Tennessee Valley Authority’s Magnolia Plant becomes first in US to receive DOE energy management certification
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced Tuesday that its Magnolia Combined Cycle Plant in Benton County, Miss., recently became the first U.S. power plant to be recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as 50001 Ready after implementing energy management improvements.
“It’s exciting for TVA to have the first plant with this recognition because the DOE certification demonstrates TVA’s continued leadership and innovation in the utility industry,” Cindy Herron, TVA EnergyRight vice president, said. “As the largest public power utility in America, it is important for TVA to be energy efficient in its internal operations, to make improvements to lower costs and keep grid reliability at 99.999 percent.”
Through the 50001 Ready process, the company identified energy efficiency opportunities and implemented improvements. Since May 2018, the plant has saved approximately 18 gigawatt hours of energy and nearly $1.2 million annually without additional capital investment.
“The utility industry is evolving and we’re changing the way we think about our day-to-day operations,” Erick Watson, Magnolia’s operations manager, said. “Prior to this, continuous improvement efforts had led us to install LED lighting and now we’re thinking on the next level, with input from operations and maintenance teams, to safely make better decisions around energy use.”
TVA also partnered with the Industrial Assessment Center at Tennessee Tech University through a program funded by a DOE grant. Through the program, professors and students made recommendations for additional energy efficiency improvements that could be achieved through capital improvements.
“Teaming up with Tennessee Tech added the fresh perspective of the professors and students to the working knowledge of plant employees who together identified energy savings, which ultimately resulted in cost savings for TVA supporting our commitment to keep rates low,” Watson said.
TVA noted that other TVA facilities are also looking into potential energy savings through 50001 Ready.
