[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 26 (Tuesday, February 8, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-2524]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: February 8, 1994]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

 

Environmental Impact Statement; Integrated Resource Plan

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on its Integrated Resource Plan 
(IRP) in concert with the preparation of the IRP. The IRP will 
establish TVA's long-range energy strategy and will meet the 
requirements of section 113 of the Energy Policy Act, Public Law No. 
102-486. The IRP will evaluate the means of providing electric energy 
services, including demand-side management programs, to meet the demand 
for future electric energy services by TVA's customers. The EIS will 
consider the potential environmental impacts of alternative energy 
resource strategies. TVA is inviting comments on the scope of the EIS 
analyses.

DATES: Comments on the scope of the EIS must be received on or before 
December 5, 1994. A number of public meetings will be held to obtain 
comments on the scope of the EIS and to provide information about TVA's 
IRP process. The locations and times for these meetings will be 
announced later. TVA encourages those wishing to provide comments to do 
so as early as possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Dale Wilhelm, Manager of 
NEPA/IRP, Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT 
8C, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Lynn Maxwell, Manager of Resource Planning, Tennessee Valley Authority, 
1101 Market Street, MR 5D, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402, telephone 
(615) 751-2539.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

TVA Power System

    TVA is an agency and instrumentality of the United States, charged 
by Congress with promoting the proper use and conservation of the 
resources of the Tennessee Valley region. One component of TVA's 
regional development program is the generation, transmission, and sale 
of electric energy. TVA operates one of the largest electric power 
systems in the country, producing four to five percent of all the 
electricity in the Nation.
    TVA's power system serves about eight million people in a seven-
State region. The TVA Act requires the TVA power system to be self-
supporting and operated on a nonprofit basis and directs TVA to sell 
power at rates as low as are feasible.
    Dependable capacity on the TVA power system is about 25 million 
kilowatts, and consists of approximately 58 percent coal, 21 percent 
hydro (including the pumped storage unit and certain units operated by 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), 13 percent nuclear, and 8 percent 
combustion turbines. TVA expects to initiate operations at Unit 1 of 
its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant and to recommence operations at Unit 3 of 
its Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in the near future. TVA transmits 
electricity it generates over 16,000 miles of transmission lines to 160 
local municipal and rural cooperative electric systems 
(``distributors'' of TVA power) which in turn retail the power to 
individual consumers (homes, factories, schools, hospitals, etc.). TVA 
also directly serves 68 large industries and Federal installations. 
Like other utility systems, TVA has power interchange agreements with 
the utilities surrounding its region, and it purchases and sells power 
on an economy basis almost daily.

Previous Energy Planning Activities

    TVA has employed a largely internal integrated resource planning 
and study process for many years. Information from this process has 
been used to propose energy resource decisions. Under the 1992 Energy 
Policy Act, TVA is directed to continue employing an integrated 
planning process. This Act also requires TVA to provide distributors of 
TVA power an opportunity to participate in the process.
    TVA prepares individual environmental reviews under the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for proposed energy decisions. As 
appropriate, information from TVA's IRP analyses is used in these 
environmental reviews. TVA has committed to employing a public IRP 
process and has decided that use of the EIS process under NEPA would be 
an appropriate means of obtaining public involvement in the planning 
and decisionmaking processes. Preparing an IRP EIS will also promote 
consideration of the environmental impacts of alternatives, and will 
allow TVA to use the IRP/EIS with other NEPA reviews for future 
specific energy decisions or projects.

