Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement-Integrated Resource Plan, 65416-65417 [2013-25867]

Agencies

• Tennessee Valley Authority

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 211 (Thursday, October 31, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65416-65417]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-25867]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement--Integrated Resource 
Plan

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of Intent.

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

SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is conducting a study of 
its energy resources in order to update and replace the integrated 
Resource Plan (IRP) and the associated Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) that it completed in 2011. The IRP is a comprehensive study of 
how TVA will meet the demand for electricity in its service territory 
over the next 20 years. The 2011 IRP is being updated in response to 
major changes in electrical utility industry trends since 2011. As part 
of the study, TVA intends to prepare a programmatic Supplemental EIS to 
assess the impacts associated with the implementation of the updated 
IRP. TVA will use the EIS process to elicit and prioritize the values 
and concerns of stakeholders; identify issues, trends, events, and 
tradeoffs affecting TVA's policies; formulate, evaluate and compare 
alternative portfolios of energy resource options; provide 
opportunities for public review and comment; and ensure that TVA's 
evaluation of alternative energy resource strategies reflects a full 
range of stakeholder input. Public comment is invited concerning both 
the scope of the Supplemental EIS and environmental issues that should 
be addressed as a part of this Supplemental EIS.

DATES: Comments on the scope of the EIS must be received on or before 
November 22, 2013. To facilitate the scoping process, TVA will hold 
public scoping meetings; see https://www.tva.gov/irp for more 
information on the meetings.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Charles P. Nicholson, 
Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT 11D, 
Knoxville, Tennessee 37902. Comments also may be submitted on the 
project Web site at https://www.tva.gov/irp, or by email at IRP@tva.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information on the NEPA 
process, contact Mr. Nicholson at the address above, by email at 
cpnicholson@tva.gov, or by phone at 865-632-3582. For general 
information on the IRP process, contact Gary Brinkworth, Tennessee 
Valley Authority, 1101 Market Street, MR 3K-C, Chattanooga, Tennessee 
37401, or email at gsbrinkworth@tva.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is provided in accordance with 
the Council on Environmental Quality's Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 
to 1508) and TVA's procedures for implementing the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
    TVA is an agency and instrumentality of the United States, 
established by an act of Congress in 1933, to foster the social and 
economic welfare of the people of the Tennessee Valley region and to 
promote the proper use and conservation of the region's natural 
resources. One component of this mission is the generation, 
transmission, and sale of reliable and affordable electric energy.

TVA Power System

    TVA operates the nation's largest public power system, producing 4 
percent of all the electricity in the nation. TVA provides electricity 
to most of Tennessee and parts of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky. It serves about 9 million people in 
this seven-state region through 155 power distributors and 57 directly 
served large industries and federal facilities. 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 net summer capacity on the TVA power system is 
approximately 36,580 megawatts. TVA generates most of the power it 
distributes with 3 nuclear plants, 10 coal-fired plants, 9 simple-cycle 
combustion turbine plants, 5 combined-cycle combustion turbine plants, 
29 hydroelectric dams, a pumped-storage facility, a methane-gas 
cofiring facility, a diesel-fired facility, and several small solar 
photovoltaic facilities. A portion of delivered power is provided 
through long-term power purchase agreements. About 41 percent of TVA's 
recent annual generation is from coal; 38 percent is from nuclear; 12 
percent from natural gas; and the remainder is from hydro and other 
renewable energy resources. TVA transmits electricity from these 
facilities over 16,000 circuit miles of transmission lines. Like other 
utility systems, TVA has power interchange agreements with utilities 
surrounding its region and purchases and sells power on an economy 
basis almost daily.

Resource Planning Activities

    In April 2011, TVA completed the Integrated Resource Plan--TVA's 
Environmental and Energy Future and associated Final EIS. These 
documents, developed with extensive public involvement, evaluated six 
alternative energy resource strategies which differed in the amount of 
purchased power, energy efficiency and demand response efforts, 
renewable energy resources, nuclear generating capacity additions, and 
coal-fired generation. The alternative strategies were analyzed in the 
context of eight different scenarios which described plausible future 
economic, financial, regulatory and legislated conditions, as well as 
social trends and adoption of technological innovations. Potential 20-
year energy resource plans or portfolios were developed for each 
combination of strategy and scenario using a capacity planning model. 
The portfolios were ranked by several metrics including revenue 
requirements, short-term system average rates, financial risk, carbon 
dioxide emissions, thermal cooling requirements, waste handling costs, 
and changes in total employment and personal income. The strategy 
selected to guide planning activities, Strategy R--Recommended Planning 
Direction, consisted of a range of additions by resource type that 
reflected an optimized mix of diversified energy resources that would 
be added to the TVA power system under a variety of plausible futures. 
This strategy will be the baseline for the evaluations conducted as 
part of this new IRP and EIS process.

