The Tennessee Valley Authority may delay the closure of its 2,470-MW coal-fired Cumberland power plant if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission doesn’t promptly approve a gas pipeline project, the federal power agency said Wednesday.
TVA plans to build a 1,450-MW combined cycle, gas-fired power plant by 2026 to replace one of the Cumberland plant’s two units in Tennessee by the end of that year. It intends to retire the second unit by the end of 2028.
FERC is reviewing a proposal by Tennessee Gas Pipeline to build a 32-mile pipeline to supply fuel to the planned gas-fired power plant. The company asked FERC to approve its project by Nov. 1, 2023, so it could be operating by Sept. 1, 2025, in time to deliver gas to the planned gas-fired plant.
FERC staff issued a final environmental impact statement for the project on June 30, clearing the way for a commission decision on the proposal, Tennessee Gas said in a December letter seeking agency action on the pipeline plan.
“Any further delay in Commission action on the Cumberland Project threatens to delay TVA’s scheduled retirement of the coal units at the Cumberland Fossil Plant,” the federal power agency said.
A holdup in retiring Cumberland Unit 1 would lead to additional construction, repair and maintenance upgrades and costs needed to maintain reliability and comply with environmental regulations such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s wastewater discharge rules, according to the TVA.
It would also hamper the TVA’s plan to cut its carbon emissions intensity 80% below 2005 levels by 2035, the federal power agency said.
A delay in approving the pipeline to support the planned gas plant could affect grid reliability, the TVA warned, noting that the North American Electric Reliability Corp. has determined that between 2024 and 2028, the agency’s service territory in the Southeast faces a high risk of electricity shortfalls under normal and extreme conditions.
The Cumberland plant failed to run during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, when the TVA instituted rolling blackouts, according to a lawsuit filed in June in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee by Appalachian Voices, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club — groups opposing the planned gas-fired plant.
In the suit, the groups contend the TVA violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to adequately consider how the gas-fired power plant would affect the climate, the environment, and power customers, and without fairly evaluating carbon-free energy alternatives.
In November, Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club told FERC if the agency approves the pipeline, it should require Tennessee Gas to halt construction on the pipeline if the future of the power plant is in doubt.
The TVA — the nation’s largest public power supplier — provides power to about 10 million people in seven southeastern states.
