TVA Identifies Preferred Location for Waldens Creek, Sevier County Proposed Transmission Route

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified a preferred location for a new transmission line in Sevier County that would strengthen reliability and support the growing energy load in the area. The selected route is expected to have the least overall impact on the area based on public input and additional evaluation of other factors, including social, environmental and engineering impacts. A National Environmental Policy Act review is also pending.

TVA’s new power line will begin at a tap point on TVA’s existing Douglas Hydro-Pigeon Forge #2 161-kV transmission line east of McMahan Hollow Road and extend west for about three miles to Sevier County Electric System’s new Waldens Creek 161-kV substation. The project would be a single-circuit, 161-kV transmission line built using single- and double-pole H-frame, steel structures centered on new 100-foot-wide right of way..

TVA will meet with property owners along the proposed right-of-way to obtain easements for construction, operation and maintenance of the line. Property owners would still own the property and would be compensated for the easements at fair market value.

TVA is expected to begin surveys in winter 2025 and begin acquiring easements in fall 2026. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2027 and be completed in winter 2027. A map of the project and additional information are available on the website at tva.com/transmissionprojects.

TVA is aligned with the administration’s Energy Dominance Executive Order, and this project is part of TVA’s strategy to unleash American energy. To address the region's load growth due to growing population, industrial electrification and onshoring of manufacturing, TVA is making some of the largest capital investments in the agency's history to ensure the region has reliable, affordable energy to power American jobs. TVA's current planning assumption includes building about 6,200+ megawatts of new firm, dispatchable generation, pending required approvals and environmental reviews. Over 3,500 megawatts are already under construction – enough energy to power two million homes.

Since Oct. 1, 2024, TVA transmission crews have built 95 miles of transmission line and fiber throughout the Valley and installed or replaced protection, monitoring and isolation assets at 47 locations. Additionally, crews built four new delivery points for customer expansion and load growth, including new substations in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and Artesia, Mississippi.

Waldens Creek, TN Preferred Route Map