TVA

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to load fuel and perform low-power testing of the Watts Bar nuclear plant. The low-power license will allow the 1,160-megawatt Unit 1 to operate at 5 percent of capacity. The license verifies that Watts Bar construction is complete, and that all safety and environmental requirements have been met. A license to operate at full power may be granted once the fuel loading and low-power testing is complete. Commercial operation is anticipated for spring 1996.

The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) has released its report on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Financial Problems Raise Questions About Long-Term Viability (em a report that TVA strongly disputes.

The electric utility industry is undergoing its most profound change since Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse battled over whether the American power system should be AC or DC. In essence, that technological choice shaped the industry we know today. Edison's low-voltage, DC system would have required many small generating stations and short distribution lines. The high-voltage Westinghouse AC system promoted development

of long-distance transmission networks that deliver electricity efficiently from large, remote power plants.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) chief operating officer

Joe Dickey is displeased with a General Accounting Office (GAO) report advocating a 10-percent rate hike for TVA. Dickey says that TVA has held rates steady for eight straight years and plans to hold them stable for at least another two. He notes that the report focuses on the past and suggests privatizing TVA as an option. Dickey adds that the GAO criticizes TVA cost,s but ignores that TVA has cut its workforce by half since 1988 and its costs by $800 million.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) chairman Craven Crowell says he will resist General Accounting Office (GAO) pressure to raise TVA rates. According to Crowell, a forthcoming GAO report criticizes TVA for not raising rates to reduce debt, and suggests privatization. "Everyone recognizes that TVA's debt is large, but the size of the debt is not as important as our ability to manage it," Crowell maintains, noting that a recent study by utility consulting firm Palmer Bellevue concludes that TVA can remain competitive by effectively managing the debt.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) chairman Craven Crowell wants TVA to be able to compete with other utilities for customers outside its service territory. Congress established the territorial boundaries in 1959, limiting TVA and distributors of TVA power to the areas they served as of July 1 of that year. Speaking at the American Public Power Association in Washington, DC, on February 1, Crowell said he has commissioned a study by Palmer Bellevue to examine how to remove the "fence" that prevents TVA from expanding.

On December 12, 1994, Craven Crowell, chairman of the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), issued two well-publicized announcements. First, TVA would not finish three of the nuclear units it has had under construction since the 1970s, unless it could find partners willing to share their construction costs (a prospect he subsequently characterized as "very slim,").1 Second, TVA planned to set an internal cap on its total debt at a level $2 to $3 billion below the $30-billion limit imposed by the Congress.

Over 300 bills were introduced in the first week of the new Congress that convened in January, among them a bill by Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA) aimed at correcting the government's seriously flawed nuclear waste storage program. Johnston heralded S.

Paul J. Evanson was named president of Florida Power & Light Co. to succeed Stephen E. Frank, who resigned in January. Frank led the company through a tough restructuring process. Evanson, 53, previously was v.p., finance, and CFO for both Florida Power & Light and FPL Group Inc. Evanson will be succeeded by Michael W.

The fledgling industry is also staking out its regulatory territory. Notably, on December 14, the FERC ordered the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to provide nonfirm transmission service to AES Power Inc.