.

Finally, TVA’s reputation for having a “culture of reliability” helped convince two large power providers in Kentucky (E-ON U.S. and Kentucky Utilities) to switch reliability coordinators from the Midwest Independent System Operator to TVA.