NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The nation’s largest public utility says it now prefers to keep operating two coal-fired power plants it planned to shutter, changing course before a meeting of its board, which has a majority of members picked by the coal-friendly Trump administration.
In new filings, the Tennessee Valley Authority signaled its intention to keep the Kingston Fossil Plant and Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee running. TVA intended to shutter its remaining, aging coal plants by 2035 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. But the utility, which partners with local power companies to serve roughly 10 million people in seven states, said it is rethinking the closures because of regulatory changes and increasing demand for electricity.
“As power demand grows, TVA is looking at every option to bolster our generating fleet to continue providing affordable, reliable electricity to our 10 million customers, create jobs and help communities thrive,” TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said in a statement Tuesday.
Several clean energy groups said extending the coal plants would raise serious questions about TVA’s decision-making, since the utility has said more natural gas plants were needed to retire polluting coal plants.
“Without even a public meeting, TVA is telling the people who live near these coal plants that they will breathe in toxic pollution from not one, but two major power plants for the foreseeable future,” Gabi Lichtenstein, Tennessee Program Coordinator for Appalachian Voices, said in a news release. “This decision is salt in the wound after ignoring widespread calls for cleaner, cheaper replacements for the Kingston and Cumberland coal plants.”
In his second term, President Trump signed executive orders aimed at helping the coal industry. Last May, TVA’s president and chief executive, Don Moul, told investors that the utility would reevaluate the lifespan of its coal plants, saying officials were evaluating Trump’s orders.
TVA already faced advocates’ criticisms for planning to open more natural gas plants as the utility was winding down its fleet of coal plants, instead of more quickly moving away from fossil fuels and into solar and other renewables.
TVA’s goal for years has been an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 over 2005 levels, and net-zero emissions by 2050, with a heavy emphasis on nuclear power and hopes for next-generation reactors. Former president Biden had gone further, calling for a carbon-pollution-free energy sector by 2035.
Clean energy groups noted that the rapid building of data centers that support artificial intelligence is partly to blame for growing power demand. In an investors call last week, Moul said data center demand grew to 18% of its industrial load last year and by 2030, the utility expects it to double across the service region. Moul said the fairness of new data center pay rates is a priority for TVA.
Under a 2024 final decision, TVA planned for a 1,500-megawatt natural gas facility with 4 megawatts of solar and 100 megawatts of battery storage at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a 2,470-megawatt coal plant finished in 1955 and the site of a massive 2008 coal ash spill. The coal plant was slated to close and the gas plant to come online by the end of 2027.
The new proposal would keep the coal, gas and battery but drop the solar.
Mattise writes for the Associated Press.
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