CUMBERLAND CITY, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – As the Tennessee Valley Authority continues making progress on the new Cumberland Natural Gas Plant southwest of Clarksville, it is now considering keeping the old coal-fired Fossil Plant running in order to keep up with increased power demand across the region.
The plan had been to shutter the high-pollution Fossil Plant, or “steam plant,” which uses coal to create energy and has been in operation since 1973. But during meetings this week in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the TVA board will consider a proposal to keep the Fossil Plant open, providing power alongside the new Natural Gas Plant – and it’s all thanks to AI and population growth.
“We’ve seen demand grow exponentially in our service area since about 2001,” TVA spokesman Scott Brooks told Clarksville Now, “and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon, or certainly not in this decade. So we are considering all of the options to meet that demand, including keeping Cumberland (Fossil Plant) running.”
He said the gas plant is still on track to be finished and come online by the end of this year as planned, but “we need all the energy we can get.”…