Bull Run retired
TVA pull plug on fossil plant after 56 years
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Retiree Ralph Painter’s first day at TVA was Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor bombing. He worked at TVA’s Appalachia Dam and later in various positions in hydro and coal generation. He had worked at Bull Run in 1967, when the plant first went online. Painter passed away last month, but was able to visit the plant one last time before it was retired last week.
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Bull Run scrubber board operator Barry O’Neal is a 20- year TVA veteran.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has officially closed Bull Run Fossil Plant in Anderson County’s Claxton community.
The utility announced that the closure occurred in an email Friday, Dec. 8.
TVA’s Board of Directors had already decided in 2019 to set a closing date, however.
The utility described the closure as part of its overall shift away from its old coal plants in favor of what it described as more-reliable and environmentally friendly power-production methods. It will retire its entire coal fleet by 2035.
TVA said it gave its employees a choice of staying on site as part of a transition team, working somewhere else with TVA, or retiring.
“This isn’t the last time we’ll say goodbye to a plant that has provided so much to TVA, the Valley and the community,” Jacinda Woodward, TVA senior vice president of power operations, said in an announcement.
“It’s not an easy decision to retire a plant, but it’s one we must make to secure a reliable and cleaner energy future, as our generation portfolio and load shapes change.”
Since the decision was made to close the plant, citizens and elected officials from Anderson County and elsewhere in East Tennessee have raised concerns and expressed hopes about the site’s future use. Some of those concerns are about the coal ash stored there.
TVA has not announced anything certain about the site’s future. But the utility said it will be going through an environmental-review process and asking for more comments before deciding what to do with the site.
The Bull Run site may continue to have TVA operations and help the grid, however, even without a plant. TVA’s leaders are considering many options for the site’s future, including the potential for battery storage or the installation of synchronous condensers to support the stability of the transmission grid, the TVA news release stated.
Some Claxton residents discussed Bull Run’s future at the TVA Board of Directors listening session in Norris earlier this year.
“We believe this site could become an economic boon to the community if dismantling is handled well,” said Claxton resident Bob Hertwig.
Another resident, Joni McClelland, advocated for the plant to be taken down and ash storage areas cleaned up.
“TVA, I am your neighbor; we are your neighbors,” she said. “Love your neighbors as yourself.”
“To ensure reliability, we will not retire a plant without replacement generation in place,” the utility said on its website.
Earlier, TVA shared a map showing four new natural gas plants and two new solar plants.
It has discussed yet another natural gas or solar plant in Kingston to replace the Kingston Fossil Plant.
While natural gas plants are still fossil fuel, TVA has described them as “cleaner” than coal. It has also discussed building a small nuclear reactor in Roane County. None of these plants would be at the Bull Run site, however.