John Sevier Fossil Plant

John Sevier Fossil Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) near middle Tennessee on the north bank of the Cumberland River.

The John Sevier power station has four coal-fired generating units and "net dependable generating capacity" of approximately 712 megawatts. TVA states that "the plant consumes some 12,350 tons of coal a day." Construction of the John Sevier power station commenced in 1952 and was commissioned in 1957. According to the TVA the "plant consumes about 5,700 tons of coal a day."

TVA will retire two John Sevier coal units in 2012. The remaining two units will either be retrofitted with scrubbers, converted to burn biomass, or retired by 2015. Additionally, the new 880MW John Sevier Combined Cycle Plant, adjacent to the coal plant, began commercial operation on April 30, 2012. It is fueled by natural gas delivered via a new, eight-mile pipeline.

TVA considering shutting down some aging coal plants
In August 2009, CEO Tom D. Kilgore announced that TVA was studying the possibility of closing the John Sevier Fossil Plant and the oldest six units at its Widows Creek Fossil Plant in Alabama. A federal judge has ordered TVA to install pollution equipment on the plants by the end of 2013, at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion. However, the company has not yet budgeted any money for the improvements. In 2010 TVA is planning to begin building an $820 million gas-powered plant to replace the generation at its John Servier Plant. The agency has already reduced power production from the oldest six units at Widows Creek. Environmental groups want TVA to shut down or convert to cleaner fuels the oldest and least efficient of its coal plants, including Widows Creek, John Sevier, and Johnsonville plants.

TVA Announces Plans to Retire John Sevier Units 1 and 2
On August 24, 2010 TVA announced that it will retire 9 coal-fired generating units totalling about 1,000 megawatts of capacity at three locations beginning in fiscal year 2011: Shawnee Fossil Plant Unit 10 in Kentucky, John Sevier Fossil Plant Units 1 and 2 in Tennessee, and Widows Creek Fossil Plant Units 1-6 in Alabama. In addition TVA stated that it will eliminate 200 jobs at these plants starting in 2011, but the workers will be placed in other positions within TVA. CEO Tom D. Kilgore said that TVA would replace the sidelined coal power with greater reliance on nuclear power and energy efficiency.

April 2011: TVA to phase out 18 coal units, install pollution controls
On April 14, 2011, TVA and North Carolina settled the 5-year-old lawsuit - North Carolina v. TVA - over TVA emissions from its coal-fired plants. The deal was part of a larger settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over TVA violations of the clean air act at 11 of its coal-fired plants in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.

As part of the North Carolina agreement, TVA agreed to phase out 18 units of its coal plants, adding up to 2,700 MW, and to install modern pollution controls on three dozen additional units.

The phase out includes two units at the John Sevier Fossil Plant, all 10 units at the Johnsonville Fossil Plant, both in Tennessee, and six units at the Widows Creek Fossil Plant in north Alabama.

TVA will also invest an estimated $3 to $5 billion on pollution controls, invest $350 million on clean energy projects, and pay a civil penalty of $10 million.

Plant Data

 * Owner/Parent Company: Tennessee Valley Authority
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 800 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 200 MW (1955), 200 MW (1955), 200 MW (1956), 200 MW (1957)
 * Location: 611 Old Hwy. 70, Rogersville, TN 37857
 * GPS Coordinates: 36.376667, -82.963056
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 5,127,786 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 30,126 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 9,690 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 310 lb.

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from John Sevier Fossil Plant
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from the John Sevier Fossil Plant
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

Citizen groups

 * LEAF - Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship
 * Save Our Cumberland Mountains
 * Tennessee Coal Ash Survivors Network
 * United Mountain Defense

External Resources

 * Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration, accessed Jan. 2009.
 * Environmental Integrity Project, "Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants", July 2007.
 * Facility Registry System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed Jan. 2009.
 * Carbon Monitoring for Action database, accessed Feb. 2009.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Coal plant retirements
 * Coal phase-out
 * Tennessee and coal
 * Tennessee Valley Authority
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming