For the first time since 2019, the nation's largest public utility has adopted a new roadmap for meeting the South's growing electricity demand.
The Tennessee Valley Authority will maintain a diverse energy portfolio, with natural gas playing a major role in the years ahead. TVA also will prioritize adding more nuclear power sources as East Tennessee embraces an energy boom anchored by Oak Ridge, roughly 25 miles west of the utility's headquarters in downtown Knoxville.
The plan calls for energy efficiency upgrades, along with expanded energy storage through batteries and pumped-storage systems. But unlike some previous TVA proposals, it does not include wind power.
Solar power remains part of TVA's energy mix, but so does coal after the utility
reversed course in February and recommitted to its Kingston and Cumberland fossil fuel plants in Tennessee. The move came during the first meeting of a board largely composed of President Donald Trump's appointees after board members fired by the president left vacancies that kept TVA from taking major votes for nearly a year.
The new plan has drawn criticism from environmental organizations like Appalachian Voices that argue TVA should fully explore its renewable energy options before investing in additional natural gas and coal resources.
"These are assets that would lock us into 30-plus years of unpredictable and likely increasing fuel charges while continuing to pollute our communities,” Leah McCord, Appalachian Voices' Tennessee projects and coalition coordinator, told the board of directors during a public listening session before the meeting.
TVA was expected to adopt a new a new energy mix roadmap − known internally as the integrated resource plan − by 2024 to replace its 2019 version. That never happened, and the update was delayed again in 2025 amid board gridlock that followed Trump's firings.
With a new plan adopted, board member Wade White said, TVA has the tools it needs to keep rates low across TVA’s service region.
“I think it was definitely worth the time and the hard work to get where we are today,” he said after the vote.
The new plan notes TVA expects electricity demand to continue rising in the coming years. Data centers, which now have their own rate class after the board also voted Aug. 20 to charge them about 10% more for power, are expected to be a major driver of that growth, along with a population boom.
Data centers in early 2026 accounted for nearly 20% of all power demand from TVA’s industrial customers. That volume may double by 2030, former CEO Don Moul said in early February.
Rate changes trickle down throughout the region, with local power providers like the Knoxville Utilities Board that purchase TVA power passing along the cost of rate hikes to their customers. TVA did not raise residential rates when it passed its most recent budget, but its board approved electric base rate hikes in both 2023 and 2024.
Mariah Franklin reports on technology and energy for Knox News. Email: mariah.franklin@knoxnews.com. Signal: mariahfranklin.01
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: TVA's new roadmap for rising power demand relies on gas, nuclear and coal
