Tag: TVA

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW Takes First Step In Power Supply Decision

Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) president and CEO J.T. Young recommended to the utility’s board Wednesday, August 19th, that it should find a consultant to help find a possible new power provider, a move that could shift MLGW away from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

Young said he intended to issue a request for proposals (RFP) to companies that would help MLGW’s leadership team to manage the process of finding a new power supplier. That is, the MLGW leadership team will hire a team to help them find a new power supplier.

The recommendation came during the MLGW board meeting Wednesday morning. It came after about two years of debate as to whether or not the utility should stay with TVA or find a new supplier.

That decision presented itself as some are critical of TVA for not investing in Memphis as it does in other cities, even though MLGW is TVA’s largest customer. Different groups have also projected that MLGW could save between $220 million and $450 million every year by switching away from TVA. MLGW hired Siemens to review the savings and they concluded MLGW could save $130 million each year.

Young’s recommendation could be a monumental first step away from TVA. Memphis’ energy has come from TVA for 80 years. MLGW spends about $1 billion each year to buy electricity from TVA.

MLGW board members did not vote on the recommendation Wednesday. The main criticism of the process from board members was that it was not moving fast enough. Mitch Graves, the MLGW vice board chair, wanted Young and his team to just hire a consultant, rather than opening it up to a bidding process. That process would only add time, he said, and he trusted Young to hire a good firm.

“The longer we push this out there … there are savings, there’s money on the table,” said Mitch Graves, the MLGW vice board chair. “Every week, every month, and every year that goes by, we’re leaving money on the table for our citizens.

“We started this journey and have been in it for while. If you need help, get the help and move on. Don’t spend another three months on finding your help. They’re out there and they do this every day.”

Categories
News News Blog

New Suit Challenges TVA’s Long-Term Contracts

CREDIT: TVA

Toby Sells

TVA president and CEO Jeffrey Lyash

Protect Our Aquifer and other environmental advocacy agencies sued the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Tuesday, August 18th, for what they claim are unfair, long-term contracts.

TVA began offering long-term contracts with lower rates last year to local utilities that would sign 20-year purchase agreements with the federal power provider. The contracts would cut suspend rate increases and offer a 3.1-percent rebate to those utilities, according to The Chattanooga Times-Free Press.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed a suit challenging the contracts in federal court on behalf of Protect Our Aquifer, Energy Alabama, and Appalachian Voices. The groups call the contracts “never-ending contracts, designed to keep local power distributors captive customers of the federal utility forever.”

“TVA is using these eternal contracts to stamp out any competition for the next century,” said Amanda Garcia, SELC’s Tennessee office director. “These never-ending contracts threaten to prevent local distributors from ever renegotiating their contract with TVA, let alone consider leaving the utility if it continues to lag behind in transitioning towards cheaper, cleaner renewable energy. These contracts will take the public’s interest completely out of public power.”

The groups claim the contracts place a “harsh cap on the ability of local power companies to use renewable power from non-TVA sources, and they seek to guarantee that TVA’s customer base, made up of municipal and member-owned local utilities, never leaves the utility.”

TVA

TVA’s natural-gas-fueled Combined Cycle Plant in Memphis

Scott Brooks, TVA spokesman, said the long-term contracts were developed “at the request of our local power company partners.”

“It is a completely voluntary agreement that provides both an annual 3.1 percent credit on wholesale power rates, as well as the flexibility to self-generate a portion of their own power, primarily through renewable energy,” Brooks said. “Since being introduced late last year, 141 of 153 local power companies have chosen to participate. Prior to the current long-term partnership agreements, several local power companies already had 20-year agreements with TVA and all had rolling terms.”

Of the lawsuit, Brooks said, “it would be inappropriate for us to comment further on the specific allegations in the lawsuit since we have not yet been served with it.”

The SELC said previous contracts were for seven years, offering up periodic opportunities for local utilities, like Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW), to renegotiate contract terms or to find another power source. The new contracts, it says, require a 20-year notice to terminate and renew automatically “so that the length of the contract never ends.” 

