US electric utility company the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has signed a ten-year PPA with Argo and Brookfield to procure 377MW hydro power from Smoky Mountain Hydro facilities comprising the Cheoah, Calderwood, Chilhowee, and Santeetlah dams.
Located in the states of Tennessee and North Carolina, the hydro facilities are jointly owned by Argo and Brookfield.
The clean energy delivered by the facilities will support demand growth in TVA’s service area.
TVA origination and renewables solutions vice-president Chris Hansen stated: “TVA appreciates this partnership that enables more reliable, clean megawatts to be available when they’re needed.
“We have a long history of effectively using hydroelectric power to provide affordable, reliable energy to our region, and this agreement builds on that success.”
Smoky Mountain Hydro will commence power delivery through the PPA from 2025.
Over the following decade, it is set to supply TVA's customers with 14 gigawatt hours (GWh) of carbon-free energy, aligning with the company’s ambitious energy transition goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Annually, these facilities generate an average of 1.4 million megawatt-hours of carbon-free energy.
This output equates to avoiding 1.1 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually - a significant contribution to environmental sustainability.
Brookfield Renewable North America CEO Stephen Gallagher stated: “We are thrilled to partner with TVA and deliver clean power solutions at scale to accelerate the energy transition.
“We are well-positioned to meet increasing demand for power from digitalisation and electrification with one of the largest renewable power platforms in the US, including our strategically important portfolio of hydro assets that can provide scale dispatchable clean power.”
In April 2024, TVA announced plans to retire the Kingston fossil plant and establish a new energy complex in Roane County, Tennessee, by the end of 2027.
The Kingston fossil plant operates nine coal-fired units with a total capacity of 1.39GW, enough to supply electricity to 818,000 homes.
