TVA Releases Draft Environmental Assessment For Johnsonville Steam Supply

NEW JOHNSONVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Valley Authority has released a draft Environmental Assessment on a proposal that would allow the Johnsonville Fossil Plant site to continue to provide steam for cogeneration use after the coal plant closes.

The draft study considers the environmental effects of the two alternatives under consideration: A) take no action or B) add a heat recovery steam generator that would take heat from an existing gas turbine and convert it to steam for an offsite customer.

The factory, which makes titanium dioxide for the coatings, paper and plastics industries, has long relied on byproduct steam from the Johnsonville power plant for its manufacturing process. It is a cogeneration relationship unique among TVA’s coal plants.

But with TVA retiring the last of Johnsonville’s 10 coal units by the end of 2017 under a clean-air agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency, a new steam source had to be found.

TVA proposes to continue providing steam by constructing and operating a heat recovery steam generator integrated into one of 20 gas-fired combustion turbines that will continue to make electricity at the Johnsonville site.

Comments on the draft Environmental Assessment, including the alternatives and affected environmental resources considered, will be accepted from April 20 until May 20, 2015. Comments may be submitted online at the web address below or mailed to Ashley Farless, Tennessee Valley Authority, 1101 Market St., BR 4A, Chattanooga, TN, 37402.

The draft Environmental Assessment is available online, at the Humphreys County Public Library in Waverly, Tenn., or by contacting Farless.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation.