Two coal-fired energy vegetation in Tennessee that had been scheduled for closure in 2026 and 2028 will likely be saved open for the “foreseeable future” after a unanimous vote by the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. [some emphasis, links added]
The TVA, the nation’s largest public utility with about 10 million clients, will proceed working coal-burning items on the Kingston Fossil Plant and the Cumberland Fossil Plant, which presently present a mixed 3.8 gigawatts of energy, sufficient to serve 2.7 million properties on a mean day.
The vote comes after 4 new board members appointed by President Donald Trump had been sworn in on Jan. 12, restoring a voting quorum to the nine-member panel for the primary time in almost a yr.
Trump dismissed three board members throughout the first half of 2025, and the Senate voted to substantiate three replacements together with a nominee for a vacant seat simply earlier than the top of the yr.
The board additionally voted to scrap plans for a brand new photo voltaic facility on the Kingston plant, though it maintained plans so as to add a pure gas-fired technology unit with 1.5 gigawatts of capability.
On the Cumberland Fossil Plant, the TVA will proceed building on a 1.45-gigawatt fuel technology unit together with a 100-megawatt battery storage system.
Advocacy teams, together with the Southern Environmental Legislation Middle and Appalachian Voices, blasted TVA’s choice, saying it was made with out notifying impacted communities.
TVA government vice chairman and chief monetary officer Tom Rice mentioned the utility’s want to fulfill quickly rising vitality demand from knowledge facilities and inhabitants development, in addition to shifts within the federal regulatory panorama, makes it essential to preserve the coal-fired vegetation in service.
Since January 2023, when the earlier board licensed retirement of the coal-generation items on the two vegetation, the TVA has seen a variety of key adjustments, with a big improve in electrical energy demand and a declaration of an vitality emergency, mentioned Rice.
“We’ve additionally seen a major change within the regulatory outlook, significantly for coal, and that creates each the chance and the necessity for us to revisit these selections,” he mentioned.
Wade White, director of the committee that studied the proposal to maintain the coal vegetation working, has constantly advocated for “coal resiliency” whereas criticizing “stringent environmental laws” focusing on coal’s financial viability since he joined the board as a Biden appointee in 2022.
“Coal, like different vitality sources, must be part of a complete technique for delivering dependable, resilient, and reasonably priced electrical energy to TVA clients,” White mentioned on the assembly.
High image of the Cumberland coal plant by English Wikipedia editor Riffsyphon1024.
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