TVA agrees to retire 11 coal-fired boilers, upgrade others

In a settlement with the federal government and several states and environmental groups, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has agreed to resolve alleged Clean Air Act (CAA) violations at 11 of its power plants by retiring 18 of its 59 coal-fired boilers and to spend $3 billion to $5 billion to install state-of-the-art pollution controls on the other boilers in its portfolio. The boilers to be retired, many of which have been operating since the early 1950s, amount to 2,700 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity and consist of 10 units at TVA’s Johnsonville Plant in central Tennessee, six units at the Widow’s Creek Fossil Plant in northern Alabama, and two units at the John Sevier Fossil Plant in eastern Tennessee. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the retirement of the 18 units and the installation of pollution control equipment for the rest will prevent 1,200 to 3,000 premature deaths, 2,000 heart attacks, and 21,000 asthma attacks each year. Under the settlement, TVA will also spend $350 million on clean energy and other environmental projects in the communities hosting the TVA plants.