TVA Board Approves Project To Reduce John Sevier Emissions

April 3, 2008

The TVA Board today approved the construction of air pollution control equipment at the John Sevier Fossil Plant in Rogersville, Tenn., that will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by as much as 95 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 90 percent and further improve air quality in the region.

Under the Board authorization, TVA will award contracts needed to implement the project, including an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a scrubber, or flue gas desulphurization system. The scrubber will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from all four 200-megawatt units at John Sevier.

Contracts also will be awarded to install Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology on the four units to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. The combined cost of the projects is approximately $597 million.

Engineering design will begin this year pending an environmental review, and the scrubber is expected to be in operation in 2012. About 350 workers are expected to be employed during peak construction of the project.

John Sevier is TVA’s eastern-most fossil plant and one of three coal plants near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. With the addition of a scrubber and SCRs at John Sevier, all of TVA’s eastern coal-fired plants -- Bull Run, Kingston and John Sevier -- will have scrubbers to remove sulfur dioxide and advanced nitrogen oxide controls.

“The air in East Tennessee and the rest of the Tennessee Valley is improving as TVA continues to carry out one of the most aggressive clean-air programs in the country,” said TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore. “We have reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide across the system by more than 80 percent since 1977 and reduced nitrogen oxide emissions during the summer ozone season by more than 80 percent since 1995.”

TVA operates seven scrubbers on its largest coal-fired generating units and is in the process of constructing three additional scrubbers that will be operational before 2012 – two at Kingston Fossil Plant in Kingston, Tenn., and one at Bull Run Fossil Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Since 1977, TVA has spent $4.8 billion to reduce emissions and improve air quality while being a leader in the construction and operation of emissions control equipment. TVA plans to spend another $3 billion to $4 billion on more environmental controls.

John Sevier, located on the Holston River, generates about 5 billion kilowatts of electricity a year, enough power to supply approximately 350,000 homes.

TVA is the nation’s largest public power provider and is completely self- financing. TVA provides power to large industries and 159 power distributors that serve approximately 8.8 million consumers in seven southeastern states. TVA also manages the Tennessee River and its tributaries to provide multiple benefits, including flood damage reduction, navigation, water quality and recreation.

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