Four years after committing to decommissioning all of its fossil fuel plants by 2035, the Tennessee Valley Authority says it will instead extend the lifespan of its existing coal plants in Kentucky and Tennessee.
While the largest utility in the U.S. has put out mixed messaging on its 2021 promise to phase out its remaining fossil fuel sites, a leading executive for the TVA confirmed their intent to extend the lifespan of at least two plants.
The TVA currently operates four coal plants, the oldest of which was brought online at the Shawnee Fossil Plant in West Paducah in 1953. The other three fossil plants are in Tennessee, housed at the Gallatin, Cumberland and Kingston Fossil Plants.
“We're looking at at least two of those four, probably Shawnee and probably Gallatin. I don't know how much further past 2035 we could go on those, potentially maybe 2040,” said Justin Maierhofer, senior vice president and chief of government relations for TVA.
The coal plants at Kingston and Cumberland are still scheduled to close completely by 2027 and 2023, respectively, and be replaced with gas generating facilities.
Trump’s energy impact
The decision to extend the fossil plants’ lifespans comes on the heels of guidance from President Donald Trump’s executive order titled, “Unleashing American Energy.” The order was one of the first that the Trump administration made in January, and outlines several policies that promote fossil fuels and roll back incentives for renewable energy.
In that order, the administration encourages energy exploration on federal lands and waters, like protected national parks and forests, as well as encouraging the creation of new mining operations for “rare earth minerals.”
Coupled with the executive order, the president declared a “national energy emergency” on his first day in office. That declaration prompted the removal of any mention of the global climate crisis from government websites, and launched a campaign to expedite oil and gas projects, as well as a reduction on pollution regulations.
Maierhofer said that executive order, and those reductions on regulations, factored into the TVA’s decision to push back the utility’s coal plant expirations.
“President Trump has done a couple of executive orders around coal, and he most recently did some executive orders around nuclear. So the TVA is in the process of reviewing the EO there and how it might apply and frankly, benefit our efforts to support, you know, load growth across the seven state region,” Maierhofer said.
Shifting political agendas
Maierhofer has been an executive with the TVA for more than 20 years, serving as chief of staff for three CEO’s and supporting the confirmation of White House nominations to the TVA Board of Directors. He said that in FY 2024, the TVA invested roughly $430million in the maintenance and improvement of existing coal plants.
“They've been critical in meeting demand over the years, and they remain an important part of our diverse generation portfolio. It's about 15% of our of our portfolio, and you know, we've continued to invest in our coal fleet to sustain the reliability and resiliency of those units, you know, and we're looking forward to continuing to work with this administration to unleash American energy,” Maierhofer said.
Maierhofer has worked at the intersection of politics and energy for more than 25 years, serving under Speaker Newt Gingrich in the House of Representatives in 1996, as well as a legislative liaison for the U.S. Dept. of Energy in the early 2000’s.
He said the shifting ideologies of leading officials like President Trump typically have little impact on the TVA’s energy priorities.
“What we focus on every day is keeping the lights on, rates low, managing our river system, and helping to create jobs with our state partners. Politics can change, but if we focus on those core fundamentals, the blocking tackling if you will, for the utility industry, then we’re generally supported by whoever’s in the White House and who’s representing the Tennessee Valley seven state region,” Maierhofer said.
Investments in the past and future
Despite a reported lack of political influence, Maierhofer said incentives from both the federal and state government have led to significant investments in both fossil fuels and next generation energy like nuclear.
“Governor Beshear and the Kentucky legislature are doing a lot of really good things around nuclear and advanced nuclear in the Commonwealth. And one of the things they did was put together the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority, which, which I'm a part of, I'm a member of, on behalf of the TVA, and we're having a lot of really good, robust conversations around nuclear potential in the Commonwealth,” Maierhofer said.
Following the announcement that the TVA submitted an application for the nation’s first small modular nuclear reactor at their Clinch River site in Tennessee, Maierhofer said nuclear energy in Kentucky is a stronger possibility than ever before.
The utility submitted an application for an $800 million grant to get that project off the ground at the Oak Ridge site. Site preparation there could start as soon as 2026, and depending on success, would likely spread quickly to Kentucky.
“So it won't happen tomorrow, it won't happen next month, but I think over the next decade or two, we're going to really see some positive growth with nuclear generation,” Maierhofer said.
He suggested that sites like Shawnee and the Paradise Combined Cycle and Combustion Plant could be ideal sites for nuclear energy in the near future.
The energy executive said that investments in both coal and nuclear are necessary to keep up with the growing energy demand of the TVA’s seven state region, despite the high up-front cost of nuclear generators and the increasing cost of maintaining coal plants. In recent years, the TVA has seen the highest energy demand in the utility’s history, and expects that with rapid population growth, that trend will continue.
“We need the electricity. The Tennessee Valley is growing at, like, three times the national average. A lot of people are moving from around the country to the seven state region that we serve. And you know, we've also got the proliferation of data centers and artificial intelligence, which requires a significant investment in electrical generation,” he said.
Nuclear power makes up roughly 40% of the utility’s power generation, with gas using 34%, coal at 14%, hydroelectric generation at 9%, and solar generating just 4%.
In addition to its four coal plants, the TVA operates three nuclear plants, 28 hydro plants, nine natural gas combustion turbine gas plants and eight natural gas combined cycle gas plants and nine solar energy sites.