The complaint alleges that the contracts could negatively affect the environment as it could influence TVA’s decisions to invest in energy resources, increasing greenhouse gases and other pollution, and increasing water usage across the Tennessee Valley.

“TVA’s continued reliance on fossil fuel resources has a lasting impact on Memphis’ primary drinking water source, the Memphis Sand Aquifer,” said Ward Archer, president of Protect Our Aquifer. “TVA has stored coal ash in a way that puts our drinking water aquifer at risk, and its use of billions of gallons of our clean drinking water to operate its gas plant for decades to come threatens the sustainability of our community.

“The public has a right for federal agencies to look at alternatives when making major decisions, and TVA deprived communities of that right before asking local distributors like Memphis Light, Gas & Water to sign these never-ending contracts.”

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants

MLGW now has such an offer from TVA. However, the utility’s board will get a recommendation Wednesday from its president and CEO J.T. Young on whether or not to keep TVA as its power provider or to entertain proposals from other companies. If MLGW does decide to leave TVA, the exit will take five years to fulfill the current contract.

The suit alleges TVA broke the National Environmental Policy Act as it did not analyze or disclose the possible environmental consequences of the long-term contracts. TVA also broke the law as it did not consider alternatives to the contracts or get public input on the matter.

“While TVA keeps the lights on across the Valley, our utility kept the public in the dark around its game-changing decision to essentially trap power distributors’ customers and members in these regressive contracts for the foreseeable future,” said Brianna Knisley, Tennessee campaign coordinator for Appalachian Voices. “Ultimately, TVA blocked an opportunity for the public to participate in a major policy decision that will likely stall our region’s critically needed transition to renewable resources.”

Read the full complaint here:
[pdf-1]

Categories
News News Blog

Public Weighs In on TVA, MLGW

CREDIT: TVA

TVA

TVA’s new natural-gas-fueled Combined Cycle Plant

There’s a Better Way Than TVA

Karl Schledwitz is the chairman and CEO of Monogram Foods and a founding member of a group called There’s a Better Way Than TVA.

Environmentalists pushed for more renewable power, and critics of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) pushed for any move that would unlink the utility with Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) during a public hearing on the future of the two on Monday.

In late May, MLGW unveiled its integrated resources plan (IRP). The plan will serve as a guide for MLGW’s long-term power supply. Monday’s public comment session came after two years of study on the situation. The MLGW board will get a recommendation Wednesday from its president and CEO J.T. Young on the IRP on Wednesday. A board vote later could allow MLGW to issue a request for proposals (RFP) from other energy providers. Those proposals would show how much MLGW could really save by moving to another energy provider.

The top question to be determined is whether or not MLGW keeps on getting its power from TVA. The Memphis area is TVA’s largest customer, though the utility has been criticized for investing more in communities around its Chattanooga headquarters than it has here. Others have criticized TVA for its reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power and what they say is the utility’s small portfolio of renewable energy options.

There’s a Better Way Than TVA

MLGW hired Siemens to determine if it should leave. Siemens found that leaving TVA and getting power from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) could save MLGW $130 million per year. Other groups and agencies have studied the savings and found that the savings could range from $220 million to $450 million each year.

Some residents supported TVA Monday. Cathy Pope, the new executive director of the Mid-South Food Bank, said TVA “is concerned with feeding our children” and helped her establish a school pantry in a low-income neighborhood. Jared Bulluck, senior director of operations for Leadership Memphis, said TVA has invested in his program and encouraged MLGW to keep them.

Mavin White said TVA is mandated to support economic development, and that’s important to him as a business owner. Beth Wilson said she was concerned about the transmission lines that could be run over the Mississippi River if MLGW chose another power partner, calling it a “risky and unknown path.”

Members of the Sierra Club spoke more for a push to renewable energy than to the TVA decision directly.

“The IRP clearly shows that Memphis is better off investing in renewables — solar, in particular,” said Scott Banbury, Tennessee chapter conservation programs coordinator for the Sierra Club. “That should be MLGW’s main concern, regardless of who we get our power from.”
There’s a Better Way Than TVA

Organizations were allowed to present to the MLGW board Monday.

