The Tennessee Valley Authority hosted a webinar in May to provide transparency to stakeholders and the public at-large on the status of the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan.

The 2019 IRP is expected to provide TVA direction on how to best meet future electricity demand. Building upon the work done in prior plans, TVA has started the 2019 IRP to proactively address the changing utility marketplace.

TVA says this latest IRP will explore various scenarios related to the expansion of distributed energy resources in the Tennessee Valley. TVA also is seeking to improve its understanding of the impact and benefit of system flexibility with increasing renewable and distributed resources.

During the webinar, TVA leaders discussed some of the major themes received during the public comment and scoping period which began February 15 and wrapped up on April 16.

TVA received hundreds of comments during that time frame with topics ranging from:

  • Encouragement of clean energy initiatives, renewable energy, and research and development on DERs
  • Call for special attention to environmental justice/affected environment analyses on impacts to limited income households
  • General interest in energy efficiency measures and energy storage alternatives
  • General input on modeling, metrics/calculations and evaluation criteria
  • General comments on fuel diversification options

TVA will now be compiling a report summarizing the scoping input which will describe how TVA is responding to the input during the development of the IRP and the EIS. This scoping report will also detail scenarios, strategies, and energy resources being carried forward in the IRP and IRP EIS analysis. It’s important to note the scoping report is scheduled to be posted to the IRP website in early July 2018.

During the webinar, TVA also provided a schedule and timeline of future milestones regarding the 2019 IRP.

  • By Summer/Fall of 2018, a series of deep evaluations and analysis work will be completed, as well as some initial modeling will be drafted.
  • By Winter/Spring 2019, pending Valley-wide public meetings TVA will present its initial results and publish a draft EIS and IRP.
  • By Spring/Summer 2019, public meetings will have wrapped up and TVA says it will incorporate that input into the 2019 IRP.
  • By Summer 2019, a preferred plan and direction will be identified with TVA’s board approval and a final publication of the EIS and 2019 IRP will be available.

For a link to TVA’s 2019 IRP website, click here.