After three years of cost cutting, the Tennessee Valley Authority has exceeded its goal of trimming operating expenses.
During that time TVA has cut more than $500 million — in part by reducing its workforce by 1,800 employees.
CEO Bill Johnson calls TVA’s new size “sustainable”. And while he says the utility has scaled back spending in certain areas, he says they are committed to investing in cleaner energy sources like nuclear and natural gas.
“By 2020 more than half the energy we generate will be from non-emitting resources,” said Johnson in a conference call Monday morning. “And we will have an even more balanced fleet that is cleaner and more resilient to fuel price volatility.”
Currently, TVA generates 47 percent of its energy from “non-emitting sources”. The utility plans to have that number grow to 55 percent over the next five years.
Earlier this fall, TVA got permission to start loading fuel into Watts Bar Unit II, the first new nuclear reactor in the U.S. in 20 years. But there’s no timeline as to when that will happen.
As for the nearly 11,000 TVA employees who remain, the board of directors voted late last week to award them a share in $113 million in performance bonuses.
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