Last fall, we completed an air handling project for the Steel Dynamics steel plant in Columbus, Miss., that earned them a $2.5 million check from the Tennessee Valley Authority and the state of Mississippi. The plant updates also promise to save the plant about $2 million a year when maintenance reduction and energy costs are considered.
To help achieve these savings at the Steel Dynamics Columbus plant, we retrofitted four 2,750-hp fans that draft heavy dust-laden gases from the plant’s electric arc furnace to a baghouse for air pollution control. These modifications contributed to over 25 million kWh in first-year energy reductions, which TVA and Mississippi compensated at $0.10 per kWh under TVA’s Major Industrial Program.
The Major Industrial Program is not exclusive to Mississippi. Major industrial plants that rely on TVA for electricity in any of the seven states covered by the Authority (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia) can become eligible for the program.
Who Is the TVA Major Industrial Program For?
The Major Industrial Program was designed for large industrial facilities that have a contract demand greater than five megawatts with TVA and that are interested in making an investment to undertake plant upgrades that will reduce their energy consumption.
Why Does TVA Offer the Major Industrial Program?
The Major Industrial Program is meant to help large industrial facilities reduce and manage their energy usage, thereby relieving the demand on the TVA power system. This will help TVA minimize the amount of power it purchases from expensive, independent sources, keeping costs low for all TVA consumers.
In particular, TVA is interested in reducing overall energy consumption during its critical peak period during the summer months of June through September, from the hours of 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central time. Currently, rates rise to as much as $100 per kilowatt during TVA’s critical peak period.
What Does the TVA Major Industrial Program Do?
TVA offers a lump-sum incentive amount of $0.10 per kWh on first-year savings or 70 percent of the cost of a project that results in energy savings, whichever is less. The final numbers are based on results measured and recorded after projects are completed.
The incentive is set up to cover bundles of projects that have a customer payback period (ROI) of more than two years. Individual projects included in a bundle may take less than two years to pay back, but the payback period (ROI) for the entire bundle must be over two years.
How Does One Get Involved in the TVA Major Industrial Program?
If you operate a plant in the TVA region and don’t know quite where to start, TVA offers custom technical assistance using a plant-wide, holistic approach to help its customers find and develop opportunities to increase energy efficiency. You can get started by contacting your local power distributor.
Or, give us a call at 1-888-663-2028 and we’ll be happy to tell you more about our experience with the program and help you start thinking through an energy efficiency upgrade that might qualify your facility for the incentive.