Karl Schledwitz, the chairman and CEO of Monogram Foods, is also a founding member of a group called There’s a Better Way Than TVA. He said he was glad TVA gave to the food bank, but that kind of investment here is new.

While the city and TVA have an 80-year relationship, “Memphis got ignored for the first 78.” He said he once asked TVA for money for the Memphis Zoo, as it had given funds to similar projects in other cities. Then-MLGW-president Herman Morris told him “TVA won’t return our phone calls.”

There’s a Better Way Than TVA

Schledwitz said moving away from TVA could save between $200 million-$450 million, depending on different projections. This would also reduce electric bills here, he said. Shelby County Schools could save $5 million from its now-$25-million annual electricity bill. The city of Memphis could save $800,000 each year, he said.

Schledwitz also criticized the salaries of TVA employees, noting that the utility’s CEO, Jeff Lyesh, has a total compensation package worth $8.1 million, making him the highest-paid federal employee. He also noted that TVA recently bought a new helicopter and has two jet aircraft.

There’s a Better Way Than TVA

Schledwitz compared diversity between the TVA board (left) and the MISO board (right).

TVA has offered MLGW to keep its current contract, which renews every five years. Also, it has offered MLGW to sign a long-term, 20-year contract, which comes with some benefits like allowing MLGW to generate some of its own renewable energy.

“TVA recognizes the importance of this moment — and has issued an ultimatum: If MLGW issues an RFP, it will take its offer off the table,” said Maggie Shober, director of utility reform for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “We were frankly surprised by this tactic, but on a closer look, it shows how terrified TVA is of Memphians learning how truly inexpensive it will be out from under TVA’s control.”

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

“I’m No Newcomer”

Who is Marquita Bradshaw? That question got asked a lot last Thursday night, when the Memphis woman took the lead in the Democratic primary’s field of five for United States Senate and kept it all the way until the last votes were counted.

Marquita Bradshaw

That race was supposed by most political observers to be in the bag for Nashville lawyer and Iraq war vet James Mackler, who had been campaigning for two years and raised some $2 million.

Bradshaw, whose receipts were in the low thousands, is surprised that anybody was surprised and seems offended at those who attributed her win to her name being atop the ballot.

“I’ve been an organizer within my community for over 25 years, working on environmental justice issues. And that wasn’t just within Memphis, but that was across the nation and internationally,” she said this week in a telephone interview. “I went through the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute, and I became a union organizer. But before then I was working with an environmental justice network with people across the United States on issues of environmental racism.”

She added: “I’ve been around. I’ve just been an organizer. It’s not a surprise to anybody in the social justice community, or anybody that’s in labor, that we’re here right now.”

She also can claim a long history as an environmentalist: “I’m on the Sierra Club executive committee, and I also serve on the Chickasaw Group.” She also went through the Leaders of Color education initiative.

And, as far as political campaigns go, this was not her first rodeo. Bradshaw has experience working in political races. She is the daughter of Doris DeBerry-Bradshaw, who has been a political candidate, and she is the niece of John DeBerry, the longtime incumbent State Representative from House District 90.

So it is clear that, unlike so many people’s assumptions, she is not a complete novice, and Democrats, who haven’t had much success with statewide elections in recent years, can only hope that her name recognition — along with sources of support — continues to expand as she faces the GOP’s well-heeled Senatorial nominee, the Trump-supported Bill Hagerty.

• At a point well into the 2020-21 fiscal year, the Shelby County budget situation is still in confusion, with members of the county commission still uncertain as to whether funds are on hand for a variety of county programs.

One persistent issue during the commission’s regular public meeting on Monday was the matter of a finished budget book, which could spell out in some specificity the county’s assets, liabilities, and available funds. But, just as during what seemed an interminable struggle to produce a budget in early summer, the commission and the administration of Mayor Lee Harris are having difficulty agreeing on means and ends and on what the facts are.

