Lighting the Way Home

Gallatin Fossil Plant Employee Helps Power a Growing Region

Kristy Collins puts on her personal protective equipment and jumps in her truck. She just completed her pre-job safety meeting and the day’s tasks have been given out.

“Let me show you where everything starts,” Collins says, pointing toward the river.

As she walks toward the collection of barges along the shoreline, a slogan on the back of her old T-shirt is now visible.

“Serving the People,” it says.

Collins, a 30-year TVA employee, is a coal conveyor dumper operator, the last person in the handling process to see the coal on the beltlines and determine how much goes into each of the four units at Gallatin Fossil Plant.

Although her domain is at the end of the conveyor belt, she wants to tell the whole story.

She wants to share the beginnings of her own story, too.

“I was one of five girls, and I think my dad was always preparing me to enter a workforce with mostly men," she says. “He taught me to have a good work ethic and firm handshake. And that if you set your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”

At the edge of the river, a giant mechanical claw is suspended above a barge – a barge carrying around 1,750 tons of coal from the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming. The claw empties the barges scoop by scoop while the towboat nearby lines up the next barge and corrals the empty ones.

From the crane operator to the towboat pilot and all the deckhands in between, the entire team works in a carefully choreographed way to get the job done.

“It takes each of us working together as a well-greased machine to do this job correctly and safely,” Collins explains. “The Tennessee Valley is depending on us.”

Coal has powered our communities and industries for nearly a century, playing a vital role in the development of the region.

“I’m proud of my work,” Collins says, dusting off her hands. “The work I do is not for the weak. It’s physically and mentally demanding. The environment can be cold, hot, dirty, and the hours are long. We work until the job is done.”

Inside the bunker room, coal moves quickly on conveyor belts.

Collins is tasked with setting the tonnage of coal that will be used for the day based on the predicted load. In addition to the coal coming in from the barges, there is enough onsite to last up to 50 days.

Preparedness is part of Collins' DNA. The daughter of a TVA boilermaker, she knows the ins and outs of the fossil industry. And it all relies on safety.

“Each morning, we go over our safety procedures using our Energy-Based Safety program,” Collins says. “We listen to one another, mitigate any issues before they come up and work as a team to get things right. We build one another up – never tear them down.”

Outside the gates, when Gallatin employees take off their hard hats, they go home to what drives them – family.

For Collins, it’s the title of “Grammie” that keeps her going.

“She’s my heart,” Collins says, smiling as she talks about her first grandbaby. “Family is everything to me. I do it all for them.”

For generations, this industry has powered growth in this region – not just for business, but for families like Collins’. The lights are on, welcoming her home each night.

The lights have to be on in order to see a path forward, and TVA’s coal plants – the backbone of American energy – continue to provide that light.