TVA looks to gas as it pushes back on EPA carbon rules

TVA looks to gas as it pushes back on EPA carbon rules

The country's largest public power provider said power plant rules could have an "adverse effect" on operations.

By:
Zach Bright

| 08/02/2023 06:32 AM EDT

ENERGYWIRE | The Tennessee Valley Authority is raising concerns about EPA's proposed carbon rule on power plants as the electric utility outlines future plans for its energy mix.

The nation's largest public power provider said in a financial filing Tuesday that the EPA rules, "if finalized in their current form, could have a material adverse effect on TVA's results of operations and financial condition."

The EPA proposal, released in May, would strengthen emissions standards for new and existing fossil-fuel-fired plants and repeal the Affordable Clean Energy rule — a Trump-era plan that was tossed out and sent back to EPA in 2021 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The filing came on the same day as TVA's earnings call, where CEO Jeff Lyash detailed the utility's plans for gas-fired generation, solar power and battery storage — which could be affected by EPA's rules.

The federal power provider brought three gas turbine units online last week under budget and ahead of schedule at the Colbert Combustion Turbine Plant in northwest Alabama, Lyash said. He said he expects TVA's first grid-scale battery storage site to be operational in Vonore, Tenn., later this year.