TVA power production up, revenues down

A colder winter and hotter summer than in previous years, plus increased demand drove electrical sales up, but TVA also faced challenges from loss of power generation because of overheating of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers and the ongoing cleanup of the Kingston fossil plant coal ash spill.

On the up side, TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore noted that TVA had adopted a new corporate vision focused on cleaner energy and energy efficiency, had its AAA bond rating confirmed, had a new board in place and had reduced its average monthly wholesale rate for power from 6.8 cents per kilowatt hour in 2009 to 6.17 cents in 2010.

"We had a B-plus year," Kilgore said during a web conference to review the report. "It wasn't an A plus year, but it was a very good year."