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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 89 / Tuesday, May 11, 2021 / Notices
Environmental Impact Statement EIS
to assess the impacts associated with the proposed retirement of the two coalfired units at the Cumberland Fossil Plant CUF and the construction and operation of facilities to replace part of the retired generation. TVA will use the EIS process to elicit and prioritize the values and concerns of stakeholders;
formulate, evaluate and compare alternatives; provide opportunities for public review and comment; and ensure that TVAs evaluation of potential retirement and replacement energy generation reflects a full range of stakeholder input. Public comment is invited concerning the scope of the EIS, alternatives being considered, and environmental issues that should be addressed as a part of this EIS. TVA is also requesting data, information and analysis relevant to the proposed action from the public; affected Federal, State, tribal, and local governments, agencies, and offices; the scientific community;
industry; or any other interested party.
DATES: To ensure consideration, comments on the scope and environmental issues must be postmarked, emailed or submitted online no later than June 10, 2021. To facilitate the scoping process, TVA will hold a public scoping meeting; see http www.tva.gov/nepa for more information on the meeting.
ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Ashley Pilakowski, NEPA
Compliance Specialist, 400 West Summit Hill Dr., WT 11B, Knoxville, TN 379021499. Comments may also be submitted online at: www.tva.gov/nepa, or by email at nepa@tva.gov. Please note that, due to current TVA requirements for many employees to work remotely, TVA recommends the public submit comments electronically to ensure their timely review and consideration.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Please contact Ashley Pilakowski at the address above, by phone at 865 632
2256 or email at aapilakowski@tva.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is provided in accordance with the regulations promulgated by Council on Environmental Quality at 40 CFR
parts 1500 to 1508 84 FR 43304, July 16, 2020 and TVAs procedures implementing the National Environmental Policy Act at 18 CFR
part 1318. 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 regions natural resources. One component of this mission is the generation,
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transmission, and sale of reliable and affordable electric energy.
Background In June 2019, TVA published the 2019
Integrated Resource Plan IRP, which was developed with input from stakeholder groups and the general public. The 2019 IRP evaluated six scenarios plausible futures and five strategies potential TVA responses to those futures and identified a range of potential resource additions and retirements throughout the TVA power service area, which encompasses approximately 80,000 square miles covering most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. The target supply mix adopted by the TVA Board through the 2019 IRP
included the potential retirement of 2,200 MW of coal-fired generation by 2038. The IRP acknowledged continued operational challenges for the aging coal fleet and included a recommendation to conduct end-of-life evaluations during the term of the IRP to determine whether retirements greater than 2,200
MW would be appropriate.
Following the publication of the IRP, TVA began conducting these evaluations to inform long-term planning. TVAs recent evaluation confirms that the aging coal fleet is among the oldest in the nation and is experiencing deterioration of material condition and performance challenges.
The performance challenges are projected to increase because of the coal fleets advancing age and the difficulty of adapting the fleets generation within the changing generation profile; and, in general, because the coal fleet is contributing to environmental, economic, and reliability risks.
CUF is located in Cumberland City, Stewart County, Tennessee, approximately 22 miles southwest of Clarksville. The plant is on a large reservation of approximately 2,388 acres located at the confluence of Wells Creek and the south bank of the Cumberland River. Built between 1968 and 1973, CUF is the largest plant in the TVA coal fleet. The two-unit, coal-fired steamgenerating plant has a summer net capability of 2,470 megawatts MW.
CUF is 15 to 20 years younger than TVAs other coal plants, but frequent cycling of the large super-critical units, a recent change in the method of plant operation for which the plant was not originally designed, presents reliability challenges that are difficult to anticipate and very expensive to mitigate. Based on this analysis, TVA has developed planning assumptions for CUF
retirement. TVA proposes to retire one
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CUF unit as early as 2026 but no later than 2030, and the second unit as early as 2028 but no later than 2033, dependent on internal and external factors that could affect bringing replacement generation online.
The Cumberland EIS assesses the impact of retiring both CUF units and of replacing the generation of one of those units, as discussed in the Alternatives section below. To recover the generation capacity lost from retirement of one CUF unit, TVA is proposing the addition of approximately 1,450 MW of replacement generation. To maintain adequate reserves on the TVA system, this 1,450 MW replacement generation would need to be in commercial operation prior to retirement of the first CUF unit. Replacement generation for the second retired CUF unit would likely consist of some combination of gas, solar, and storage, but the planning for that generation can be deferred to allow more time to assess the specific types and locations of that generation.
Additional tiered NEPA analysis will be completed as these future generation needs are identified.
Alternatives TVA anticipates that the scope of the EIS will include various alternatives in addition to the no action alternative continuing to operate CUF. TVA plans to consider three action alternatives in the EIS: A Retirement of CUF and construction and operation of a Combined Cycle Combustion Turbine CC Gas Plant at the same site; B
Retirement of CUF and construction and operation of Simple Cycle Combustion Turbine CT Gas Plants at alternate locations; C Retirement of CUF and construction and operation of Solar and Storage Facilities, primarily at alternate locations. Whether these or other alternatives are reasonable warranting further consideration under NEPA
would be determined in the course of preparing the EIS. Connected actions, such as the natural gas pipeline and transmission upgrades, will also be considered in this assessment.
Proposed Issues To Be Addressed The EIS will address the effects of each alternative on the environment, including emissions of greenhouse gases, fuel consumption, air quality, water quality and quantity, waste generation and disposal, land use, ecological, cultural resources, transportation, visual and noise,
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