An early resolution on the commission’s Monday agenda attempted to open the way toward terminating a current hiring freeze and to establish August 19th as the date for receipt of a budget book from the administration. Dwan Gilliom, the administration CAO, could promise no date for the book other than “early September,” while county financial officer Mathilde Crosby indicated that no additional funds could be freed up and no exchange could be worked out whereby federal funding for COVID purposes could be “swapped out” to enable equivalent funding opportunities in the county’s general fund.

Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. noted that the Memphis City Council had done something similar with its federal COVID funds and wondered why the commission couldn’t do the same. Commissioner Van Turner followed up by prodding the administration to “show some cooperation.”

• Ninth District Congressman Steve Cohen, in the first Zoom press availability since his renomination in last week’s election, told reporters Tuesday that President Trump and Republicans in Congress continue to be unserious in negotiations for a renewed coronavirus aid package, and stressed that, in addition to such matters as unemployment insurance and another stimulus round, funding for the U.S. Postal Service, election security, and public nutrition is at stake.

“I think they lie about everything,” Cohen said, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in the sweep of his remarks. The Congressman also continued in his criticism of the Tennessee Valley Authority, saying, “TVA is not what it used to be. It isn’t what Franklin D. Roosevelt created. Their electric rates are among the highest in the country.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Report: Tennessee Valley Authority Lags on Solar Power

CREDIT: MLGW

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

Solar power keeps getting brighter in the Southeast but glows dimly in states served by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), according to a report. But TVA touts a new program that will allow for more solar growth.

The new Solar in the Southeast report is the third from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), a group based in Knoxville. The report focuses on the watts of solar power available for customers in seven states: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

“The unbiased watts per customer metric continues to shine a light on which states and utilities demonstrate leadership year after year and which are continuing to fall behind and need a serious course correction to avoid denying customers the economic and environmental benefits of clean solar power,” said Bryan Jacob, SACE’s solar program director.

The first solar report predicted Southeastern utilities would produce 10,000 megawatts of solar power by 2019, which they did by the end of last year. The group is now predicting that figure will double by 2022 and will ramp up to 25,000 megawatts of solar power by 2023. If utilities hit this prediction, the Southeast could have more than 10 percent of its total power capacity from the sun.

MLGW

A solar panel array at Agricenter International

Solar power is taking off in North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the report, as three utilities in those states take the top three slots for overall solar power capacity. TVA ranks 10th on this list of 14 utilities, clocking in at 99 megawatts of solar power available for each of its customers.

Each year, SACE identifies solar power leaders in the Southeast (SunRisers) and solar power laggers (SunBlockers). TVA again earned a SunBlocker designation from the group for cutting its Green Power Providers program but also for ”promoting misleading claims of solar growth,” which earned it a “dishonorable mention again for this reporting cycle.”

“Hyperbolic claims of ’up to’ 14 gigawatts of solar are not only inaccurate, they are intentionally misleading,” reads the study. “The actual budget that was requested and approved is for 5.5 gigawatts by 2030.

“That is the more reliable ’plan’ the SACE forecast is predicated on, and most of that solar is planned for the latter years of that timespan. Between now and 2023, TVA anticipates 800 megawatts of new utility-scale solar across the entire region, with most of that dedicated to specific, non-residential customers.”

TVA says it is “a national leader in carbon reduction, with nearly 60 percent carbon-free energy generation,” making its system the “greenest” in the Southeast. This system includes nuclear and hydroelectric power generation.

First Congo’s first solar panels

Last week, TVA touted a new program for local power companies like Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) that would allow them to generate more solar power. Power companies that have signed TVA’s 20-year long-term partnership agreements can generate up to 5 percent of their average energy needs.

MLGW has not yet signed such an agreement with TVA. Officials here are still considering a possible move away from TVA that, according to numerous studies, could save the utility and Memphis customers millions of dollars each year and allow more flexibility to generate power. MLGW does not generate any power now, buying it all from TVA at about $1 billion per year.

