Notice2023-10652
Integrated Resource Plan and Environmental Impact Statement
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
May 19, 2023
Issuing agencies
Tennessee Valley Authority
Abstract
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is conducting a study of its energy resources. The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is a comprehensive study of how TVA will meet the demand for electricity in its service territory. TVA's most recent IRP was adopted by the TVA Board in 2019. As part of this new study, TVA will prepare a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to assess the impacts associated with the implementation of the next IRP. The EIS analyzes significant environmental impacts to the combined TVA power service area and the Tennessee River watershed (TVA region) that could result from the targeted power supply mix studied in the IRP. TVA will use the EIS process to elicit and prioritize the values and concerns of stakeholders; identify issues, trends, events, and tradeoffs affecting TVA's policies; formulate, evaluate, and compare alternative portfolios of energy resource options; provide opportunities for public review and comment; and ensure that TVA's evaluation of alternative energy resource strategies reflects a full range of stakeholder input. Public comment is invited concerning both the scope of the EIS and environmental issues that should be addressed as a part of this EIS.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 97 (Friday, May 19, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 97 (Friday, May 19, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32265-32267]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-10652]
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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
Integrated Resource Plan and Environmental Impact Statement
AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
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SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is conducting a study of
its energy resources. The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is a
comprehensive study of how TVA will meet the demand for electricity in
its service territory. TVA's most recent IRP was adopted by the TVA
Board in 2019. As part of this new study, TVA will prepare a
programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to assess the impacts
associated with the implementation of the next IRP. The EIS analyzes
significant environmental impacts to the combined TVA power service
area and the Tennessee River watershed (TVA region) that could result
from the targeted power supply mix studied in the IRP. TVA will use the
EIS process to elicit and prioritize the values and concerns of
stakeholders; identify issues, trends, events, and tradeoffs affecting
TVA's policies; formulate, evaluate, and compare alternative portfolios
of energy resource options; provide opportunities for public review and
comment; and ensure that TVA's evaluation of alternative energy
resource strategies reflects a full range of stakeholder input. Public
comment is invited concerning both the scope of the EIS and
environmental issues that
[[Page 32266]]
should be addressed as a part of this EIS.
DATES: Comments must be postmarked, emailed, or submitted online no
later than July 3, 2023. To facilitate the scoping process, TVA will
hold public scoping meetings; see <a href="https://www.tva.gov/IRP">https://www.tva.gov/IRP</a> for more
information on the meetings.
ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Kelly Baxter, NEPA
Specialist, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT 11B, Knoxville, TN 37902-
1499. Comments may also be submitted online at <a href="https://www.tva.gov/IRP">https://www.tva.gov/IRP</a>
or by email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#59100b09192d2f38773e362f"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="3a73686a7a4e4c5b145d554c">[email protected]</span></a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kelly Baxter, 865-632-2444,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#743d2624340002155a131b02"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="3f766d6f7f4b495e11585049">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is provided in accordance with
the Council on Environmental Quality's Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500
to 1508) and TVA's procedures for implementing National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA). TVA is an agency and instrumentality of the United
States, established by an act of Congress in 1933, to foster the social
and economic welfare of the people of the TVA region and to promote the
proper use and conservation of the region's natural resources. One
component of this mission is the generation, transmission, and sale of
reliable and affordable electric energy.
TVA Power System
TVA operates the nation's largest public power system, providing
electricity to about 10 million people in an 80,000-square mile area
comprised of most of Tennessee and parts of Virginia, North Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky. It provides wholesale
power to 153 independent local power companies and 58 directly served
large industries and federal facilities. The TVA Act requires the TVA
power system to be self-supporting and operated on a nonprofit basis
and directs TVA to sell power at rates as low as are feasible.
Dependable generating capability on the TVA power system is
approximately 38,000 megawatts. TVA generates most of the power it
distributes with three nuclear plants, five coal-fired plants, nine
simple-cycle combustion turbine plants, eight combined-cycle combustion
turbine plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, a pumped-storage facility, a
diesel-fired facility, and 13 solar photovoltaic facilities. A portion
of delivered power is provided through power purchase agreements,
including 15 renewable energy agreements. In 2022, 39 percent of TVA's
power supply was from nuclear; 22 percent from natural gas; 13 percent
from coal; eight percent from hydroelectric; 13 percent from non-
renewable purchases; and five percent from renewable power purchase
agreements. TVA transmits electricity from these facilities over 16,000
circuit miles of transmission lines. Like other utility systems, TVA
has power interchange agreements with utilities surrounding its region
and purchases and sells power on an economic basis almost daily.
Resource Planning
TVA develops an Integrated Resource Plan to identify the most
effective energy resource strategies that will meet TVA's mission and
serve the people of the region. In this IRP, TVA intends to address
strategies through 2050. Consistent with Section 113 of the Energy
Policy Act of 1992, TVA employs a least-cost system planning process in
developing its IRPs. This process takes into account multiple factors,
including: the demand for electricity, energy resource diversity,
energy conservation and efficiency, renewable energy resources,
flexibility, dispatchability, reliability, resiliency, costs, risks,
environmental impacts, and the unique attributes of different energy
resources.
Proposed Issues To Be Addressed
Based on discussions with both internal and external stakeholders,
TVA anticipates that the scope of the IRP EIS will include the cost and
reliability of power, carbon reduction efforts, the availability and
use of renewable and distributed energy resources, the effectiveness
and implementation of demand side management options, the effect of
energy efficiency programs, and the relationship of the economy to all
of these options. The IRP EIS will address the effects of power
production on the environment, including climate change, the effects of
climate change on the TVA region, and the waste and byproducts of TVA's
power operations.
