Environmental Impact Statement for Addition of Electric Generation Peaking and Baseload Capacity at Greenfield Sites, Haywood County, Tennessee

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

Environmental Impact Statement for Addition of Electric

Generation Peaking and Baseload Capacity at Greenfield Sites, Haywood

County, Tennessee

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will prepare an

environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed construction and

operation of natural gas fired generating plants in Haywood County,

Tennessee. The plants would supply peaking and/or baseload capacity to

the TVA electric generation system to meet growing power demands. The

EIS will evaluate the potential environmental impacts of constructing

and operating both simple cycle and combined cycle combustion turbine

plants. The plants would be built on previously undeveloped, greenfield

site. TVA wants to use the EIS process to obtain public involvement on

this proposal. Public comment is invited concerning both the scope of

the EIS and environmental issues that should be addressed as a part of

this EIS.

DATES: Comments on the scope and environmental issues for the EIS must

be postmarked or e-mailed no later than July 6, 1999, to ensure

consideration. Late comments will receive every consideration possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Greg Askew, P.E., Senior

Specialist, National Environmental Policy Act, Tennessee Valley

Authority, Mail stop WT 8C, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Knoxville,

Tennessee 37902-1499. Comments may be e-mailed to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Roy V. Carter, P.E., EIS Project

Manager, Environmental Research Center, Tennessee Valley Authority,

mail stop CEB 4C, Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35662-1010. E-mail may be sent

to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Project Description

TVA proposes to construct and operate one or more electric power

plants on a greenfield site as early as June 2001. The proposed plants

would be simple cycle or combined cycle natural gas fired combustion

turbine plants for peaking or baseload operation respectively. The

generation capacity of a single plant would be up to approximately 700

megawatt (MW) for a simple cycle peaking plant, 1,000 MW for a simple

cycle plant after conversion to combined cycle technology, and 1,500 MW

for a new combined cycle plant. Certain combinations of two plants at a

single site would result in a total of 1,400 MW of peaking capacity, or

700 MW peaking and 1,000 MW baseload for a total capacity of 1,700 MW.

Three candidate greenfield sites have been identified in Haywood

County, Tennessee. Candidate sites were identified through a detailed

screening process that considered: (1) TVA's transmission system

capacity at the locale; (2) reliable and economical long-term supply of

natural gas; (3) engineering suitability of the site; (4) compatibility

with surrounding land use; and (5) environmental factors including

wetlands, floodplains, water supply, water quality, air quality, and

historic and archaeological resources.

Peaking Plant

A typical peaking plant would consist of several simple cycle

combustion turbines such as the General Electric Model GE 7FA with a

rated net power output of 170 MW. These turbines would be fired with

natural gas as the primary fuel and low sulfur fuel oil as the

secondary fuel. These combustion turbines would employ dry low-nitrogen

oxides (NOx) combustion chambers and water injection for NOx control

when firing fuel oil.

The proposed sites would be located near both TVA power

transmission lines (161 kilovolt (kV) or 500 kV) and adequate natural

gas service to

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minimize the lengths and therefore cost of these interconnections. Each

plant would require a site area of approximately 35 to 40 acres.

Other appurtenances and ancillary equipment would include step-up

transformers for 161 kV or 500 kV service, transmission line

interconnection, natural gas pipeline connection and metering,

demineralized water supply for the water injection nitrogen oxides

control systems, fuel oil storage tank(s), and control and maintenance

support buildings.

Baseload Plant

A typical baseload plant could consist of one or more combustion

turbines such as the General Electric Model GE 7FA with a rated net

power output of 170 MW. One or more heat recovery steam generators

(HRSGs) would be used to generate steam from the turbine exhaust gases

waste heat. The HRSGs may also have direct firing of natural gas to

supplement the exhaust heat input. The resulting steam flow is then

passed through a steam turbine(s) which operates a generator(s) to

produce additional electric power. With the addition of these

components, a peaking plant may be converted to a combined cycle plant

for baseload operation.

Additional ancillary equipment beyond that required for a peaking

plant would include cooling towers that supply cooling water for steam

condensers. These cooling towers require a consequential source of

water to makeup for both evaporative losses and the blowdown necessary

to maintain water quality in the cooling tower. As a result, there

would be on-site and/or off-site wells developed or an intake pumping

station constructed in a large stream to supply the water. In both

cases, a water pipeline would be constructed to connect the water

supply with the plant. The cooling tower blowdown is a heated

wastewater with a high dissolved solids content requiring treatment

and/or disposal. Typical practice would be to construct a pipeline to a

receiving stream having the capacity to assimilate the wastewater. An

alternative would be to treat the blowdown on-site and recycle the

water as cooling tower makeup water. This option would require

construction of an on-site treatment facility and disposal of resulting

sludge. Additionally, a water treatment facility would be required to

supply demineralized water for various plant uses.

TVA's Integrated Resource Plan and the Need for Power

This EIS will tier from TVA's Energy Vision 2020: An Integrated

Resource Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.

Energy Vision 2020 was completed in December 1995 and a Record of

Decision issued on February 28, 1996 (61 FR 7572). Energy Vision 2020

analyzed a full range of supply-side and demand-side options to meet

customer energy needs for the period 1995 to 2020. These options were

ranked using several criteria including environmental performance.

