TVA to review energy options through series of meetings

- TVA is working on a plan to review its options for generating electricity and managing natural resources over the next 20 years and will hold a series of meetings in July and August to get public input.

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Integrated Resource Plan will look at different sources for producing electricity, their costs and reliability and their impacts on the environment. The plan also will address ways to manage and conserve natural resources and consider available types of renewable generation.

All meetings are at 4 p.m. The schedule is:

• July 20, Ellington Agricultural Center, 440 Hogan Road, Nashville.

• July 21, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, University Center, 642A E. Fifth St., Chattanooga.

• July 23, Pellissippi State Community College, College Center, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville.

• July 28, Marriott at the Space Center, Salons A-C, 5 Tranquility Base, Huntsville, Ala.

• July 30, James E. Bruce Convention Center, 303 Conference Center Drive, Hopkinsville, Ky.

• Aug. 4, Mississippi State University, Colvard Student Union, 310 E. Lee Blvd., Starksville, Miss.

• Aug. 6, Bridges Center, 477 N. 5th St., Memphis.

People also can comment online at www.tva.gov/irp. People may include their e-mail addresses to receive updates on the project. Comments must be submitted by August 14.

"This study will combine aspects of a traditional utility industry integrated resource plan with an evaluation of methods that TVA could implement, both alone and in partnership with others, to improve its stewardship of the valley's air, land, and water resources," according to a TVA statement.

The review is an attempt to update and expand an Integrated Resource Plan TVA put into effect in 1995. The plan bundled different combinations of energy generation, energy efficiency and demand response options into a "resource portfolio" that was meant to be flexible in order to meet growing power demand and various congressional directives.

The present effort seeks to go beyond this and consider the best options to support the TVA Environmental Policy, adopted by the TVA board in 2008. This policy has broad goals involving climate change mitigation, air quality improvement, water resource protection and improvement, waste minimization, sustainable land use and natural resource management.

TVA provides power to large industries and 158 power distributors that serve approximately 9 million customers in seven Southeastern states.