Because of its nature as a planning document, the IRP will not
identify specific locations for new resource options. Site-specific
environmental effects of new resource options will be addressed in
later site-specific assessments tiered off this programmatic EIS.
Therefore, in this programmatic environmental impact statement, TVA
anticipates that the environmental effects examined will primarily be
those at a regional level with some extending to a national or global
level. Preliminary issues identified by TVA that will be reviewed in
this analysis include:
<bullet> emissions of greenhouse gases,
<bullet> fuel consumption,
<bullet> air quality,
<bullet> water quality and quantity,
<bullet> waste generation and disposal,
<bullet> land use,
<bullet> ecological,
<bullet> cultural resources, and
<bullet> socioeconomic impacts and environmental justice.
TVA invites suggestions or comments concerning the list of issues
which should be addressed, including suggestions for how TVA can
effectively reach and receive comments from environmental justice
communities during the NEPA process. TVA also invites specific comments
on the questions that will begin to be answered by this IRP:
<bullet> How do you think the demand for energy will change between
now and 2050 in the TVA region?
<bullet> Should the diversity of the current power generation mix
(e.g., nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydroelectric, renewable resources)
change? If so, how?
<bullet> How should distributed energy resources be considered in
TVA planning?
<bullet> How should energy efficiency and demand response be
considered in planning for future energy needs and how can TVA directly
affect electricity usage by consumers?
<bullet> And how will the resource decisions discussed above affect
the reliability, dispatchability (ability to turn on or off energy
resources), and cost of electricity? Are there other factors of risk to
be considered?
Analytical Approach
TVA employs a scenario planning approach when developing an IRP.
Scenario planning provides an understanding of how the results of near-
term and future decisions would change under different conditions over
the planning horizon. The major steps in this approach include
identifying the future need for power, developing scenarios (i.e.,
alternate plausible futures outside of TVA's control with different
economic and regulatory conditions) and strategies (i.e., alternate
business approaches within TVA's control), determining potential
supply-side and demand-side energy resource options, developing
portfolios associated with the strategies, and ranking strategies and
portfolios. The 2019 IRP, developed with extensive public involvement,
evaluated five alternative energy resource strategies that differed in
the amount of purchased power, energy efficiency and demand response
efforts, renewable energy resources, natural gas, and nuclear
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generating capacity additions, and coal-fired generation. The
alternative strategies were analyzed in the context of six different
scenarios that described plausible future economic, financial,
regulatory, and legislated conditions, as well as social trends and
adoption of technological innovations. TVA then developed a preferred
alternative, the Target Power Supply Mix, based on guideline ranges for
key energy resources. In developing the Target Power Supply Mix, TVA
conducted least-cost planning taking into account customer priorities
of power cost and reliability, as well as other comments it received
during the public comment periods regarding demand for electricity,
energy resource diversity, energy conservation and efficiency,
renewable energy resources, flexibility, dispatchability, reliability,
environmental impacts, and risks. The Target Power Supply Mix
established ranges, in MW, for coal plant retirements and additions of
nuclear, hydroelectric, demand response, energy efficiency, solar,
wind, and natural gas capacity. TVA anticipates using an analytical
approach similar to that of the 2019 IRP/EIS described above. The
number of alternative energy resource strategies and scenarios to be
evaluated may differ from the 2019 IRP/EIS and will be determined after
the completion of scoping.
Scoping Process
Scoping, which is integral to the process for implementing NEPA,
provides an early and open process to ensure that (1) issues are
identified early and properly studied; (2) issues of little
significance do not consume substantial time and effort; (3) the draft
EIS is thorough and balanced; and (4) delays caused by an inadequate
EIS are avoided.
With the help of the public, TVA will identify the most effective
energy resource strategy that will meet TVA's mission and serve the
people of the region between now and 2050. To ensure that the full
range of issues and a comprehensive portfolio of energy resources are
addressed, TVA invites members of the public as well as Federal, state,
and local agencies and Indian tribes to comment on the scope of the IRP
EIS, including potential alternative energy resource strategies. In
addition, TVA invites the public to identify information and analyses
relevant to the IRP EIS. As part of the IRP process and in addition to
other public engagement opportunities, TVA is assembling
representatives from key stakeholders to participate in an IRP Working
Group that will discuss tradeoffs associated with different resource
options and assist TVA in developing an optimal energy resource
strategy.
Comments on the scope of this IRP EIS should be submitted no later
than the date given under the DATES section of this notice. Written
requests by agencies or Indian tribes to participate as a cooperating
agency or consulting party must also be received by this date. Any
comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of
the administrative record and will be available for public inspection.
After consideration of the comments received during this scoping
period, TVA will summarize public and agency comments, identify the
issues and alternatives to be addressed in the EIS, and identify the
schedule for completing the EIS process. Following analysis of the
issues, TVA will prepare a draft EIS for public review and comment.
Notice of availability of the draft EIS will be published by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register. TVA will
solicit written comments on the draft IRP and EIS and also hold public
meetings for this purpose. TVA expects to release the draft IRP and EIS
in early 2024. TVA anticipates issuing the final IRP and EIS in 2024.
Authority: 40 CFR 1501.9.
Susan Jacks,
General Manager, Environmental Resource Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2023-10652 Filed 5-18-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-P
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