TVA has Big Plans for the Future

TVA is conducting a comprehensive study of resource options to meet the region’s needs for electricity and to help achieve environmental sustainability for the next 20 years. This Integrated Resource Plan or IRP is called TVA’s Environmental and Energy Future. The draft plan is available for public comment.

http://www.tva.com/irp/

The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) Baseline need for additional generating capacity, or energy efficiency and demand response (EEDR), programs is 9,600MW in 2019 and growing to 15,500MW in 2029.

New generation:

1.     Coal

Note:  (TVA currently operates 59 coal fired generating units at 11 generation plants with a total capacity of 14,500MW)

Two configurations of new supercritical pulverized coal (SCPC) plants are considered in the IRP evaluation:

a.     Single-unit 800-MW SCPC plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS)

b.    Two-unit 1600-MW SCPC plant with CCS

2.     Natural gas

Note: (TVA has 87 combustion turbines (CT) at nine power plants, with a combined generating capacity of approximately 6,000 MW)

a.     The IRP evaluation includes both simple and combined cycle natural gas fueled options. In a simple cycle unit, natural gas is used in the fueling of combustion turbines, where it is combusted with air at high pressure and temperature, then expanded to drive a shaft

3.     Nuclear

Note: (The capacity of TVA’s existing nuclear units is 6,900 MW, which includes three reactors at TVA’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, two at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, and one at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant)

a.     On August 1, 2007, the TVA Board approved the completion of the 1150 MW Unit 2 at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. The project is included as a current resource in TVA’s generating portfolio and is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2012.

b.    TVA has included Bellefonte Units 1 and 2 as well as Units 3 and 4 in the IRP evaluation. In addition to the four Bellefonte units, a non-site specific option based on the Advanced Passive 1000 reactor is also included in the IRP.

                                          i.    Located at the Bellefonte site in northeast Alabama, Bellefonte Units 1 and 2 are the two partially completed Babcock and Wilcox (B&W) pressurized light water reactors with a capacity of 1,260 MW each.

                                         ii.    In October 2007, TVA submitted a Combined Construction and Operating License Application to the NRC for two new Westinghouse Electric Co. designed Advanced Passive 1000 reactors. These reactors are to be located at the Bellefonte site and designated as Bellefonte Units 3 and 4 to demonstrate the feasibility of NRC’s then new combined construction and operation licensing process.