Proposed IRP/EIS

    An ``IRP'' is simply a plan which broadly identifies the actions a 
utility anticipates undertaking to meet demands for electric service 
and to achieve its long-term objectives or goals. The most important 
objective for TVA's IRP is to maintain and enhance its competitiveness. 
TVA views ``competitiveness'' broadly and believes it has a number of 
components, including charging rates for the electricity it generates 
that will be among the lowest in the Nation, providing reliable service 
that meets its customers' needs, ensuring that its activities are cost 
effective and produce value for its customers, promoting sustainable 
economic growth in the TVA region, and accomplishing all of the above 
consistent with TVA's goal of being an environmental leader.
    In general, TVA expects the IRP/EIS to address the demand for power 
on the TVA system (how much electricity TVA will be called upon to 
provide in the future), the value of various resource options to TVA's 
customers, the means of meeting that demand (alternatives), and the 
potential environmental, economic, and operating effects of those 
means. The IRP/EIS will project future energy demands over at least a 
25-year period. These projections will be made through ``load 
forecasts'' and the IRP/EIS will explain how these are conducted. In 
addition, the IRP will include a short-term action plan that will 
identify actions or activities which should be undertaken to meet IRP 
milestones or preserve energy options.
    The IRP/EIS will identify and address the energy resources on the 
TVA system including existing resources and those which are currently 
under construction. Based on the results of the IRP/EIS, TVA may, for 
example, decide to operate an existing resource differently or not 
operate it, or may decide to accelerate, modify, or cancel ongoing 
energy resource construction projects. In the interim, TVA will 
continue to serve its customers.
    At this time, we anticipate that the IRP/EIS process will focus on 
at least three important areas: (1) Demand-side management measures and 
electrotechnologies that will promote more efficient use of energy; (2) 
generating resources, including restart of Browns Ferry Unit 1, 
completion of TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 and Bellefonte 
Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2, and major improvement projects at fossil 
and hydro plants; and (3) new technologies on both the supply and 
demand side such as clean coal technologies, biomass generation, 
improved lighting, more efficient motors, and electric vehicles. The 
IRP/EIS will consider such things as the potential effects of non-
utility generation and dispersed power, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 
1990 and other significant legislation, fuel prices, and conservation 
penetration rates.
    Environmental effects of a range of alternative energy strategies 
will be addressed in the IRP/EIS and compared to one another. Because 
of the programmatic nature of the proposal and review process, TVA 
anticipates that the environmental effects which are examined will be 
those that are regional national, or global in scale or which are 
generic. This would include such potential environmental effects and 
issues as emissions of greenhouse gases, acid rain, other air quality 
concerns, water quality effects, waste generation and disposal, and 
pollution prevention. Socioeconomic impacts within the region that may 
result from alternative energy strategies would also be considered. The 
more site-specific effects (those which depend on the specific location 
of a proposed action such as the construction of a new generating 
facility) will not be addressed in detail or not at all. This would 
include such things as potential effects on wetlands, floodplains, 
prime farmlands, threatened and endangered species, and cultural 
resources.

Scoping Process

    TVA is interested in receiving comments on the areas and issues 
identified above, and the scope of the IRP/EIS. TVA specifically 
requests comments on: (1) TVA's overall approach to the IRP process, 
(2) the kinds of alternatives which should be evaluated in the IRP/EIS, 
(3) the significant environmental impacts and issues which should be 
assessed in the IRP/EIS, and (4) the environmental impacts and issues 
which should be considered unimportant or insignificant for the IRP/
EIS.
    It is important the TVA's customers and all of those interested in 
planning the energy future of the Tennessee Valley region participate 
in the IRP/EIS process. As part of both the scoping and draft EIS 
review processes, TVA intends to seek out the views of and meet 
regularly with representatives of ``stakeholder'' groups interested in 
the energy and environmental future of the Valley. In addition, 
numerous opportunities will be made available to the general public to 
provide input into and comments on the IRP/EIS as it proceeds.
    Following completion of scoping, a Draft IRP/EIS will be prepared 
and released for public review and comment. Notice of the availability 
of this draft will be announced, comments on the draft solicited, and 
information about additional public meetings/hearings will be published 
at a future date. TVA contemplates releasing a Final EIS and IRP in 
late 1995.


    Dated: January 31, 1994.
Ronald L. Ritschard,
Vice President/Senior Scientist.
[FR Doc. 94-2524 Filed 2-7-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-01-M