TVA, Local Power Companies Work to Modernize Electric Grid

Ensuring Everyone Makes Strides in Grid Capabilities

In Franklin, Tenn., more than 100 participants — including local power company (LPC) representatives, technology vendors and industry experts — gathered for two days at the Grid Situational Awareness Conference to discuss how utilities can effectively modernize the grid.

Hosted by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA), the event featured expert panels that discussed different ways utilities across TVA’s seven-state region can utilize innovative technologies to do their part in modernizing the grid, which supports TVA’s Valley Vision goal of developing a collaborative, decentralized power system with two-way energy flow.

“Grid modernization is a huge focus for TVA and local power companies across the region,” Jason Krupp, Senior Consultant at TVA, said. “The Grid Situational Awareness Conference was a good way to bring stakeholders to share knowledge and learn from one another, so all of our customers — both big and small — can start making strides in the grid situational awareness capability.”

Partnerships Are Key to Success

During the conference, participants explored how they might expand their capabilities through TVA’s Capability Progression Model — a framework that helps LPCs assess their current capabilities and chart a path toward operating a grid built for the future.

Utility leaders like Chris Jones, Senior Vice President and COO of Huntsville Utilities, and Brandon Wagoner, Vice President of Strategy Execution and Analytics at Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE), recognize the value in this forward-thinking approach.

They’re working alongside other LPCs to develop a more flexible, reliable and cost-effective power grid.

According to Wagoner, these partnerships are essential for identifying scalable solutions and unlocking shared value.

“We’re not all working independently,” Wagoner said. “We can come together and talk about how we can bring down the barrier to entry on some of these technologies.”

During a panel discussion at the conference, Jones and Wagoner shared real-world outcomes from modernization efforts and discussed both challenges and opportunities in enhancing regional situational awareness.

They agreed that grid modernization isn’t one size fits all. Instead, it’s a multifaceted effort, with many initiatives converging to reach a common goal.

“There are many things that are all coming together at the same time to help move Huntsville’s electric system and move the ball forward in terms of grid modernization,” Jones said.

Many Paths Forward – Not a ‘One Size Fits All’

A cornerstone of Huntsville Utilities’ grid modernization strategy is the development of a state-of-the-art operations center.

This facility will provide greater system visibility, increased redundancy through utility and backup power generation, and enhanced resilience during severe weather events.

Paired with the new center are critical technology upgrades, including a next-generation outage management system and a suite of distributed energy resources (DERs). Among them: a 30-megawatt interconnected solar facility and a 4 megawatt-hour battery storage system being deployed at one substation to help offset winter peak demand.

The utility is also adopting advanced tools to improve load forecasting, helping them better anticipate and plan for future energy needs.

“Having day-ahead and week-ahead load forecasting helps with the deployment of our voltage optimization and helps with the deployment of our battery system as we try to manage those peaks,” Jones said. “We see that as a something that will be beneficial for us moving forward.”

MTE is taking a similar approach by investing in emerging technologies to enhance their own grid performance.

Their recent projects include a 1-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS), designed to cut peak-hour wholesale electricity costs, and the installation of fast EV chargers at their Lebanon, Murfreesboro and Franklin offices.

The goal? Decreasing wholesale costs per kilowatt-hour and extending the life of their current infrastructure, Wagoner said.

“We need the longevity for economic development reasons, but also, we can use the cost savings to justify using new technologies,” he said.

“People in the Valley have been doing demand response for a long time. Now, it’s time to take it to the next level to load shaping; storage is a big part of that.”

Continuous Improvement

For both Wagoner and Jones, grid modernization is ever evolving.

“Everything can be revisited, and there’s going to be new opportunities all the time,” Wagoner said.

Technologies that were once seen as industry disruptors are now viewed as vital tools to move the power grid system forward.

And MTE is looking to be opportunistic about these emerging technologies, leveraging them in ways that raise their system load factor and extend the infrastructure life, Wagoner said.

“All LPCs are different and have their own hurdles and challenges, and TVA has its own,” he said, “but there are some things that we can all rally around and identify as similar problems. There are ways to leverage DERs so that they’re not just benefiting MTE but also TVA and others.”

Huntsville Utilities is also laying the groundwork for wider DER adoption.

The utility is expanding its robust fiber network into more rural areas and upgrading substation infrastructure to accommodate new DERs.

Through its centralized operations center and modernized substations, Huntsville is preparing to scale up battery storage to meet evolving demand.

“We see batteries probably playing a bigger role for us in the future,” Jones said. “We’ve got a lot of winter peak load — and being able to charge those batteries at night and then discharge those and reduce that peak helps us from a system standpoint [and] also from a billing standpoint.”

Huntsville Utilities is also exploring new technologies through community partnerships, including an agreement with a nearby Army base that serves as a testing ground for innovative solutions before they’re deployed to the grid.

For LPCs beginning their own grid transformation journeys, Jones offers this guidance: Start with proven business cases like supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and advanced metering infrastructure (AMIs). But above all, lean on one another through the process.

“If you’re working on a project that looks similar to what Huntsville is doing, certainly reach out,” Jones said. “We’d love to share our experiences, and I think that’s true across the board in the Valley.”

Raising the Bar, Together

That spirit of collaboration is also seen at MTE. For the utility, member satisfaction is more than just a metric.

It’s a reflection of trust.

And building that trust is essential, especially as new technologies continue to emerge. While some innovative solutions demonstrated across the industry don’t yet have a clear cost-benefit justification, MTE is preparing for the moment they do.

“As soon as they do, we have to have enough trust in our membership for them to say, ‘Yes, I will participate,’” Wagoner said. “Even the best strategies and programs don’t succeed without cooperation.”

That’s the focus at MTE: cultivating a strong, informed member base that understands the cooperative’s commitment to work hand in hand in doing what’s best for its communities.

And TVA echoes that sentiment.

“This isn’t just a single activity TVA is doing to drive advancement,” Krupp said. “Our goal is to have as many LPCs as possible engaged in regional progress so we can better understand current grid capabilities and where key investments are needed.”

It’s all part of TVA’s Valley Vision strategy for a more resilient and collaborative power system. By aligning with LPCs across the region, Valley Vision aims to identify the right technologies and partnerships required to meet the region’s growing energy demands.

The initiative’s DER workstream is already making strides, modernizing the public power model and preparing it for the future.

In reaching that goal, events like the Grid Situational Awareness Conference play a critical role. The gathering sparked important discussions, offered a clear snapshot of current grid conditions and highlighted key areas for improvement.

The insights from this event, along with findings from this summer’s Capability Assessment — a review of LPCs’ grid capabilities to identify key investment needs — will inform future investments and guide the continued evolution of the Valley’s grid, ensuring it’s ready to meet the needs of tomorrow.