[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 97 (Friday, May 19, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32265-32267]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-10652]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Integrated Resource Plan and Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is conducting a study of 
its energy resources. The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is a 
comprehensive study of how TVA will meet the demand for electricity in 
its service territory. TVA's most recent IRP was adopted by the TVA 
Board in 2019. As part of this new study, TVA will prepare a 
programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to assess the impacts 
associated with the implementation of the next IRP. The EIS analyzes 
significant environmental impacts to the combined TVA power service 
area and the Tennessee River watershed (TVA region) that could result 
from the targeted power supply mix studied in the IRP. TVA will use the 
EIS process to elicit and prioritize the values and concerns of 
stakeholders; identify issues, trends, events, and tradeoffs affecting 
TVA's policies; formulate, evaluate, and compare alternative portfolios 
of energy resource options; provide opportunities for public review and 
comment; and ensure that TVA's evaluation of alternative energy 
resource strategies reflects a full range of stakeholder input. Public 
comment is invited concerning both the scope of the EIS and 
environmental issues that

[[Page 32266]]

should be addressed as a part of this EIS.

DATES: Comments must be postmarked, emailed, or submitted online no 
later than July 3, 2023. To facilitate the scoping process, TVA will 
hold public scoping meetings; see https://www.tva.gov/IRP for more 
information on the meetings.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Kelly Baxter, NEPA 
Specialist, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT 11B, Knoxville, TN 37902-
1499. Comments may also be submitted online at https://www.tva.gov/IRP 
or by email at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kelly Baxter, 865-632-2444, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is provided in accordance with 
the Council on Environmental Quality's Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 
to 1508) and TVA's procedures for implementing National Environmental 
Policy Act (NEPA). TVA is an agency and instrumentality of the United 
States, established by an act of Congress in 1933, to foster the social 
and economic welfare of the people of the TVA region and to promote the 
proper use and conservation of the region's natural resources. One 
component of this mission is the generation, transmission, and sale of 
reliable and affordable electric energy.

TVA Power System

    TVA operates the nation's largest public power system, providing 
electricity to about 10 million people in an 80,000-square mile area 
comprised of most of Tennessee and parts of Virginia, North Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky. It provides wholesale 
power to 153 independent local power companies and 58 directly served 
large industries and federal facilities. 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 generating capability on the TVA power system is 
approximately 38,000 megawatts. TVA generates most of the power it 
distributes with three nuclear plants, five coal-fired plants, nine 
simple-cycle combustion turbine plants, eight combined-cycle combustion 
turbine plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, a pumped-storage facility, a 
diesel-fired facility, and 13 solar photovoltaic facilities. A portion 
of delivered power is provided through power purchase agreements, 
including 15 renewable energy agreements. In 2022, 39 percent of TVA's 
power supply was from nuclear; 22 percent from natural gas; 13 percent 
from coal; eight percent from hydroelectric; 13 percent from non-
renewable purchases; and five percent from renewable power purchase 
agreements. TVA transmits electricity from these facilities over 16,000 
circuit miles of transmission lines. Like other utility systems, TVA 
has power interchange agreements with utilities surrounding its region 
and purchases and sells power on an economic basis almost daily.

Resource Planning

    TVA develops an Integrated Resource Plan to identify the most 
effective energy resource strategies that will meet TVA's mission and 
serve the people of the region. In this IRP, TVA intends to address 
strategies through 2050. Consistent with Section 113 of the Energy 
Policy Act of 1992, TVA employs a least-cost system planning process in 
developing its IRPs. This process takes into account multiple factors, 
including: the demand for electricity, energy resource diversity, 
energy conservation and efficiency, renewable energy resources, 
flexibility, dispatchability, reliability, resiliency, costs, risks, 
environmental impacts, and the unique attributes of different energy 
resources.

Proposed Issues To Be Addressed

    Based on discussions with both internal and external stakeholders, 
TVA anticipates that the scope of the IRP EIS will include the cost and 
reliability of power, carbon reduction efforts, the availability and 
use of renewable and distributed energy resources, the effectiveness 
and implementation of demand side management options, the effect of 
energy efficiency programs, and the relationship of the economy to all 
of these options. The IRP EIS will address the effects of power 
production on the environment, including climate change, the effects of 
climate change on the TVA region, and the waste and byproducts of TVA's 
power operations.
    Because of its nature as a planning document, the IRP will not 
identify specific locations for new resource options. Site-specific 
environmental effects of new resource options will be addressed in 
later site-specific assessments tiered off this programmatic EIS. 
Therefore, in this programmatic environmental impact statement, TVA 
anticipates that the environmental effects examined will primarily be 
those at a regional level with some extending to a national or global 
level. Preliminary issues identified by TVA that will be reviewed in 
this analysis include:
     emissions of greenhouse gases,
     fuel consumption,
     air quality,
     water quality and quantity,
     waste generation and disposal,
     land use,
     ecological,
     cultural resources, and
     socioeconomic impacts and environmental justice.
    TVA invites suggestions or comments concerning the list of issues 
which should be addressed, including suggestions for how TVA can 
effectively reach and receive comments from environmental justice 
communities during the NEPA process. TVA also invites specific comments 
on the questions that will begin to be answered by this IRP:
     How do you think the demand for energy will change between 
now and 2050 in the TVA region?
     Should the diversity of the current power generation mix 
(e.g., nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydroelectric, renewable resources) 
change? If so, how?
     How should distributed energy resources be considered in 
TVA planning?
     How should energy efficiency and demand response be 
considered in planning for future energy needs and how can TVA directly 
affect electricity usage by consumers?
     And how will the resource decisions discussed above affect 
the reliability, dispatchability (ability to turn on or off energy 
resources), and cost of electricity? Are there other factors of risk to 
be considered?

