Groups challenge TVA’s draft resource plan that commits to only 3 GW solar

Groups challenge TVA's draft resource plan that commits to only 3 GW solar

Critics say the federally owned utility TVA, now at 2% solar, plans more gas units, no solar-plus-storage and no long-term storage, in a resource plan that lacks transparency, with no public hearing planned. They asked TVA's board to ensure improvements.

October 1, 2024 William Driscoll

Cumberland coal-fired power plant (2.47 GW) in Cumberland City, Tenn.

Image: Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority has issued a draft resource plan for meeting electricity demand through 2035.

Citizens groups have challenged the draft plan, which presents wide ranges for planned solar, storage and fossil gas additions across 30 potential portfolios, as shown in the nearby chart prepared by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE).

SACE Executive Director Stephen Smith said that TVA, with its "bias against renewables," did not model solar-plus-storage as a cost-effective dispatchable resource, and proposed future resource portfolios "rich in fossil gas that bet on unproven technologies like burning hydrogen and carbon capture."

Maggie Shober, research directorat SACE, said in a post that TVA modeled solar and storage as separate resources, but when the two are combined they can provide grid benefits "that resource models cannot recognize" when they are modeled separately.

TVA's solar and wind generation currently stands at 4%, while fossil generation is 57%, said a spokesperson for the Center for Biological Diversity. TVA has one of the largest planned gas buildouts of any utility, the spokesperson added, and under its CEO Jeff Lyash, the utility has approved two new methane gas plants and has planned for seven more.

For comparison, a national laboratory study found that solar generation at 45%, plus wind power and storage, could save TVA and other Southeastern utilities $20 billion per year by 2035 compared to a scenario at 23% solar.

The 45% solar scenario would reach 182 GW of solar across the six-state region studied, or about 30 GW of solar in each state, plus 71 GW of storage and "substantial" wind generation across the region. TVA serves Tennessee and parts of six surrounding states.

Citizens groups presented a 100% clean energy plan for TVA, which would add 35 GW of solar and 13 GW of wind capacity by 2035, at a nongovernmental public hearing the groups convened in February. The groups have long advocated for TVA to transition to clean energy.

"Not too late"

The TVA board "has yet to hold a public hearing" on any resource plan, "despite having the authority to do so under the TVA Act," said the coalition group Clean Up TVA in a statement.

Instead, TVA is accepting comments on its draft plan through a process designed to meet its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act, which applies to federal agencies.

The Clean Up TVA coalition called on the TVA board, most of whose members were appointed by President Biden, to address "the lack of access that stakeholders have had to critical information, including modeling assumptions" that TVA used in its planning. "It is not too late for TVA to provide adequate transparency and release all modeling assumptions for use during the public comment period."

Shortcomings

Shober presented four additional critiques of TVA's draft plan and review process:

• The plan does not consider long duration storage, "despite a concerted effort by the U.S. Department of Energy to mobilize long duration storage over the next five years," and the utility assumes mid-duration 10-hour storage becomes available starting in 2029 but limits additions to 500 to 650 MW per year.
• The plan has no scenario that "achieves, or comes close to," the Biden Administration's goal to decarbonize electricity by 2035.
• The plan does not include transmission analysis.
• The review process will involve "no hearing, no process overseen by an independent regulator, and no written testimony."

"Meaningless"

Shober said that TVA "should pick one portfolio or a narrow range" for its final resource plan. "In the past, TVA has lumped the results of over 30 portfolios together into huge ranges that make the planning process meaningless."

TVA's board, Shober said, will determine whether to allow TVA to again propose broad ranges of proposed resource additions in its final plan.