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The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation鈥檚 biggest public utility, faces a bind as the Trump administration just fired two members of its governing board and a new CEO is taking the reins.
The two fired board members included board chair Joe Ritch, who was appointed by the Biden administration. With two vacant seats, the federally appointed TVA board no longer has a quorum, meaning it can鈥檛 make decisions.
The new CEO is Don Moul, the former vice president of the utility, who was chosen by the board after the former CEO, Jeff Lyash, retired in January.
The firings followed from two top Tennessee Republicans: U.S. Sens. Martha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty. The piece criticized the internal CEO hire and demanded TVA replace the board and CEO so it could move more quickly on building nuclear technology and lead 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Nuclear Renaissance.鈥�
鈥淭he 21st century will be America鈥檚 next Golden Age only if we can supply the vast amounts of power required to run artificial intelligence, quantum computers, and advanced manufacturing,鈥� the senators wrote.
The TVA is seeing a number of data centers move to the region, including a in Cherokee County, much of which is in TVA territory, served by Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Cooperative.
The TVA told BPR that this change wouldn鈥檛 affect the utility鈥檚 regular operations.
Simon Mahan, the executive director of the Southern Renewable Energy Association, said that while the lights will still stay on for TVA customers, the changes could be felt in the bigger picture, possibly slowing things down rather than, as Blackburn and Hagerty hope, speeding them up.
鈥淲hat we do need to be concerned about is the pause in sort of long-term planning that TVA is trying to go through,鈥� Mahan said. 鈥� We're seeing rapid development of new data centers, of new manufacturers, of people moving into the Tennessee Valley and without moving quickly to build more solar and batteries and other forms of generation, it's really going to stagnate the economic development for the Valley unless we can start making some of those decisions sooner rather than later.鈥�
This comes as the TVA recently completed its plan for the next 25 years of energy policy in its service area, which spans seven states. The utility announced late last year it would be investing $16 billion through 2027 in new energy production, including a multibillion-dollar gas buildout and small nuclear reactors in east Tennessee. Meanwhile, Mahan said, TVA has fallen behind its own stated goals for expanding renewable energy, despite recent proposals on new wind and solar projects.
Mahan is concerned that a lack of ability to vote on major decisions could disrupt its energy expansion plans, particularly as it works to catch up on adding new renewable energy sources to the grid.
鈥淭here are some real concerns that TVA's plan is not matching up with their implementation, and it will be even harder for that to be synced up without a full functioning board,鈥� Mahan said.
