Kingston Fossil Plant

TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant is located on the Clinch River arm of Watts Bar Reservoir near Kingston, Tenn. At the time it was finished in 1955, Kingston was the largest coal-burning power plant in the world—a distinction it held for more than a decade.

Kingston’s nine units boast a summer net capability of 1,398 megawatts, and can generate approximately 10 billion kilowatt-hours a year, which is enough electricity to power approximately 700,000 homes. To meet the demand, Kingston burns about 14,000 tons of coal a day, an amount that would fill 140 railroad cars.

The plant burns a low-sulfur blend of coal to limit emissions of sulfur dioxide. Other emissions-reducing features include the installation of selective catalytic reduction systems, which reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent, and two scrubbers, which reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by 95 percent.

Kingston Unit 1’s generator failed in fall 2014. A plan emerged to swap the generator at retired Shawnee Unit 10 so there would be one working coal unit, rather than two idled units. The 200-ton generator stator traveled by barge from the Paducah plant, first on the Ohio River and then linking to the Tennessee River to travel around the river to Kingston. The generator was installed in Unit 1 and was producing 145 MW of power in early December 2014.

TVA worked diligently to clean up a coal ash spill that happened in December of 2008, regain the trust of the public and leave the area better off than it had been before. Those efforts are now complete.  Read more about them—and see the salient legal documentation—on our Kingston documents page.

Toxics Release Inventory

TVA is required to report annually to the Environmental Protection Agency on the amounts of chemicals released by its fossil-fuel plants. Check here for the latest data on Kingston.

Emissions Data

TVA monitors other emissions at its fossil plants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide and mercury.  Check here for the latest data on Kingston.