Favorable options were formulated into strategies. A group of options

drawn from several effective strategies was chosen as TVA's preferred

alternative. The supply-side options selected to meet peaking and

baseload capacity needs through the 2005 period included: (1) Addition

of simple cycle or combined cycle combustion turbines to TVA's

generation system, (2) purchase of call options for peaking or baseload

capacity, and (3) market purchases of peaking or baseload capacity. The

short-term action plan of Energy Vision 2020 identified a need for

3,000 MW of baseload and peaking additions through the year 2002. This

is in addition to the baseload capacity additions of the successful

completion of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 and the return to service

of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 3.

Each year TVA provides updated projections of supply and demand for

the TVA sub-region of the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council.

This is for the U.S. Department of Energy's annual report EIA-411. This

year's report shows expected peak demands growing at 2.2 percent from

1999 to 2003 and beyond. The net capacity resources needed to meet the

growth in demand increases 2,000 megawatts by year 2001, and 3,400

megawatts by year 2003. (See line item 13 on Table--Item 2.1 Projected

Capacity and Demand--Summer of the EIA-411 report.) The addition of the

combustion turbines is needed by TVA to meet the peaking capacity

requirements from both the reliability and cost standpoint. Baseload

capacity is not expected to be needed until 2004 or 2005.

Since 1995 additional power needs have been met or will be met in

the following ways: (1) Continuing modernization of existing TVA

hydroelectric plants (both conventional and pumped storage) will add

approximately 388 MW of peaking capacity through 2002; (2) the Red

Hills Power Project, a 440 MW lignite coal fired plant will begin

commercial baseload operation in 2001 (TVA Record of Decision, 63 FR

44944); (3) 680 MW of simple cycle combustion turbines are proposed for

the TVA Johnsonville, Colbert and Gallatin Fossil Plants with

commercial operation as early as June 2000 (Final EIS Notice of

Availability, 64 FR 27782); (4) various power purchase agreements in

effect over this period; (5) demand side customer service programs

continue to be implemented through TVA power distributors with an

estimated 154 MW of capacity added from 1995 through 1999 and an

additional 264 MW from 2000 through 2002; (6) distributed generation

initiatives are being pursued by TVA and include operation of the 14 MW

emergency diesel generators at the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power

Plant site; and (7) a Green Power Program that would begin in 2000 as a

market test with several MW of capacity. Technologies for this program

may include landfill gas, photovoltiacs, and wind.

Because Energy Vision 2020 identified and evaluated alternative

supply-side and demand-side energy resources and technologies for

meeting peak and baseload capacity needs, this EIS will not reevaluate

those alternatives. This EIS will focus on the site-specific impacts of

constructing and operating simple cycle combustion turbines and

combined cycle plants at several candidate sites.

Proposed Issues To Be Addressed

The EIS will describe the existing environmental and socioeconomic

resources at and in the vicinity of each candidate site that would be

affected by construction and operation of a power plant. TVA's

evaluation of environmental impacts to these resources will include,

but not necessarily be limited to the potential impacts on air quality,

water quality, aquatic and terrestrial ecology, endangered and

threatened species, wetlands, aesthetics and visual resources, noise,

land use, historic and archaeological resources, and socioeconomic

resources.

Alternatives

The results of evaluating the potential environmental impacts and

other important issues identified in the scoping process together with

engineering and economic considerations will be used by TVA in

selecting a preferred alternative. At this time, TVA has identified the

following alternatives for detailed evaluation: (1) Construct and

operate simple cycle combustion turbine peaking plants at

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one of the candidate sites as early as June 2001 with and without

future conversion to a combined cycle plant, (2) construct and operate

a combined cycle baseload plant at the candidate site, (3) construct

and operate both peaking and baseload plants at the candidate site, and

(4) no action.

Scoping Process

Scoping, which is integral to the NEPA process, is a procedure that

solicits public input to the EIS 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. TVA's NEPA procedures require that the scoping process

commence soon after a decision has been reached to prepare an EIS in

order to provide an early and open process for determining the scope

and for identifying the significant issues related to a proposed

action. The scope of issues to be addressed in the draft EIS will be

determined, in part, from written comments submitted by mail or e-mail,

and comments presented orally or in writing at public meetings. The

preliminary identification in this notice of reasonable alternatives

and environmental issues is not meant to be exhaustive or final.

The scoping process will include both interagency and public

scoping. The public is invited to submit written comments or e-mail

comments on the scope of this EIS no later than the date given under

the DATES section of this notice.

TVA conducted a public scoping meeting in Brownsville, Tennessee on

April 19th. Brownsville is the county seat of Haywood County where the

three candidate sites are being considered. At this meeting, using an

open house format, TVA management and project staff presented overviews

of the EIS process and the proposed power plant project, and answered

questions and solicited comments on the issues that the public would

like addressed in the EIS. This meeting was publicized through notices

in local newspapers, by TVA press release, and in meetings between TVA

officials and local elected officials preceding the public meetings.

Approximately 25 persons attended this meeting.

The agencies to be included in the interagency scoping are U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tennessee

Department of Environment and Conservation, the Tennessee State

Historic Preservation Officer, and other agencies as appropriate.

After consideration of the scoping comments, TVA will further

develop alternatives and environmental issues to be addressed in the

EIS. Following analysis of the environmental consequences of each

alternative, TVA will prepare a draft EIS for public review and

comment. Notice of availability of the draft EIS will be published by

the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register. TVA will

solicit written comments on the draft EIS, and information about

possible public meetings to comment on the draft EIS will be announced.

TVA expects to release a draft EIS by December 1999 and a final EIS by

June 2000.

Dated: May 25, 1999.

Ruben O. Hernandez,

Vice President, Resource Stewardship.

[FR Doc. 99-13747 Filed 6-2-99; 8:45 am]

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