OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority made around $1 billion more in the third quarter of 2022 than it did last year, according to a report released Thursday.
As part of the report, they also announced that they entered an agreement with GE Hitachi to take steps toward deploying a BWRX-300 small modular reactor at the Clinch River Nuclear site, near Oak Ridge. The company develops small, modern nuclear reactors that use more modern technology compared to traditional reactors.
In April 2022, the TVA said they worked with Ontario Power Generation to support the development of these kinds of small reactors to generate constant, carbon-free energy in the long term.
The TVA also said they sold more electricity than last year, due to economic growth in the Tennessee Valley. At the same time last year, they said they sold around 113.6 billion kWh of power. Thursday's report said they sold about 117.5 billion kWh of power.
They said more than half of their energy comes from carbon-free sources like nuclear,m hydroelectric and other renewable kinds of energy. However, they also said the Watts Bar Unit 2 steam generator replacement project impacted how much power was produced through nuclear sources.
It also produced less electricity because of fewer significant rain events, resulting in lower hydroelectric generation, according to the report.
They said natural gas prices rose 141% in June compared to last year, and coal prices are also up. However, they said TVA's prices only rose by 11% this year because of their varied power sources.
They also said recently asked for 5,000 megawatts of carbon-free energy to be available by 2029.
Although TVA brought in more revenue compared to last year, they also said they made less of a profit. They said they had a net income of around $476 million in the first nine months of 2022, around half of what it was last year. The drop was mainly due to higher operating expenses, they said.
There were several record-setting daily energy records set during the summer too, they said. The TVA serves 146 local power companies, they said.