– The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant has achieved the new rated thermal power limit of the Extended Power Uprate on Unit 3, which is now capable of generating an additional 155 megawatts of power to serve the Valley.
The uprate makes Unit 3 the first to operate at full EPU power producing more carbon-free, low-cost electricity than ever before. It also helps to fulfill the TVA mission of service, economic development and environmental stewardship for the people of the Tennessee Valley.
“Operating Unit 3 at the higher EPU power rating is an important first step toward safely and reliably generating more electricity from all three of our units,” said Lang Hughes, Browns Ferry site vice president. “As we did during the recent Unit 3 outage, we’ll install the final round of EPU modifications on Unit 1 in the upcoming fall outage and on Unit 2 in the spring outage in 2019.”
Once the uprate work for all three units is complete, Browns Ferry will generate an additional 465 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough energy to supply another 280,000 homes in the Valley, helping ensure TVA’s ability to safely and reliably provide the power people and businesses need for decades to come.
TVA expects to spend $475 million to fully implement EPU at Browns Ferry, part of its ongoing investment in diverse generation resources to meet current and future energy needs.
Browns Ferry Unit 3 is one of seven operational TVA nuclear reactors, supplying nearly 40 percent of all electricity used by more than 9 million people in the Tennessee Valley.
Media Release/Malinda Hunter/TVA Public Relations