If all 154 local power companies signed TVA’s long-term contract and all of them generated their allowed 5 percent of solar power, they could collectively generate between 800 megawatts and 2,000 megawatts of power, according to TVA.

“TVA’s integrated resource strategy continues to bring cleaner, greener power to the region while maintaining low rates and reliability,” Doug Perry, TVA senior vice president of Commercial Energy Solutions, said in a statement. “This option empowering local generation adds another avenue to grow distributed and renewable energy resources across the valley.

“Working with our local power company partners, we continue to bring new solutions to market that reduce carbon, meet changing customer needs, and attract jobs into our communities.”

Clewisleake | Dreamstime.com

The West Tennessee Solar Farm

The Southeast is becoming a “regional solar powerhouse,” according to SACE executive director Dr. Stephen A. Smith, but more work needs to be done.

“We are pleased to see key utilities in some southeastern states continuing to grow our region’s vast solar resource,” Smith said. Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina are all making significant progress, but this begs the question of why Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi continue to lag behind.

“Leadership in legislative and regulatory policy coupled with real leadership by certain utilities has the South becoming a regional solar powerhouse.”

Read SACE’s full report here.

Categories
News News Blog

Report: TVA Likely to Raise Rates for Customers Over Next 10 Years

CREDIT: TVA

TVA

TVA’s new natural-gas-fueled Combined Cycle Plant.

A report released Wednesday by Friends of the Earth (FOE) anticipates Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) “substantially” raising rates for customers over the next ten years.

Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MGLW) is currently in the process of doing an Integrated Resource Plan to determine if it should consider getting power from an alternative source (other than TVA) in the future. The utility formed an advisory committee in April to weigh the option of alternative power sources.

Earlier this year, a study ordered by FOE and completed by the Brattle Group concluded that switching from TVA could save MLGW $240 million to $333 million each year.

The new report issued Wednesday, conducted by Synapse Energy Economic, Inc, concluded that several factors could require TVA to increase its rates, which would ultimately lead to higher bills for customers.

From 2006 to 2018, TVA increased rates for MGLW by 30 percent, according to the report. Last year the utility purchased a little over $1 billion worth of electricity from TVA.

“The TVA’s rates have increased substantially over the last decade and this new report illustrates they are likely to increase substantially over the next decade, even if TVA claims they won’t,” said Herman Morris, former MLGW president and advisor to FOE. “The TVA will pay the price for its outdated, dirty power and pass the cost on to Memphis families and small businesses if we don’t make a chance to alternative power sources.”

The study highlights five risk factors that could cause TVA to raise its rates for local power companies like MLGW. Those factors include coal ash remediation, fossil full price increases, carbon prices, early plant retirement, and load departures.

[pullquote-1] Coal Ash Remediation


The remediation of coal ash or Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) represents a larger potential cost for TVA, the reports says. TVA is committed to elimination the wet storage of CCRs in its service area. The utility is expected to spend $1.2 billion to do this over the next three years, yielding a possible rate increase of up to 2.3 percent.

Fossil Fuel Prices

The price of fossil fuels are expected to rise “significantly” over the next two decades, the report predicts. The price of coal, from which TVA generates 19 percent of its energy in 2018, is expected to increase by over 50 percent by 2038, while the price of natural gas, used to generate 20 percent of TVA’s energy, could double. As a result, rates could increase by 1 percent to 6 percent.

Carbon Prices

The report suggests that as efforts increase to combat global warming, there will be increasing costs associated with carbon emission. The study estimates that cost to be between $5 and $22 per ton of carbon dioxide in 2028, costing TVA anywhere from $125 million to $1.1 billion, and customers 1.25 to 11 percent more. The study also notes that it’s likely these prices would continue to increase in the future.

Plant Retirements

If TVA coal power plants are retired early because of failure to meet future carbon dioxide regulations, TVA would lose assets. For example, if 2,000 megawatts of coal is retired early, it would cause a loss of $1.4 billion over 10 years. This equates to a 1.4 percent increase in rates. These calculations are “purely hypothetical,” the report notes, “but coal plants are under various pressures and additional retirement of TVA coal plants in the next 10 years is a possibility.”

