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Message from the CEO

Energy

Environment

Economic Development

Communities

Employees

Message from the Chair

Enterprise Leadership

There are four words – “Built for the people” – that simply and eloquently describe TVA’s mission to make life better for the people of the Tennessee Valley. These are more than just words, it’s a standard we hold ourselves accountable to each and every day.

I am privileged and honored to lead the women and men of TVA as they serve the people of the Tennessee Valley. At TVA, our unique, long-standing mission of service drives and inspires us daily to pursue new ideas and innovative solutions that improve our service to you.

TVA was created and has continued to build on a clear mission to benefit the public good.

That was our initial mission during the Great Depression. That was our mission while powering the nation to win World War II. It continued to be our mission during the following decades of American prosperity and growth.

And it is still our mission today. The challenges are different, but no less critical to the lives of those we serve — delivering vital services and support across the region during an unprecedented pandemic that has affected our families, communities, businesses and industries – and helping the Tennessee Valley recover and grow.

While a global pandemic was unforeseen, our employees spent the past several years preparing for potential challenges ahead by improving our operational and financial performance.

We’ve worked to significantly lower our operating and maintenance costs, improving both productivity and efficiency. These savings are passed on to our customers in terms of lower energy costs. Today, customers served by TVA enjoy rates lower than 70% of the largest utilities in the nation. And we are committed to keeping our energy costs stable for the next decade.

While we are a leader in carbon reduction – double the regional utility average – we aren’t satisfied. We are committed to increasing our carbon reduction while maintaining our focus on delivering the reliable, low-cost energy our customers expect and deserve.

Because of our renewed operational and financial strength and stability, TVA was able to continue demonstrating the value of public power by serving and supporting communities and families during the pandemic. TVA was positioned to quickly provide more than a billion dollars in programs to alleviate hardship and help our region’s economy get back on its feet, including

• Made $1 billion of credit available to local power companies (LPCs) and offered regulatory relief and flexibility so LPCs could make the right decisions to help their communities, including suspending electric disconnections.
• Created a Pandemic Relief Credit of $200 million to be distributed among all LPCs and large commercial and industrial customers during FY 2021, which can be used to help with electric bills or other needs.
• Launched the Back-to-Business Credit Program with $10 million in incentives to help large customers return to work at pre-pandemic levels.
• Created the Community Care Fund that, including matching funds from LPCs and other partners, has already provided more than $4 million through more than 340 grants to charitable and community organizations to meet local needs.

Even while providing COVID-19 recovery support, we did not forego our larger mission of service. Through our partnership with 153 LPCs, we continued to deliver reliable energy delivery, responsible environmental stewardship and new economic development opportunities for nearly 10 million people across our seven-state service area.

Those who live, work or build a business in the Tennessee Valley directly benefit from:

• Energy costs that are lower than 70% of the nation’s, and wholesale electricity costs that are lower than they were 10 years ago.
• Electric rates that TVA plans to keep stable and flat for the next decade.
• Economic development activities with our local partners that over the past five years have created and retained approximately 341,000 jobs and over $45.4 billion in capital investment in the Tennessee Valley. This includes attracting major companies such as Amazon, Facebook and numerous manufacturing jobs that support the growing Southern automotive industry.
• Approximately 67,000 jobs created and retained, even during the pandemic, and over $8.6 billion in capital invested in the region in FY 2020.
• Tax equivalent payments that contributed nearly $552 million in payments to state and local governments in FY 2020.
• TVA’s management of one of the nation’s largest river systems, which helped prevent $1 billion in potential flood damage in 2020 despite rainfall at 150% of normal levels during the wettest year on record.
• TVA employee and equipment response during restoration efforts following damaging tornados in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.
• Significant public lands and waters managed by TVA that provide both conservation and responsible recreation, and serve as a driver for nearly $12 billion dollars of annual economic activity across the Tennessee Valley each year.

It is worth noting that all these benefits are self-funded through TVA business activities, not through federal taxpayer support. 

TVA at a Glance

TVA’s Values, Strategic Advantages and Priorities

This is a business, and results count. But what matters most is how those results are achieved. At TVA, we treat each other with respect and do the right thing by accepting individual accountability and ownership to resolve issues. In short, we do what we say we are going to do.

Our “true north” is a set of principles and behaviors that guide our daily actions, our choices and our priorities.

For us to deliver our best each day and every shift, these values are foundational to everything else. Our TVA values include: 

People Advantage 

TVA is a major employer in the region with nearly 10,000 employees with diverse skills and roles, people who are doing the utmost to benefit our communities and build the innovative energy future of tomorrow. We’re proud that this year, TVA was ranked No. 2 on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers for the state of Tennessee. And for the fifth consecutive year, TVA achieved national recognition as a Top 10 Employer of U.S. military veterans. One in five TVA employees have served our country in uniform and we are proud to have them continue their public service with us at TVA.

TVA also continues to build a strong partnership with our union employees. This year we signed a landmark 10-year agreement – the first of its kind in the nation – that provides stability for our business and strengthens American job security. 

The strength of our people has been tested as never before in delivering impressive performance gains and safety improvements. 2020 was one of TVA’s safest years on record, with among the lowest recordable injury rates and serious injury rates in the industry nationwide.

Moving forward, our focus on People Advantage will deliver a culture that lives up to our values and accelerates the impact of diversity and inclusion within TVA and the communities we serve.

