Guidelines and Reports

The Tennessee Valley Authority serves you with only the highest standards in mind. Learn more about the guidelines and strategic plans to which we hold ourselves accountable.

Sustainability Guidelines and Reports

• The TVA Sustainability Report is updated annually to show TVA’s commitment to sustainability according to the global reporting standards. The TVA Sustainability Report provides a comprehensive view of TVA’s progress as a business and community partner to build a stronger, more sustainable future together and demonstrates TVA’s efforts and reflects our longstanding commitment to stewardship and transparency.
• TVA issues updates to its Federal Sustainability Report and Implementation Plan, formerly called Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan, under Executive Order 13834, titled Efficient Federal Operations. The Executive Order (EO), signed by President Trump in May 2018, challenges TVA and other federal agencies to develop, implement and annually update sustainability plans to help "increase efficiency, optimizes performance, eliminates unnecessary use of resources, and protects the environment.” Even before the passage of this EO and other legislation on energy efficiency at federal facilities, TVA had a long history of reducing its building energy use.
• TVA published its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report for the financial community using the utility-focused and investor-driven reporting template developed by the Edison Electric Institute. The ESG/Sustainability reporting template is a summary of key sustainability metrics for voluntary use. TVA participates is this reporting because sustainability performance is paramount to its customers and other stakeholders.
• TVA maintains a Statement on Climate Change Adaptation and its Climate Change Adaptation and Resiliency Plan consistent with EO 13834 as well as its ongoing voluntary participation in the DOE Energy Sector Climate Resiliency Partnership. As a federal agency, TVA includes climate change adaptation in its decision making. TVA manages the potential effects of climate change on its mission, programs and operations within its environmental management processes. Ongoing interagency efforts help us better understand the uncertainty associated with climate change. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. The mission of the USGCRP builds a knowledge base that informs human responses to climate and global change through coordinated and integrated federal programs of research, education, communication and decision support.

Strategic Planning Reports

In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget's Circular No. A-11, federal agencies are required to prepare a strategic plan that includes select information regarding their mission, strategic goals, objectives and performance measures.

Fiscal Year 2018 - 2022 (PDF, 3.6 mb)

Financial Reports

TVA issues quarterly financial reports at the end of the first, second, and third quarters and publishes its annual report at the end of the fiscal year. The fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget's Circular No. A-11, federal agencies are required to prepare a performance budget, which fully integrates the annual performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act with other elements of the agency budget request, for submission to Congress in February as part of the congressional budget justification.

The performance budget links TVA's strategic goals with related outcome-oriented long-term and annual performance goals and with the costs specific to the activities that contribute to the achievement of those goals.

Fiscal Year 2021

Legal Reports

Local Power Company Commercial Broadband Investments

To enhance ratepayer transparency, TVA is posting information regarding its authorization of Local Power Company (LPC) investments in commercial broadband. A 2019 TVA Board action amended the Use of Revenues Guidelines to provide LPCs an option to utilize electric system revenues, and/or pledge electric system assets, to support an investment in commercial broadband, subject to TVA’s review and authorization. 

TVA implemented its commercial broadband authorization process in November 2019. This process seeks to ensure that any LPC investment of electric system revenues, and/or pledge of electric system assets, in support of commercial broadband is consistent with TVA’s retail regulatory framework, including that commercial broadband is not subsidized by electric system operations, and that the investments are fully repaid to the electric system. Upon TVA’s authorization, the terms and conditions of the investment and its repayment are documented as an amendment to the power contract. 

Once TVA has authorized an LPC investment in commercial broadband, TVA will post its authorization here. This posting will include the total amount of the investment for both electric and commercial broadband purposes, the requirement for the repayment of the investment, and the LPC’s point of contact. 

An LPC is then required to provide notice to its ratepayers through a TVA approved means designed to reach the majority of its ratepayers. An LPC’s notice should be dated and include: TVA’s authorization; the broadband entity’s legal name; a description of the project; the total, initial, or phased amount of the LPC’s investment in electric and non-electric fiber, as well as amounts to be loaned to the broadband entity; a statement acknowledging the broadband entity is required to repay the loan; a statement about whether the investment will result in any projected rate impacts, to include the duration of those impacts; and LPC contact information for ratepayer questions.  

TVA’s Determination – Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation’s Acquisition of the City of Murfreesboro’s Electric Department

On January 16, 2020, MTEMC and MED formally requested TVA to consent to the assignment of the City of Murfreesboro’s wholesale power contract with TVA to MTEMC, thereby allowing MTEMC to acquire MED.

Numerous TVA subject matter experts conducted a robust and thorough evaluation of this proposed acquisition, applying TVA’s mergers, acquisitions and consolidations review guidelines to determine whether or not the transaction is in the best interest of ratepayers and likely to produce material net benefits for both sets of ratepayers. Following its evaluation, TVA has determined that the acquisition satisfies the requirements of its review guidelines and consents to the assignment of its wholesale power contract with conditions. TVA has informed MTEMC and MED of its consent and the conditions.

As the retail rate regulator of MTEMC and MED and other local power companies that distribute TVA power, TVA takes proposed mergers, acquisitions and consolidations by and between distributors very seriously to ensure ratepayer interests are protected. You can find additional details about TVA’s determination of the MTEMC/MED acquisition at this link.

Determination on Regulation of Pole Attachments

The TVA Act vests broad discretion in the TVA Board of Directors to establish terms and conditions and rules and regulations related to the sale of TVA power. TVA is the exclusive retail rate regulator of Local Power Companies (LPCs) that distribute TVA power. Additionally, through the wholesale power contract with each LPC, TVA seeks to ensure that LPC systems are operated for the benefit of the electric consumers and that rates are kept as low as feasible.

At the February 11, 2016 Board Meeting, the TVA Board adopted a Determination on Regulation of Pole Attachments.

Approval of this Board action establishes the methodology that LPCs will use to determine the rates they charge for attachments to distribution poles and is based on fully allocating individual LPCs’ costs of pole ownership fairly to the pole owner and attaching parties.

This action supports the Board’s regulatory responsibility to keep Valley rates as low as feasible and ensures appropriate costs are borne by attaching parties to prevent subsidization of non-electric activities by electric ratepayers.