Load Reduction

If TVA’s sales decline, it’s rates will decrease. A decline in sales could come as a result of industries departing the region, customers adoption of energy efficient technologies, or adoption of distributed energy resources. For example, an 8 percent load reduction in 2028 could reduce TVA revenue by 4 percent and lead to a rate increase of 4.3 percent.

Taking these factors into account, the study concludes that by 2031 the cost of power for MLGW could increase by as much as $343 million, while rate increases for customers could increase anywhere from 9 to 34 percent.


TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said the following in response to the report:

“Our most recent long-term financial plan, approved by the TVA Board, includes keeping rates flat over the next decade, and the proposal for 20-year agreement with local power companies also includes a reduction in the wholesale rate.

“TVA has not reviewed the report, but we are working directly with MLGW and members of the community to provide accurate information as the utility makes decisions on its relationship with TVA. We are confident that, after a thorough and accurate review, TVA is still the best option for the people of Memphis and Shelby County.”

Brooks notes that the risk factors laid out in the report are “generally part of our capital expenditures and are included in the long-term financial plan. Those costs are not necessarily passed on in rates, but often absorbed in the annual budget.

“TVA makes decisions on assets and costs, including the future of coal combustion residuals, based on potential impacts to the 10 million customers we serve.”




Categories
News The Fly-By

More Power to You: TVA Plan

CREDIT: Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will harness more solar energy over the next 20 years, more wind power if it gets cheaper, and less power from coal. But some say its environmental goals don’t go far enough.

The TVA dropped its final Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) late last week, the culmination of a process that began in February 2018. That plan is a basic roadmap the nation’s largest power supplier will follow to meet the ever-growing needs for power to 154 local power companies and 58 other customers throughout the Valley.

Tennessee Valley Authority

At the heart of the plan is the mix of energy sources TVA says it will likely use over the next 20 years. Picking that mix was driven largely by the need of diverse and flexible sources of energy and a federal mandate for low costs, TVA said in its report issued Friday.

TVA measures that mix in megawatts, or 1 million watts of power, enough to power about 750 homes at once. So, how much does it need? In its 2018 fiscal year, TVA provided more than 163 million megawatt-hours of electricity to its customers.

Coal power will reduce as TVA retires two coal-fired plants, in Paradise (Kentucky) and Bull Run (Tennessee). TVA will try to renew a 20-year license to operate its Browns Ferry (Tennessee) nuclear plant. It will up its use of combined cycle plants, like our Allen plant, over the next 20 years. How much, though, (maybe up to 9,800 megawatts by 2038) depends on demand and natural gas prices.

As for renewables, TVA said they’re definitely in the mix. Solar power could expand on the TVA grid (as much as 14,000 megawatts by 2038) if the demand is there. TVA said it could add up to 4,200 megawatts of wind power to its mix by 2038 if it becomes cost-effective.

Environmental groups gave TVA some credit for “moving in a smarter economic and environmental direction,” according to a statement from the Sierra Club’s Southeast region chapter, but the agency has a long way to go.

“Renewable energy technologies are smarter and safer than fossil fuels, and it’s now known that they’re the cheapest form of new electricity generation across most of the world — cheaper than both coal and gas,” said the Sierra Club’s Al Armendariz. “So, even as TVA is making positive strides in this new plan, its leaders must start planning for an energy future that doesn’t just trade coal for gas — which not only exposes customers to a volatile market, but also worsens the climate crisis.”

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) did note that TVA’s new plan does include “recommendations for greater energy efficiency, transparency, and renewables.” But the group called the energy plan “outdated and a blow to customers.”

For one, it said, the plan undervalues energy-efficiency savings for customers. For example, Duke Energy Carolinas customers get seven times more savings from efficiencies than TVA customers.

Also, TVA’s solar plans, SACE said, would only benefit big business customers like Google and Facebook. Residential and small business customers here are “being left out and left behind” on potential solar savings.

