
A Record-Setting Morning
Valley Region Hits All-Time Peak Power Demand
At 8 a.m. Jan. 22, folks on Claire Moore’s team at TVA EnergyRight were having a third cup of coffee or, in one case, some lasagna.
They’d been up since before 4 a.m., so it was lunchtime already.
Ashley Commander’s coworkers in TVA’s Grid operations were exchanging fist bumps.
And even though it was only Wednesday morning, one of Corey Comstock’s colleagues in TVA Generation joked that it had already been a long week.
TVA had just met the highest demand for power in its 91-year history.
As Moore, Commander, Comstock and other TVA employees closely monitored the demand for electricity, they took a moment to exhale and celebrate.
Demand was ticking down again, and after three bitterly cold days, temperatures were forecasted to start heading up.
The new record of 35,319 megawatts, based on preliminary figures, represented the peak systemwide demand from 7-8 a.m. CT.
It was 2% higher than TVA’s previous record demand peak from just a year ago.
Meeting the heavy load required an all-hands-on-deck effort by:
- TVA’s 11,300 employees, especially personnel operating more than 50 generating plants in subfreezing weather
- 153 local power companies
- Hundreds of businesses and other organizations in TVA’s Community Energy portfolio that reduced their electricity usage at TVA’s request
- Homeowners across TVA’s seven-state service region who answered the call to conserve energy
“I was confident going into it that we would be successful,” Commander, resource operations and analysis manager, said. “It's just nice that we were able to implement our plans and keep the lights on for the Valley.”
Assistant unit operator John Dodge maintains a boiler at Gallatin Fossil Plant in Sumner County, Tennessee.
Timely and Accurate
Commander’s team of meteorologists began monitoring the incoming cold snap more than a week ahead of time.
They ramped up their research to sharpen their forecasts, and they were able to predict the all-time demand peak.
Armed with that information, the teams that plan exactly how TVA will meet demand could then set the schedules for generating facilities, firm up arrangements for purchasing power and notify the Community Energy demand response participants they’d likely be called upon to curtail their load.
“It's very important for us to have an accurate forecast so that we can reliably plan to meet system demand,” Commander said.
On the morning of Sunday, Jan. 19, the temperature dropped below freezing. And there it stayed, with each additional day of subfreezing temperatures intensifying the demand for power.
As TVA corporate duty officers, Comstock and Matt Smith alternated shifts around the clock to relay information from non-nuclear generating facilities around the Valley region. Plant personnel knew to call them – or text or email – if generating capacity might change, as they’d need to inform system operators.
“We put in a lot of time to prepare for events like this – to be able to meet this and work through it,” Comstock said. “We communicate with the plants that we need to have timely and accurate information quickly during times like this.”
When the demand peak crested on Wednesday morning, the average temperature across TVA’s five major population centers stood at 11 degrees Fahrenheit.
And around the Valley region, all of TVA’s available generating plants were in operation.
From left, Claire Moore, of TVA EnergyRight, Ashley Commander, of TVA Grid operations, and Corey Comstock, of TVA Generation.
‘You Feel Really Proud’
For Moore’s group, the cold snap felt like game day.
They had spent months refining and enhancing TVA EnergyRight’s demand response programs, which pay businesses, churches, schools and other institutions to curtail their power usage when TVA asks.
During the Jan. 22 peak, nearly 600 demand response participants contributed a total of more than 1,100 megawatts.
That’s the equivalent of one of TVA’s biggest nuclear or coal generating units.
“When those calls go out, it’s really exciting,” Moore, demand response manager, said. “We’re watching the load climb, and then you see it do this.”
She traced her hand at an upward diagonal, then pivoted to a downward diagonal.
“You feel really proud. It's pretty cool to see the impact on the system when you're looking at the overall load.”
TVA regional machinist Richard Stokes helps protect equipment from frigid winds at Lagoon Creek Combined Cycle Plant in Brownsville, Tennessee.
A Growing Region
The overall load figure on Jan. 22 was indeed stunning.
The 2% increase from a year earlier came despite temperatures being a few degrees warmer.
The new demand peak speaks to a boom in the Valley region, where population and economic growth are rising faster than the national average.
The main drivers of TVA’s demand growth over the past few years have been data centers and standard service growth among residential and smaller commercial and industrial customers, Commander said.
As TVA builds additional generating capacity to meet the growing load, it has also been making significant investments in winter preparedness.
The enterprise continues to harden its system for the weather and enhance its procedures for delivering reliable power during extreme temperatures.
“It’s a testament to our TVA employees who work around the clock in the elements to provide power and make sure 10 million people are safe and warm,” Greg Henrich, senior vice president of TVA Grid, said. “We also appreciate all of our partners in the Tennessee Valley – residents and businesses – who heeded TVA’s call to conserve power.
“Working together, we were able to make history.”
Combustion turbine technician Barry Gough checks equipment at Kemper Combustion Turbine Plant in Kemper County, Mississippi.
Photo at top of page: Gough makes his rounds at Kemper Combustion Turbine Plant amid the week’s subfreezing temps.