TVA Publishes Final Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed New Caledonia Gas Plant in Lowndes County, Mississippi

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The ­Tennessee Valley Authority has prepared the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to address the potential environmental impacts associated with the proposed construction and operation of a simple cycle combustion turbine (CT) plant on a parcel of TVA-owned land known as the New Caledonia (NCG) Site. More information is available at tva.com/nepa.

The NCG Site is an approximately 63-acre existing parcel of federally owned property managed by TVA in Lowndes County, Mississippi, located 10 miles northeast of Columbus. The New Caledonia Site is a former CT facility, originally constructed in 1998 and operated for several years by a private company. The company dismantled the site in 2007, removing the existing six-frame CTs. The study area for the proposed action is 145 acres and includes the entire proposed combustion turbine property as well as the adjacent substation property, which remains in operation. TVA is considering constructing and operating an approximately 500-megawatt combustion turbine facility at the disturbed site of the previous generating facility, which would allow TVA to utilize existing natural gas and transmission infrastructure.

The purpose of this proposed action is to support continued load growth in the Tennessee Valley region. CTs are needed to provide dispatchable generation capacity to ensure that TVA can reliably meet required year-round generation, maximum capacity system demands and planning reserve margin targets and comply with the requirement under the TVA Act that power be sold at rates as low as feasible. Additionally, CTs enable more renewables to be brought onto the system without compromising reliability. TVA released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on July 15, 2024. The Notice of Availability was published in the Federal Register on July 19, 2024, and public comments were accepted through September 4, 2024. Additionally, TVA hosted an in-person open house on January 8, 2024, in Caledonia, Mississippi. The Record of Decision regarding the New Caledonia Gas Plant is expected to be issued in February 2025.