Categories
News News Blog

TVA Makes Case For MLGW Not to Switch Suppliers

CREDIT: Maya Smith

Maya Smith

Jeff Lyash, president and CEO of TVA speaks to PSAT

The head of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) told the team charged with weighing power supply options for Memphis that he’s “committed to helping them through the process.”

At the second meeting of Memphis Light, Gas & Water’s (MLGW) Power Supply Advisory Team (PSAT), Jeff Lyash, president and CEO of TVA, said he would like to see Memphis stay with TVA, but that he’s committed to helping Memphis make the “right decision.”

“It’s a critical decision for MLGW and the community of Memphis,” Lyash said. “So we want to help you through this process in order for you to get all the information you need … But, at the end of this, we would like to be your power supplier.”

Lyash said that in the past TVA has not “lived up to our or your expectation” in serving Memphis, but that “one of my objectives this year is to change that.”

[pullquote-2]

Making the case for TVA, John Thomas, chief financial officer of TVA, said Memphis has the lowest, most competitive utility rates in the country,

Thomas also said that the utility doesn’t anticipate those rates increasing over the next 10 years. This summer, the utility will draft its long-range plan for the next 10 years, which will include rate projections.

Although Memphis has the lowest rate in the country, at 6.81 cents per kilowatts hours, Memphis City Council member Martavious Jones, who is serving on the PSAT, said that about 20 percent of that rate is allocated to TVA’s debt budget.

Jones said without accounting for the utility’s debt, the rate would be 4.81 cents per kilowatt hour. If switching to another utility, with no debt, Jones said the rate might be cheaper, but the group should also consider the costs of transmitting the power to Memphis.


Lyash agreed, saying that MLGW should be “very careful and diligent” throughout the process and understand the “risks and assumptions” of any decision.

Lyash said that if MLGW pays 3 cents per kilowatt hour, “that’s not enough.” He said the utility also has to pay for reliability, operations, transmission, and maintenance. TVA’s rate includes those, he said.

“What you’ll see over time is that people like to quote you an energy price, but make sure you’re getting the whole picture.”

Lyash said that TVA’s transmission system is “arguably the most reliable in the country.”

“You need to consider what stands behind the product you’re buying,” he said. “Our power portfolio is strong and moving in the right direction.”

[pullquote-1]

MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young, who is heading the PSAT group, said the purpose of Thursday’s meeting was not to deliver a “TVA sales pitch,” but to look at the current state of operations in order to understand “how we get what we get.”

“When we anticipate anything different from that, we need to start with a good base line,” Young said.

Ultimately, any recommendations the PSAT team comes up with will have to be approved by both the MLGW board of commissioners and the Memphis City Council.

Still, Young said their input is “critical” to the final decision.

The next PSAT meeting will be on June 6th at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library at 10 a.m. Young said the group will review the recent studies done on alternative power suppliers. All of the meetings are open to the public.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Flipping the Switch on a New Solar Farm in Millington

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

An event took place this week that demonstrated what can happen when the usual political, economic, and jurisdictional lines are set aside for a common purpose — in this case, a massive solar energy facility just north of Memphis.

First, a bit of backstory: In a recent cover story, the Flyer‘s Toby Sells reported the problems of the West Tennessee megasite, a 4,000-acre piece of land in Haywood County that has been the potentially most promising industrial location in the state ever since it was first set aside for development in the administration of former Governor Phil Bredesen in 2006.

Since the time of its first creation, the megasite has remained an unfulfilled promise, at least partly because it has, unhappily,  also remained incomplete, with anticipated additional revenues of $80 to $100 million needed to make it, in the idiom of industrial site development, “shovel-ready.”

Jackson Baker

Matt Kisber, CEO of Silicon Ranch; John Ryder of TVA.

Would-be clients have come and gone, looking the site over, and ended up taking their shovels — and their billions — to competitive sites elsewhere. The Tennessee gubernatorial candidates of 2018 vied with each other in forecasts of what they could do to break the stalemate, and make of the area the economic success it was originally conceived of. One of those candidates, former state Economic Development Commissioner Randy Boyd may have owed his defeat in the Republican primary at least partly to the fact that he had, fairly or unfairly, become identified with the stagnated project.