Igniting Innovation 

We are also prioritizing the evolution of our reliable and clean energy supply into the energy system of the future. TVA leads the region in cost-effective carbon reduction.

Through CY 2019, TVA has reduced carbon emissions by 55% compared to 2005 baseline standards. We are working to increase that number to 70% by 2030. This fiscal year, nearly 60% of TVA’s power generation mix is carbon-free and we are committed to increasing our carbon reduction. We will deploy battery storage on our system in the 2022-2023 timeframe and our plans include a major utility-scale expansion in solar energy that is now under way and is setting the standard for the industry. 

TVA is a lead sponsor in the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative launched by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) to further advance decarbonization technologies that could help us reach a carbon neutral position. 

Our first-ever Sustainability Report provides comprehensive information about TVA’s energy transformation and environmental resource management plans. Published in July 2020, it marks TVA’s adoption of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework as the standard for environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures and reporting. 

Powerful Partnerships

At TVA, we are committed to building relationships where we are seen as a community leader and trusted partner. We believe our customers know we are here for them and committed to meeting their needs. This is why 93% of the local power companies we serve have committed to long-term partnership agreements.

Through these partnerships, TVA is delivering strong results that benefit our stakeholders. We will provide low and stable energy rates during the next 10 years. During FY 2020, more than $160 million in savings was returned to Valley Partners on wholesale energy bills. We have accelerated agreements to enable each partner to self-generate up to 5% of their energy, giving them the flexibility to meet their customers’ clean energy goals.

Additionally, TVA is committed to having open and productive conversations with stakeholders across the Valley on ways TVA can provide even more value to those we serve.

Operational Excellence

Even while reducing our costs and maintaining stable rates, we are delivering results and strengthening our multi-state power system. Thanks to strong nuclear, hydroelectric, coal and gas fleet performance, we delivered the lowest fuel costs in more than 10 years. 

We are actively enhancing the reliability of our vast power system and our individual plants. Our goal is to modernize TVA’s 16,300-mile transmission grid and build on our best-in-class reputation for 99.999% reliability. And we are investing to build the TVA system of tomorrow through innovations like Grid 2023 and our new Systems Operations Center. 

We are strengthening the TVA power system to withstand different types of challenges. We are working to create a system that uses data to optimize performance and predicts equipment issues, which will help us prevent them from becoming outages for our customers.

TVA has set clear goals to improve our nuclear fleet performance to the top quartile in the industry by the end of 2022 – and lead the nation by the end of 2025. We believe we have the resources, expertise — and most importantly, the dedicated people — to be among the best fleets in the nation.

Financial Strength

It takes discipline to plan decades ahead so our energy costs are competitive, stable and predictable. 

We are working to control our costs without impacting the safety, reliability or quality of our operations. In recent years, TVA has improved performance enough to cut $800 million from our annual operating costs. In addition, debt is at its lowest level in 30 years, providing TVA with a strong balance sheet for investing in our future without impacting rates. 

In FY 2020, TVA invested $2.1 billion in capital expenditures and over the next three years we have plans to invest a further $7.9 billion. We believe these investments, funded by our operations and access to capital markets, will help us make the power system of tomorrow a reality and deliver the performance, value and economic and environmental progress our stakeholders expect and deserve.

Despite decreased energy sales from COVID-19, net income remains favorable at $1.4 billion and net cash provided by operating activities was $3.6 billion for FY 2020.

As a public power company with a mission of service, that value gets redeployed back into making the Tennessee Valley a vibrant place to live, play, work and do business.

A Mission That Stands the Test of Time

The discipline, creativity and commitment of our team resulted in a year of exemplary performance in FY 2020. Even with the continuing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, we start FY 2021 with great momentum and opportunities to further advance the public good.

The world, the economy and our industry are changing rapidly. By living our values and focusing on our region’s priorities, TVA is committed to delivering on a mission that is still as important today as it was when Congress passed the TVA Act in 1933.

In this recent pandemic, TVA’s women and men were deemed “essential workers” – a label I believe they carry even in the best of times. Our goal is to do more than just keep the lights on in a seven-state region. We strive to answer the call and deliver what the people we serve need when they need it the most.

I am optimistic about the future of TVA and our region. My optimism is rooted in what I believe sets us apart – our people.

Jeff Lyash

Guide to Using TVA’s Annual Report and Form 10-K

This Annual Report is intended to provide highlighted information of interest about TVA's business and operations during its fiscal year ended September 30, 2020. This Annual Report should be read in conjunction with TVA’s Form 10-K Annual Report for the year ended September 30, 2020. The Form 10-K provides additional financial, operational and descriptive information, including TVA’s financial statements. The Form 10-K also provides important information about various risks to which TVA is exposed in the course of its operations, which are important to consider before investing in any TVA securities. The 2020 TVA Annual Report and 2020 Form 10-K do not contain all information about TVA securities that is important for making investment decisions. Please refer to the appropriate Offering Circular, and any relevant supplements, for detailed information about TVA securities. TVA’s Form 10-K can be found at www.tva.com/investors.

TVA Investor Relations

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Forward-looking statements and certain factors that may affect our business

We have included in this letter and 2020 Annual Report “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Exchange Act relating to our operations, results of operations and other matters that are based on our current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections. Words such as “will,” “plan,” “believe” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in these forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and other factors that might cause such differences, some of which could be material, include, but are not limited to, the factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q under the sections entitled “Risk Factors.” Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this letter and 2020 Annual Report or as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update them.

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