GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — At one point, the Tennessee Valley Authority announced it would close all of its coal power plants by the year 2035. But that's not what they're saying anymore.
"Into the future, as we look at these executive orders, all bets, or all chips, are on the table, and we’re still determining what we’re going to do with our coal fleet," said Scott Fiedler, from TVA's Media Relations staff.
The tour
The announcement came during a rare tour of Gallatin's TVA Fossil Plant. Operations Manager Ashley Donoho showed us around the coal-powered steam plant. It was built in the 1950s, and remarkably, it still largely relies on the 70-year-old machinery. "The green portion here, this is the turbine," said Donoho during the tour.
That being said, the TVA has updated technology quite a bit in the control room, which manages each of the four units at the fossil plant. "This is where we took the original 1950s technology and we added a high-speed computer to it," said Donoho.
The plant can create electricity by taking pulverized coal and burning it in a massive boiler, four stories tall, at 2,300 °F. "The finer the coal, the better the burn," he said.
The boiler is what powers the whole operation. It burns the coal, which creates the steam, which turns the turbines, which produce electricity.
Extending the life of the coal fleet
So why is TVA considering extending the life of its coal-powered plants, including Gallatin and Cumberland City plant in Stewart County? Some pressure may be coming from the Trump administration, but TVA officials say it also has to do with surging demand. "We are just seeing explosive growth across our region," said Fiedler in a question-and-answer session after the tour.
A lot of that growth comes from the surging Artificial Intelligence arms race, which is already taking place in Tennessee and other communities TVA serves. "We have about 11,000 megawatts worth of requests," said Fiedler.
To put that in perspective, 11,000 megawatts is enough power to electrify 6 million homes, roughly one-third of TVA's entire power grid. TVA is hoping to honor all of those requests, at least eventually. "The answer is always yes, but can you wait until we get this plant finished?" said Fiedler.
Emission Concerns
A big reason why the TVA originally wanted to eliminate all of its coal plants is because of their effect on the environment. While that threat largely still exists, TVA did tell us about dry scrubbers installed at the Gallatin plant about 10 years ago.
They say the scrubbers eliminate a lot of the sulfur dioxide released from the cooling towers. However, only two of TVA's coal plants have dry scrubbers. The others have wet scrubbers, which can't always eliminate particulates from emissions.
Previously, environmental groups like the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Sierra Club have praised TVA's efforts to eliminate all coal plants.
Natural Gas
TVA is also growing its fleet of natural gas plants, like the one next door to the Gallatin Fossil Plant. "As the gas enters the combusters, mixes with the air, ignites, it burns and runs through a three-stage turbine," explained Barry Fazekas, the acting foreman of TVA's Gallatin Natural Gas Plant.
TVA relies on natural gas plants when one of the other power plants goes down, or as we often see in the summertime, demand for power really goes up. "They are designed to run dead of winter, dead of summer when the peak is high to help balance the load across the fleet," explained Casey Roby, Maintenance Coordinator for the Gallatin Natural Gas Plant.
Recently, TVA scrapped plans for a 900 megawatt natural gas plant in rural Cheatham County after intense backlash from the community and pressure from the White House. TVA says they're looking at other, more industrial sites for the plant.
Three gas plants are already under construction in other communities, including Cumberland City in Stewart County, even though plans to close the coal plant are now on hold. Originally, the first Cumberland Fossil Unit was slated to close in 2026, with the second unit closing in 2028.
"I think we’re just taking that mission of the TVA and carrying it into the 21st century," said Donoho.
What do you think of the decision to potentially extend the life of TVA's coal fleet? Send me an email at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.
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