As the Tennessee Valley Authority celebrates its 90th birthday this year, it’s easy for west Kentuckians to see the energy producer’s impact on quality of life — electricity pouring in from Kentucky Dam and its surrounding municipalities.
Now, the TVA is carving a path to a clean energy future, and the Commonwealth is part of the picture.
In May 2021, officials announced a plan of moving toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, which includes a multi-faceted approach.
Scott Brooks, public relations specialist for the authority, said this certainly includes the electric vehicle industry — something clearly taking off in Christian County, and other parts of “The Valley.”
TVA has 150-plus power companies that purchase energy from sources — be them hydroelectric, natural gas, coal, solar, and more.
As “The Valley” prepares for the production and passing through of EV’s, Brooks noted these organizations will have to be the backbone of infrastructure needed to make them reliable and consistent.
Brooks called it an “exciting time” for the energy transition, something that actually started more than a decade ago with the reduction of the coal fleet.
The reduction and “shifting away” from coal will continue over the next 10-to-15 years, something that won’t happen overnight. Brooks noted a May 2023 board meeting at Norris Dam brought more clarity to the picture — looking to add more natural gas plants, as well as more solar and battery storage.
Request for proposals of construction, he said, should equate to more than 6,000 new megawatts.
Brooks described two very pivotal reasons why TVA and its officials are shifting away from coal.
Number one: coal has a number of byproducts that have needed to be managed considerably over the last 20-to-25 years. Managed, he said, because of ever-changing environmental regulations.
Number two: it’s difficult to use coal as a “load manager” when electricity demand throttles and crests quickly with changing temperatures, growing populations and developing industry.
Natural gas, he said, is the perfect medium while transition to more renewables stays in play.
One of the more challenging tests of these needed measures came this past winter, when multiple demand records were set just before the Christmas chill frosted not just west Kentucky — but the entire TVA landscape.
As rolling blackouts, brownouts and suggested thermostats perturbed many, Brooks said the elements were a “perfect storm” of difficulties: cold weather, high winds and a massive front buffeting the entire eastern seaboard.
Brooks further addressed that it wasn’t just a problem for TVA. It was a problem for all grid production this side of the Mississippi River, meaning the agency couldn’t buy power from other sources.
As such, reducing demand through calculated rolling shutdowns prevented catastrophic failure — failures that have been hard lessons for states like Texas and California. Failures TVA officials wanted to avoid in the bitter freeze.
Currently in TVA’s West Paducah Shawnee property, this former coal plant is being repurposed from a coal ash field to a solar farm — in hopes of creating up to 100 megawatts of electricity through greener technologies, costing around $200 million.
And also, Brooks said, in hopes of meeting demand while eliminating wasted sites.
Above all of these efforts, however, is the precipice, the power of hydroelectricity.
Because for 90 years, the pulse of the Tennessee River and its massive tributaries has pummeled concrete, torqued turbines and inspired interstate travel into a new, improved generation.
TVA owns and operates 49 dams across its system.
