Oak Ridge Today

Melton Hill Reservoir to be lowered for cleaning, maintenance

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Melton Hill Reservoir (Photo courtesy Tennessee Valley Authority)

Melton Hill Reservoir will be temporarily lowered two to four feet between March 24 and April 3 to allow property owners to perform annual spring cleaning and dock maintenance.

The Tennessee Valley Authority will hold the reservoir between 790 and 792 feet for about 12 days beginning Sunday, March 24, a press release said. Melton Hill will be returned to its normal winter elevation by April 4.

“Please note that drawdown targets and dates could change due to potential rainfall, so residents are asked to remain flexible,” the press release said.

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TVA asks customers to conserve power during high demand

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Photo courtesy Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority said heavy snow and bitter cold temperatures are creating record-high demand for electricity across the Southeast.

“As a result, the Tennessee Valley Authority is asking customers to be aware of their power consumption, specifically between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. (Central Time) on Wednesday,” a press release said.

“TVA is actively monitoring weather conditions, and our power system remains stable,” the press release said. “Conservation requests are often used in the power industry to help lower demand during a specific time and does not indicate TVA is experiencing emergency conditions. If you are experiencing an outage, please check with your local electric provider for more information.”

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TVA retires Bull Run Fossil Plant

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An aerial view of the Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton is pictured above. (Photo courtesy Tennessee Valley Authority)

The Tennessee Valley Authority has retired the Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton.

The plant burned the last of its onsite coal onsite in August, ending a 48-day run. TVA retired the plant December 1.

The TVA Board of Directors approved the retirement of Bull Run on February 14, 2019. That followed an environmental review process that included public input, TVA said.

Bull Run began operating in 1967. At the time it was the largest in the world in the volume of steam produced, according to TVA. Located on 750 acres in Claxton across from Oak Ridge, it was the only single-unit power plant in the TVA system, and it was designed to produce up to 950 megawatts. It has an 800-foot reinforced concrete chimney.

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Power to TRISO at Horizon could cost $13 million

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This map shows the potential route of 69-kilovolt overhead power lines for the TRISO-X nuclear fuel facility at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge, starting at the substation (SUB) on the south side of Highway 95/58 (lower right), continuing up Novus Drive (center right), crossing onto Horizon Center land, and then running east (to the right) on the back side of Site 6 (open area at upper right).

Building a new substation and electrical lines to supply power to a nuclear fuel company could cost $13 million, Oak Ridge officials said in December.

The nuclear fuel company, TRISO-X, needs about 32 to 35 megawatts of electricity at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge. That would make the company the city’s biggest electrical customer. (Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex get most of their power directly from Tennessee Valley Authority.)

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TVA reviewing mandatory power outages

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Tennessee Valley Authority offices are pictured above in June 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday said it takes “full responsibility” for the impact of the first-ever mandatory power outages during the cold weather on Friday and Saturday last week, and it is reviewing what happened.

“We at TVA take full responsibility for the impact we had on our customers,” the electrical provider said in a press release posted on its website. “We never want to impact anyone’s energy at any time. This is not the way we want to serve our communities and customers.

“We are conducting a thorough review of what occurred and why. We are committed to sharing these lessons learned and—more importantly—the corrective actions we take in the weeks ahead to ensure we are prepared to manage significant events in the future.”

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TVA: Power supply set record Friday

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The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bull Run Fossil Plant is pictured above at the Clinch River in Claxton on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Valley Authority said it delivered a record amount of power on Friday and set a winter record for peak power demand.

TVA supplied 740 gigawatt-hours, or 740 million kilowatt-hours, during a 24-hour period on Friday, December 23. That’s more energy supplied than at any other time in its 89-year history, TVA said.

The cold also produced a winter record for peak power demand of 33,425 megawatts at 7 p.m. Central time, when the region-wide average temperature was 9 degrees, TVA said.

“Record-setting temperatures across the region continue to put intense pressure on the power system,” TVA said in a press release. “The Tennessee Valley Authority and local power companies (worked) around the clock in difficult conditions to meet this extreme demand.”

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Updated: TVA ends rolling blackouts

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Note: This story was last updated at 12 p.m.

