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Assessing TVA’s IRP Planning Practices

Norris Dam in Anderson County, Tennessee. Image Credit: Brian Stansberry / Creative Commons

Client: Prepared on behalf of the Southern Environmental Law Center

Authors: Chirag Lala, Elisabeth Seliga, Liz Stanton, PhD

July 2023

On behalf of the Southern Environmental Law Center, Researcher Chirag Lala, Assistant Researcher Elisabeth Seliga, and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD published a report that compares the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) processes in 2011, 2015, and 2019 to the actual changes in capacity additions and retirements made by TVA from 2011 to 2021. The paper also examines the site-specific planning process used by TVA to determine the replacements for the Cumberland Fossil Plant.

AEC staff make several key recommendations for TVA’s 2024 Integrated Resource Planning Process: (1) TVA must set aggressive climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement and the Biden Administration’s executive orders on achieving carbon free electricity by 2035; (2) TVA must be transparent about its assumptions and modeling inputs; (4) TVA must select a portfolio with a more targeted preferred resource plan; (3) TVA must plan to utilize the grants, loans, and tax credits of the Inflation Reduction Act; (5) TVA must clarify how it demarcates “ownership” of solar and wind resource; (6) TVA should conduct an all-resource Request for Proposals (RFP) for new resources; (7) TVA must ensure its site-specific planning documents reflect the most recent IRP plans and use methods that do not contradict overall system- and other site-specific planning exercises.

Link to Report

Link to Environmental Group Comments on TVA IRP

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tags: Chirag-Lala, Liz-Stanton, Elizabeth A. Stanton, Elisabeth Seliga
categories: Clean Energy Transition, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Massachusetts
Monday 07.10.23
Posted by Liz Stanton
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