New Report: Additional Congressional Oversight Needed to Ensure Tennessee Valley Authority Delivers Low-cost, Reliable Power for Customers

January 30, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new report released today highlights critical steps Congress can take to improve the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA’s) transmission planning to make electricity service more affordable, reliable and resilient for customers. Produced by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) in partnership with the Southern Renewable Energy Association (SREA) and in collaboration with Paul Hastings LLP, the report outlines actionable recommendations to prepare TVA for growing energy demands, more frequent extreme weather events, and develop or purchase the lowest-cost generation.

This report is particularly timely as TVA conducts its legally mandated Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) process, an undertaking that currently does not require inclusion of the transmission expansion options necessary to ensure procurement of the lowest-cost power options. Notably, the TVA service territory experienced rolling blackouts for the first time in its more than 90-year history during Winter Storm Elliott in 2022, when the region’s power supply could not meet demand. An extra gigawatt of transmission ties to other regions could have saved TVA consumers up to $95 million during the storm.

“As the region navigates some of the most significant challenges to the power sector since those that inspired the TVA Act, TVA’s ratepayers would benefit from transmission planning processes consistent with the best practices other grid planners are using across the nation,” said Jonathan Geldof, Senior Government Affairs Manager for ACORE’s Macro Grid Initiative. “It’s encouraging to see Congress and TVA’s Board of Directors already taking steps to improve TVA’s processes and this report offers additional recommendations for ensuring low-cost power in the regions’ future.”

Amid skyrocketing load projections, integrating transmission and generation planning will help ensure reliable, affordable power for TVA’s 10 million customers.

The report, “Recommendations for Reducing Costs and Improving Reliability for Tennessee Valley Authority Customers,” provides various policy interventions for Congress to improve TVA’s transmission planning, including:

Reforming TVA’s Board

Reforming TVA’s IRP Process

Requiring Expanded Interregional Transmission Planning

Permitting Reform

Bringing TVA Under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Jurisdiction

“With increasing challenges to reliability of the TVA system during extreme weather events, like Winter Storm Elliott, and the timely and affordable integration of renewable energy, transmission planning in the largest public power company in the U.S. needs an upgrade,” said Simon Mahan, SREA’s Executive Director. “Outdated processes that are often lacking in transparency for the broader public have been the status quo in TVA for the past 90 years, but this approach will not be sufficient for the future of the organization. This study on improvements to TVA transmission planning provides sound advice on how to confront and overcome these challenges.”

Unlike traditional utilities, TVA’s Board of Directors is the only entity that oversees the IRP process. Congress can help ensure the board is equipped to work in the best interests of ratepayers by providing the directors with technical staff support to better assess TVA’s proposals.

The report details these issues and more, recommending a suite of reform options for Congress to consider.

To download a copy of the report, click here.

###

About ACORE:
For over 20 years, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) has been the nation’s leading voice on the issues most essential to clean energy expansion. ACORE unites finance, policy, and technology to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. For more information, please visit www.acore.org.

Media Contacts:
Dylan Helms
Manager, Communications, ACORE
communications@acore.org
917.971.7852

Ellie Potter
Sr. Public Affairs Manager, Macro Grid Initiative, ACORE
potter@acore.org
202.505.5589

Jamie Moody
Communications Director, SREA
jamie@southernrenewable.org
501.454.1260

The post New Report: Additional Congressional Oversight Needed to Ensure Tennessee Valley Authority Delivers Low-cost, Reliable Power for Customers appeared first on ACORE.

https://acore.org/news/new-report-additional-congressional-oversight-needed-to-ensure-tennessee-valley-authority-delivers-low-cost-reliable-power-for-customers/

Renewable Energy

There Were Prior Threats to the Nation Stemming from the White House

Published

1 day ago

September 24, 2026

Alice Rush

For most of our lives, many of us boomers have believed that the biggest threat to the United States was our president, starting with Tricky Dick Nixon, the inventor of the “trickle-down economics,” liar Ronald Reagan, and GW (the moron) Bush.

But yes, none of us was prepared for the cold, calculating criminal who is Donald Trump.

There Were Prior Threats to the Nation Stemming from the White House

Renewable Energy

Yes, Human Activity, in its Current State, Is Unsustainable

Published

1 day ago

September 24, 2026

Alice Rush

The fact that human activity is unsustainable has been revealed to us gradually over the last century. Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” was published 63 years ago.

That said, the ideas of climate change, ocean acidification, and loss of biodiversity have been essentially unchallenged by scientists for just the last couple of decades.

The only thing standing in the way of rapid environmental progress is greed, and in the end, that may prove to be an unbeatable foe. Decarbonizing our grid and transportation sector will eventually destroy the fossil fuel industry, a group so powerful that it has a stranglehold, both on our lawmakers and on our corporate-owned media, that works so hard to misinform our citizenry.

Yes, Human Activity, in its Current State, Is Unsustainable

Renewable Energy

Will the U.S. Top Military Intervene Before Trump Inflicts Irreparable Damage

Published

1 day ago

September 24, 2026

Alice Rush

It’s still possible that our most senior military leaders will insert themselves in time to prevent some truly catastrophic event here in the United States/abroad.