Mandatory rolling power blackouts continued in Oak Ridge and across the region Saturday morning. The City of Oak Ridge announced at about 11:40 a.m. Saturday that the power outages had been terminated.

Here is the previous story:

The blackouts will affect 10 percent of customers at a time, and power outages will last about 30 minutes, the City of Oak Ridge said in a press release. That’s a larger percentage of customers who will be affected by the Saturday outages than the ones on Friday, when about 2 percent of Oak Ridge customers were affected.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides power to the City of Oak Ridge, said the blackouts are necessary because of the extreme weather conditions, according to the press release. The power demand is high as temperatures have dropped into the single digits in what has been called a “once-in-a-generation” storm.

TVA said the power demand is among its highest in its nearly 90-year history. Typical power demands for December are around 24,000 megawatts. On Friday, power demands surpassed 33,000 megawatts, TVA said.

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Updated: TVA ends blackouts in Oak Ridge

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Note: This story was updated at 3 p.m.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has terminated rolling blackouts in Oak Ridge.

“Everything is now going back to normal,” City of Oak Ridge spokesperson Lauren Gray said.

The mandatory rolling blackouts that affected electricity across the region and in the City of Oak Ridge were to help TVA meet the power demand today (Friday, December 23), a press release said.

The blackouts were expected to affect about 2 percent of Oak Ridge Electric Department customers and last for about 30 minutes, the press release said. The blackouts were expected across the Tennessee Valley.

They were being conducted because of the low temperatures and to meet high power demand, according to the press release, which came from the City of Oak Ridge.

Information was not available about which 2 percent of customers were affected, although there were measures in place to ensure hospitals, fire departments, and other similar operations are not without power, Gray said.

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IDB endorses overhead power lines for Horizon Center project

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An Oak Ridge board on Monday endorsed overhead power lines and an alternate route to provide electricity to a nuclear fuel company, TRISO-X, at Horizon Center. The company’s site is pictured above on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

An Oak Ridge board on Monday endorsed overhead power lines and an alternate route that could be less controversial to provide electricity to a nuclear fuel company at Horizon Center.

Environmental advocates, ecologists, and trail users had objected to an earlier proposal to run overhead power lines along a U.S. Department of Energy patrol road on the back side of Horizon Center. Among other objections, those lines would have been relatively close to the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement, and opponents said the power lines would have decreased the area’s recreational value.

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SMRs, other nuclear reactors possible at Clinch River site

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Small modular reactors and other types of new nuclear reactors could be considered for power generation at the Clinch River Nuclear Site in west Oak Ridge.

The Tennessee Valley Authority announced its preferred alternative for the 935-acre site in the Federal Register in October.

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TVA has virtual open house for Clinch River Nuclear Site

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Clinch-River-Site-Bear-Creek-Road-Entrance-March-27-2016
The small nuclear reactors that could be built along the Clinch River could provide enough electricity to power several cities the size of Oak Ridge. The Bear Creek Road entrance to the Clinch River Site, where the reactors could be built by the Tennessee Valley Authority, is pictured above on Sunday, March 27, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Valley Authority will have a virtual open house for the Clinch River Nuclear Site in west Oak Ridge this evening (Thursday, March 10).

The open house follows the release of a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the 935-acre site in the Roane County portion of Oak Ridge, south of Heritage Center (the former K-25 site) near the Clinch River.

The draft EIS assesses the potential environmental effects associated with possibly having nuclear reactors at the site, a press release said.

“The proposed facility aligns with TVA’s 2050 target of achieving net-zero carbon emissions and drive to a carbon-free future,” the press release said.

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Second day in a row of highest electricity demand since 2012

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Tennessee Valley Authority offices are pictured above in June 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Valley Authority has had its two highest days of electricity demand in nine years, since 2012, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Thursday’s preliminary peak power demand was 30,340 megawatts at 6 p.m. Eastern time at a regional average temperature of 92 degree Fahrenheit, TVA said.

Wednesday and Thursday were the highest peak demands since July 26, 2012, TVA said.

The public utility said it plans for situations like this heat wave and tries to provide constant power.

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