A recent report says the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) faces several climate-related risks to its operations.
Increasing temperatures and other climate-related risks are expected to affect TVA’s ability to generate and transmit electricity, according to reports reviewed and stakeholders interviewed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). For example, in 2007, 2010, and 2011, TVA had to reduce power generation at its Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant because river temperatures were too high to receive discharge water from the plant without raising ecological risks.
Climate-related effects, such as heavy precipitation and flooding, could also create added costs to TVA’s operations—such as for infrastructure investments—that could affect TVA’s ability to keep electricity rates low. For example, in 2010, a TVA substation was submerged in over 5 feet of water when 15 inches of rain fell in 2 days. TVA relocated the substation to higher ground, at a cost of about $9 million.
GAO found that TVA has taken several steps to manage climate-related risks. For example, TVA identified risks, such as flooding and drought, in its 2021 Climate Action Adaptation and Resiliency Plan and implemented several resilience measures, such as relocating certain infrastructure. However, the government watchdog said TVA has not conducted an inventory of assets and operations vulnerable to climate change or developed a resilience plan that identifies and prioritizes resilience measures to address specific risks. According to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Guide for Climate Change Resilience Planning, conducting an inventory of assets and operations vulnerable to climate change can help utilities more accurately identify relevant hazards and the potential severity of disruptions to operations or damage to related infrastructure. This, in turn, would better position TVA to plan and implement appropriate actions to address climate change vulnerabilities as they become more acute, GAO said, and as new and better information becomes available.
In addition, developing a resilience plan that includes a portfolio of resilience measures could help TVA identify available options and determine whether mitigating certain risks is worth the investment. GAO said doing so would help TVA better fulfill its mission of providing reliable and affordable power to its customers.
TVA said that the agency had begun a corporate-level initiative this year to examine resilience holistically and potentially identify methods to monitor resiliency efforts across the enterprise. TVA also stated that it would review the best path forward to implementing an enterprise inventory.
