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Show under an arrangement whereby the storage and release of water from the company's reservoirs are carried out by the company under the Authority's direction. Company plants in fiscal year 1949 generated about 1,735 million kilowatt-hours, an increase of 21 percent over the preceding year. Deliveries made by TVA to the company under the agree- ment amounted to 1,730 million kilowatt-hours, an increase of 16% percent over the previous year. The purchase of the Tennessee Electric Power Go. facilities in 1939 brought several generating stations outside the valley into the TVA system. The largest of these were the Great Falls Dam on the Caney Fork River, a tributary of the Cumber- land, and the Nashville steam plant. Also, a small hydroelectric plant at Columbia and two steam plants at Bowling Green and Hopkinsville were purchased from the Kentucky-Tennessee Power & Light Co. Four of tEe new plants are in the Cum- berland Basin. All have been coordinated with the TVA system. Related Power Facilities and Operations of Other Federal Agencies Three projects have been constructed or are under construction by the Corps of Engineers in the Cum- berland Basin. Dale Hollow on the Obey River is complete. Center Hill on the Caney Fork River below Great Falls, and Wolf Creek in the upper reaches of the main river are under construction. Projects have been authorized at four other sites above Nashville-Old Hickory, Carthage, and Celina Dams on the Cumberland, and Stewarts Ferry Dam on Stones River. All of these projects will contain hydroelectric units. The Dale Hollow plant is in operation with two 18,000-kilowatt units. Under the Flood Control Act of 1944,a the De- partment of the Interior is charged with disposing of the surplus electric power generated at the proj- ects, which it does through the Southeastern Power Administration. On December 18, 1948, the De- partment and the TVA entered into an agreement under which the Authority purchases all the energy of the three dams and resells it through the TVA system. The TVA furnishes the obvious market for this power as approximately 70 percent of the Cumber- land Basin lies within the area being served by the 81 Act of December 22, 1944, § 5, 55 Stat. 887, 890, 16 U. S. G. 825s. TVA system, and approximately 80 percent of the electric power requirements of the Cumberland Basin are supplied by TVA. Furthermore, TVA requires additional sources of electric power to sup- ply the growing needs for electricity in its service area, including that portion within the Cumberland Basin. The Cumberland projects are operated under an agreement between the Authority and the Corps of Engineers. This provides for the storage and re- lease of water as requested by TVA for optimum production of energy, subject to flood control and other requirements established by the Corps of Engineers. Transmission and Distribution The TVA Act provides also for building trans- mission lines. The network traverses the Tennessee Valley, connecting all of the plants of the system, running also to the load centers throughout both the Tennessee and Cumberland Valleys. The first transmission lines connected Wilson Dam with mar- ket areas in adjacent States. The acquisition of broad markets in 1939 added other transmission lines. It was also necessary to have connections with Memphis and Nashville, which lie outside the Tennessee Valley. Integrating the river system's reservoirs by inter- connecting them with transmission lines is aimed at harmonizing the river's natural characteristics with man-made control facilities in a manner which will serve all the purposes of these facilities. Power benefits to be derived from coordinated plant operation depend upon integration through the transmission network. Not only do areas im- mediately adjacent to individual projects gain sub- stantially in additional capacity, but power supply throughout the region is made materially more de- pendable. The TVA power system, therefore, furnishes an example of the way in which federally owned steam plants and transmission lines enable the Government to achieve its stated objective of obtaining the most widespread economic disposition of river basin power, particularly to domestic and rural con- sumers. Present System and Potentialities By 1945 TVA had the largest power-producing system in the United States. It was the only integrated system in the Nation which produced 727 |