All in all, as our cover story indicated, less of the fault lies with any particular individual than it does with the failure of governments — local, state, and federal — to agree on the financial and logistical means of completing the project — including, crucially, the issue of waste removal.

That’s all the more reason to take heart from an altogether different developmental history that has occurred — and reached a stage of formal completion this very week — some miles to the west, in suburban Millington, where the Tennessee Valley Authority, long-time power source for this part of the Mid-South; the U.S. Navy, for decades the chief landlord in the Millington area; the city of Millington; the community’s chamber of commerce; its Industrial Development Board; and various other local interests have all combined to imagine and see through to development a new 53-megawatt solar farm, which will easily be the state’s largest. It is three-and-a-half times the size of any other such facility in Tennessee, and some 10 times the size of the highly visible solar farm on I-40 near Stanton, near mile marker 44.

The new facility could light the way (in every sense of that term) to enormous future advances in the harnessing of renewable energy sources. Employing the impressive number of 580,000 sun-tracking photovoltaic panels, the complex, built by Nashville-based Silicon Ranch, Inc., could generate enough power for 7,500 homes. It is also designed to help fulfill a larger U.S. Navy initiative to maintain long-term energy sources that are relatively safe from industrial outage or sabotage.

At this juncture, there seems to be no hand-wringing or worries about attracting users for the project. Backers are calling it a success already at hand, obvious in its short- and long-term utility, as well as being a harbinger of future development to come in the Memphis area and in West Tennessee at large.

It would seem congratulations are in order for the community of Millington and for the various stakeholders who made this vision come about.

Categories
News News Blog

Advisory Team to Consider TVA Switch Named

CREDIT: MLGW

MLGW

A solar panel array at Agricenter International.

The head of Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) has named the 20 members of a new advisory team tasked with exploring alternative power supply options.

J.T. Young, president and CEO of MGLW returned to the Memphis City Council Tuesday to lay out the details of the Power Supply Advisory Team (PSAT) that he first proposed to the council two weeks ago.

Young said then that he and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland had been working on forming the team to consider switching from the Tennessee Valley Authority as a power supplier — a move that has been at the center of conversations between MLGW and the city council for months.

The PSAT so far consists of local executives, elected officials, and MLGW officials, including Young, who will serve as the facilitator.

Executives on the committee include Richard Kelley, vice president for facilities at Methodist Hospital; Mark Halperin, executive vice president of Boyle Investment Company; Beverly Robertson, CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber; and Josh Tulino, vice president and general manager at Valero.

Local officials — including the city’s chief operating officer Doug McGowen, who is the mayor’s designee, and Bo Mills, public works director for Germantown — will also take part.

City Councilman Martavious Jones, Shelby County Commissioner Eddie Jones, as well as Deidre Malone, president of the NAACP Memphis Branch; Dennis Lynch of the Sierra Club; and Sandra Upchurch of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, are also slated to join the team.

Councilman Jones told Young that he would like to see three to five “regular citizens” serving on the advisory team as well: “That would really speak to the integrity of the process.”

Young said he would take that into consideration, adding that all meetings will already be open to the public.

The first of seven meetings planned for this year is Tuesday, April 30th. One meeting — each with a different topic — is slated for each month through November. Topics include the state of TVA, power supply studies, and MLGW’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

The IRP, which Young said will be spearheaded by an outside consultant, will consist of data, such as a 20-year hourly energy demand forecast, evaluations of the costs and risks for different supply options, as well as assessments of MLGW’s current staff, technology, and facilities.

The utility has issued a request for qualifications in order to find a consultant for the job. Young anticipates selecting a consultant by May.

The IRP process will be “deliberate” and “objective,” Young said, potentially taking up to a year to complete.

“We will not stop this process until it’s finished,” Young said. “In order to maintain the integrity of the IRP process, it’s important that we go through the process and let the process tell us what’s optimal.”