Analytical Approach

    TVA employs a scenario planning approach when developing an IRP. 
Scenario planning provides an understanding of how the results of near-
term and future decisions would change under different conditions over 
the planning horizon. The major steps in this approach include 
identifying the future need for power, developing scenarios (i.e., 
alternate plausible futures outside of TVA's control with different 
economic and regulatory conditions) and strategies (i.e., alternate 
business approaches within TVA's control), determining potential 
supply-side and demand-side energy resource options, developing 
portfolios associated with the strategies, and ranking strategies and 
portfolios. The 2019 IRP, developed with extensive public involvement, 
evaluated five alternative energy resource strategies that differed in 
the amount of purchased power, energy efficiency and demand response 
efforts, renewable energy resources, natural gas, and nuclear

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generating capacity additions, and coal-fired generation. The 
alternative strategies were analyzed in the context of six different 
scenarios that described plausible future economic, financial, 
regulatory, and legislated conditions, as well as social trends and 
adoption of technological innovations. TVA then developed a preferred 
alternative, the Target Power Supply Mix, based on guideline ranges for 
key energy resources. In developing the Target Power Supply Mix, TVA 
conducted least-cost planning taking into account customer priorities 
of power cost and reliability, as well as other comments it received 
during the public comment periods regarding demand for electricity, 
energy resource diversity, energy conservation and efficiency, 
renewable energy resources, flexibility, dispatchability, reliability, 
environmental impacts, and risks. The Target Power Supply Mix 
established ranges, in MW, for coal plant retirements and additions of 
nuclear, hydroelectric, demand response, energy efficiency, solar, 
wind, and natural gas capacity. TVA anticipates using an analytical 
approach similar to that of the 2019 IRP/EIS described above. The 
number of alternative energy resource strategies and scenarios to be 
evaluated may differ from the 2019 IRP/EIS and will be determined after 
the completion of scoping.

Scoping Process

    Scoping, which is integral to the process for implementing NEPA, 
provides an early and open process to ensure that (1) issues are 
identified early and properly studied; (2) issues of little 
significance do not consume substantial time and effort; (3) the draft 
EIS is thorough and balanced; and (4) delays caused by an inadequate 
EIS are avoided.
    With the help of the public, TVA will identify the most effective 
energy resource strategy that will meet TVA's mission and serve the 
people of the region between now and 2050. To ensure that the full 
range of issues and a comprehensive portfolio of energy resources are 
addressed, TVA invites members of the public as well as Federal, state, 
and local agencies and Indian tribes to comment on the scope of the IRP 
EIS, including potential alternative energy resource strategies. In 
addition, TVA invites the public to identify information and analyses 
relevant to the IRP EIS. As part of the IRP process and in addition to 
other public engagement opportunities, TVA is assembling 
representatives from key stakeholders to participate in an IRP Working 
Group that will discuss tradeoffs associated with different resource 
options and assist TVA in developing an optimal energy resource 
strategy.
    Comments on the scope of this IRP EIS should be submitted no later 
than the date given under the DATES section of this notice. Written 
requests by agencies or Indian tribes to participate as a cooperating 
agency or consulting party must also be received by this date. Any 
comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of 
the administrative record and will be available for public inspection.
    After consideration of the comments received during this scoping 
period, TVA will summarize public and agency comments, identify the 
issues and alternatives to be addressed in the EIS, and identify the 
schedule for completing the EIS process. Following analysis of the 
issues, TVA will prepare a draft EIS for public review and comment. 
Notice of availability of the draft EIS will be published by the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register. TVA will 
solicit written comments on the draft IRP and EIS and also hold public 
meetings for this purpose. TVA expects to release the draft IRP and EIS 
in early 2024. TVA anticipates issuing the final IRP and EIS in 2024.
    Authority: 40 CFR 1501.9.

Susan Jacks,
General Manager, Environmental Resource Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2023-10652 Filed 5-18-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-P