TVA should make new renewable energy investments central to its future | Opinion

It appears that TVA is gaslighting us over its multi-billion-dollar “natural gas” buildout.

Right now, TVA is set to retire two of its oldest and dirtiest coal power plants – the Cumberland and Kingston Fossil Plants. Instead of using this as an opportunity to invest in renewable power, TVA is proposing invest billions in new gas plants and pipelines.

Just this month, TVA issued its final Environmental Impact Statement for its plan to build the Cumberland Gas Plant, and while that doesn’t finalize the decision, it is a major step in the wrong direction.

In a recent Q&A with The Tennessean, CEO Jeff Lyash seemed almost gleeful about TVA’s fossil fuel spending spree, despite significant pushback from ratepayers, community groups, and federal agencies – including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service. Many of these groups warn that the proposed gas plants and pipelines will hurt Tennessee communities and result in higher power bills for families across the valley.

They’re right. The planned gas plants would force customers to pay high fossil fuel prices for decades, even as renewable energy sources – already cheaper than fossil fuels in many cases – continue to fall in price.

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Nashville is at a disadvantage compared with other cities on sustainability goals

This summer TVA increased its “fuel cost adjustment” fees to deal with high gas prices, leading to higher power bills for Nashville families during the hottest months of the year. TVA itself admits that if it builds more gas plants, the “volatility” of gas prices “becomes a greater risk” — and since the utility passes all its fuel costs through in rates, customers are left bearing the entirety of this risk.

Most top companies have implemented corporate sustainability goals, including renewable energy goals. A comparatively weak commitment to future renewable energy investments places Nashville at a competitive disadvantage in attracting new businesses. Tennessee lags other states in the region in clean energy investments too. Losing out on those businesses – and the jobs that come with them – impacts Middle Tennessee for decades into the future.

In his Q&A, TVA’s CEO claims that gas plants are needed to support reliability and to address expected future increases in load, or how much energy its customers are expected to use.

Don’t be fooled. Nobody is suggesting that TVA’s grid should be served by solar and wind alone, but TVA’s competitor utilities have invested in many times more renewable energy than TVA without sacrificing reliability. The argument that a clean energy portfolio that includes renewables cannot deliver reliability benefits for the grid is simply not supported by practices in the industry.

Moreover, the notion that TVA lacks any control over its customer load is specious. Decreases in the costs of utility-scale energy storage are providing other utilities opportunities to expand renewable resources while reducing customer peaks and enhancing grid reliability. TVA could also decrease load by investing in energy efficiency programs or offering demand response incentives for large and small customers alike to consume less energy during peak times.

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Don't lock consumers into paying for fossil fuel prices for decades

Instead of implementing these commonsense solutions, TVA gutted funding for energy efficiency programs, a decision that came under fire from U.S. Congress members earlier this year. TVA cut funding to those programs because, just a few years ago, it actually expected its load to decrease.

TVA’s own internal watchdog has criticized how the utility predicts its energy needs. Last month, the TVA Office of the Inspector General found several issues with how the utility calculated its load forecasts. We shouldn’t use hypothetical increases in energy usage as an excuse to spend billions on gas plants that will lock customers into paying expensive fossil fuel prices for decades.

In his interview TVA’s CEO also curiously omits any mention of the $370 billion incentives that Congress made available for clean energy investments in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. For the first time this legislation makes TVA and non-profit entities, such as NES, eligible for incentives for their new clean energy investments.

It is long past time for TVA to commit to investing in renewable energy technology that is affordable and reliable. TVA can do so by setting clearer and more ambitious targets for renewable energy, offering Tennessee customers the same benefits from solar and other forms of renewable energy available elsewhere in the U.S.

Anne Davis is co-chair of the energy subcommittee of the Nashville Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Committee. Jim Rossi is the Judge J.D. Lansden Chair in Law at Vanderbilt University.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TVA should make new renewable energy investments central to its future