Environmental Impact Statement; Integrated Resource Plan

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

Environmental Impact Statement; Integrated Resource Plan

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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