[[Page 65417]]

    The major components of the implemented 2011 IRP strategy included 
3,600 to 5,100 MW of energy efficiency and demand response by 2020; 
1,500 to 2,500 MW of cost effective renewable energy additions by 2020; 
idling of 2,400 to 4,700 MW of coal capacity by 2017; 850 MW of new 
pumped storage capacity in 2020-2024; 1,150 to 5,900 MW of new nuclear 
capacity in 2013-2029; and 900 to 9,300 MW of new natural gas capacity 
in 2012-2029.
    Since 2011, several dramatic changes, both industry-wide and TVA-
specific, have led TVA to begin development of the new IRP and 
associated Supplemental EIS ahead of the 5-year cycle identified in the 
2011 IRP. Natural gas supplies have become abundant and available at 
lower cost. Electricity demand growth has been lower than forecast and, 
for TVA, has decreased since 2011. Additional TVA-specific changes to 
underlying assumptions used in the 2011 IRP study include: The delay in 
the startup of the first nuclear capacity addition, Watts Bar Unit 2, 
from 2013 to 2015; the delay of the startup of the next nuclear 
addition, Bellefonte Unit 1, beyond the early date of 2018; and the 
postponement of planning studies for new pumped storage capacity, with 
eventual startup delayed beyond the 2020 early date.

Proposed Issues To Be Addressed

    Based on both internal and external stakeholder discussions, TVA 
anticipates that the major issues to be addressed in the IRP 
Supplemental EIS will be the cost and reliability of power, the effects 
of power production on the environment, including climate change, the 
effects of climate change on the Valley, the availability and use of 
renewable power resources, the effectiveness and implementation of 
demand side management options, including energy efficiency, handling 
waste and byproducts of TVA's power operations, and the relationship of 
the economy to all of these activities. Generic resource options will 
be the primary focus of the Supplemental EIS. TVA also anticipates a 
more robust evaluation of electrical transmission system additions and 
upgrades necessary to transmit power from TVA generating facilities and 
from facilities outside the TVA region.
    Because of the programmatic nature of this study, TVA anticipates 
that the environmental effects which are examined will primarily be 
those at a regional level with some extending to a national or global 
level. This would include such potential environmental effects and 
issues as emissions of greenhouse gases, air quality, water quality and 
quantity, waste generation and disposal, and ecological and cultural 
resources. Socioeconomic impacts within the region that may result from 
alternative energy strategies will also be considered. The more site-
specific effects will not be addressed in detail and would be addressed 
in later tiered assessments of specific implementing activities.
    This list of issues is preliminary and is intended to facilitate 
public comment on the scope of this Supplemental EIS. TVA invites 
suggestions concerning the list of issues which should be addressed. 
TVA also invites specific comments on the questions that will begin to 
be answered by IRP:
     Should the current power generation mix (e.g., coal, 
nuclear power, natural gas, hydro, renewables) change? If so, how?
     Should renewable power be available and added in the 
Valley at a significant scale? If so, how?
     How should energy efficiency and demand response be 
considered in planning for future energy needs and how can TVA directly 
affect electricity usage by consumers?
     And how will all of this affect reliability and the price 
we pay for electricity?

Analytical Approach

    TVA anticipates using an analytical approach similar to that of the 
2011 IRP/EIS described above. The number of alternative energy resource 
strategies and scenarios to be evaluated may differ from the 2011 IRP/
EIS and will be determined after the completion of scoping. The IRP 
planning period is 20 years.

Scoping Process

    Scoping, which is integral to the process for implementing NEPA, 
provides an early and open 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.
    With the help of the public, TVA will identify the most effective 
energy resource strategy that will meet TVA's mission and serve the 
people of the Valley for the next 20 years. To ensure that the full 
range of issues and a comprehensive portfolio of energy resources are 
addressed, TVA invites members of the public as well as federal, state, 
and local agencies and Indian tribes to comment on the scope of the IRP 
EIS. As part of the EIS process, TVA anticipates asking representatives 
from key stakeholder groups to participate in a public review group 
which will meet several times over the course of the study to learn 
about the issues, discuss tradeoffs associated with different resource 
options, and assist TVA in developing an optimal energy resource 
strategy.
    Comments on the scope of this Supplemental EIS should be submitted 
no later than the date given under the DATES section of this notice. 
Any comments received, including names and addresses, will become part 
of the administrative record and will be available for public 
inspection.
    After consideration of the comments received during this scoping 
period, TVA will develop and distribute a document which will summarize 
public and agency comments that were received and identify the issues 
and alternatives to be addressed in the Supplemental EIS and identify 
the schedule for completing the EIS process. Following analysis of the 
issues, TVA will prepare a draft EIS for public review and comment. 
Notice of availability of the draft EIS will be published by the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register. TVA will 
solicit comments on the draft IRP and Supplemental EIS and hold public 
meetings to address it. TVA expects to release the draft IRP and 
Supplemental EIS in late 2014. The final IRP and Supplemental EIS, 
along with the Record of Decision, will be issued in 2015.

    Dated: October 23, 2013.
Brenda E. Brickhouse,
Vice President, Environment.
[FR Doc. 2013-25867 Filed 10-30-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-01-P