Glossary of TVA Terms

Administration Organization. Responsible for making sure that TVA employees have the space, the tools, the support and the security they need to perform their jobs. The Admin Organization includes the following business units—Facilities Management, Information Services, Procurement, and TVA Police.

Bonds. Debt instruments that are issued for a period of more than one year. When an investor buys a bond, he or she is lending money to the seller of the bond. The seller agrees to repay the principal amount of the loan at a specified time. Interest-bearing bonds pay interest periodically.  TVA issues bonds with different structures, maturity dates, and interest payment frequencies, and in several different currencies. Read about TVA bonds.

Bulk Power Trading. Responsible for buying and selling power in the wholesale electricity market in ways that ensure the optimum utilization of TVA’s system assets.

Business Incubators. Facilities designed to help new businesses get started by providing affordable rental spaces, onsite support services, and technical assistance (including financial and legal advice) in a unique environment that fosters growth. Read more on business incubators.

Business Unit. Department within a major TVA organization.

Bicentennial Volunteers Inc. A nonprofit organization that provides experienced retirees to support TVA projects and programs. Through two affiliates, Retiree Resources Corporation and National Emergency Assistance, retirees also perform paid temporary contract work for TVA or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. View information on retiree organizations.

Communications and Government Relations. Organization that is responsible for communicating TVA’s vision, values, goals, new programs, and initiatives to internal and external audiences. It includes these groups: Board Support, Business Communications, Corporate Contributions, External Communications, Government Relations, Internal Communications, and Valley Relations.

Combined Federal Campaign. Philanthropic campaign supported by U.S. Government employees.

Chief Financial Officer Organization. Organization that develops and implements financial strategies designed to ensure TVA’s fiscal prosperity in the future.

Chief Operating Officer Organization. Organization responsible for producing and supplying power to TVA customers, as well as managing the Tennessee River system.

Customer Service and Marketing. Organization that promotes TVA’s products, services, and programs and serves as the primary point of contact with TVA’s customers.

Department of Energy. Federal agency that ensures the nation’s energy security, maintains the safety and reliability of the nuclear stockpile, cleans up the environment from the legacy of the Cold War, and develops innovations in science and technology.

Deregulation. The elimination of regulation from a previously regulated industry or industrial sector.

Edison Electric Institute. A national trade association representing electric utilities.

Electric Power Board. The Chattanooga electric utility, one of the five largest distributors of TVA power.

Electronic Document Management System. TVA’s system for automated control of electronic documents throughout their entire life cycle, from initial creation to final archiving and disposal.

Environmental Policy. Board-approved statement of TVA intentions and principles concerning TVA’s environmental performance, which provides a framework for action and for setting environmental objectives and targets. Read more.

Environmental Protection Agency. Federal agency whose mission is to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy. Policy by which TVA provides equal opportunity in employment to all employees and applicants. It prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 and over), disability, or reprisal, and develops comprehensive affirmative action programs designed to overcome the effects of past or present employment policies that may operate as barriers to equal opportunity.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Independent commission that regulates the transmission of oil and natural gas, the transmission and wholesale sale of electricity, and the licensing of hydroelectric companies.

The Fence. Limitation on TVA’s sales of electricity passed by Congress as an amendment to the TVA Act in 1959. The amendment restricted TVA’s ability to make sales of electricity outside its service territory, creating what is known as the “fence.” See Tennessee Regulatory Authority First Report on Electric Deregulation in Tennessee.

Fitness for Duty. Program that allows supervisors to request medical examinations when the supervisor suspects that an individual may have a health-related problem that is adversely affecting work performance or job safety.

Fossil Power Group. Organization that has overall responsibility for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of TVA’s 59 coal-fired units and 64 combustion turbines.

Green Power, or Green Energy. Electricity that is environmentally preferable by virtue of the energy resource used to produce it. Unlike fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, green power is produced by sources that are naturally renewable. Energy sources for green power include solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower. Read about TVA’s green power program.

Human Resources. The corporate organization that deals with people, including benefits, compensation, training, hiring, policies, procedures, new employee orientation, etc.

Huntsville Utilities. Huntsville power distributor, one of the five largest distributors of TVA power.

Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. Organization created by the nuclear electric utility industry in 1979 to promote the highest levels of safety and reliability in the operation of nuclear generating plants.

Information Services. Department that provide information technology products and services to TVA.

Investor-Owned Utility. A for-profit private company that is owned by stockholders and provides a utility, such as water, natural gas, or electricity, to a specific service area.

Kilowatt-hour. The basic unit of power that TVA sells.

Knoxville Utilities Board. Knoxville municipal utility, one of the five largest distributors of TVA power.

Megawatt-hour. A thousand kilowatt-hours.

Memphis Light Gas and Water. Memphis utility provider, the largest distributor of TVA power.

Multi-Skilled Technician. Describes annual trades and labor employees who have learned to perform cross-craft multiple tasks. Multi-skilling gives employees the opportunity to earn more pay by broadening their skills and helps TVA and its employees remain competitive in the industry. When employees have varied skills, many handoffs that cause delays and interruptions in work processes are reduced. This enables TVA to gain efficiencies and continue to provide safe, reliable low-cost power for the Valley.

Nashville Electric Service. Nashville power distributor, one of the five largest distributors of TVA power.

National Response Center. Sole federal point of contact for reporting oil and chemical spills.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission. An independent agency established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 to regulate civilian use of nuclear materials.

Office of the General Counsel. Organization that provides legal services to TVA in all aspects of its operations, including offering guidance to the Board and TVA organizations on the legal ramifications of TVA activities and representing them in litigation.

Office of the Inspector General. Organization that is responsible for conducting audits and investigations related to TVA programs and operations, while keeping the TVA Board and Congress fully informed about problems and deficiencies related to the administration of such programs and operations.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Federal agency that shares the responsibility for oversight of workplace safety and health of more than 100 million working men and women, including occupational safety and health professionals, the academic community, lawyers, journalists, and personnel of other government entities.

Partners in Education. Nationwide initiative in which businesses partner with schools to provide voluntary services and resources.

Public Power. Term that denotes the nearly 3,000 consumer-owned electric utilities in the United States. They include municipalities and other government-owned utilities, cooperatives, and public-power districts. Together they provide more than 25 percent of the nation’s electricity to about 74 million people, operating in every state except Hawaii. Read more.

Public Power Institute. Helps TVA fulfill its commitment to protect natural resources and the environment while working to provide low-cost, reliable power. It uses TVA facilities as a “living laboratory” to test and showcase new technologies that benefit the public, and provides input on regulatory and public-policy issues.

Power Resources Operations and Planning. Organization that carries out comprehensive planning to ensure that the Tennessee Valley has a safe, reliable, and efficient source of electricity.

River Systems Operations and Environment. Organization that is responsible for managing the Tennessee River and its shorelines, for overseeing TVA dams, and for providing environmental leadership to TVA.

Standardization. Ensures economies and efficiencies that ultimately are reflected in TVA’s bottom line.

Transmission/Power Supply. Organization responsible for delivering power to TVA’s customers.

TVA Nuclear. Organization that has overall responsibility for the operation and maintenance of TVA’s nuclear facilities and programs.

TVA Police. TVA’s nationally accredited law enforcement agency that provides protection for TVA properties and employees as well as the 100 million annual users of TVA recreation facilities.

TVA University. TVA’s corporate university that serves as the strategic umbrella for all employee education and training.

Tennessee Valley Public Power Association. Association that provides comprehensive and cost-effective services to electric utilities within the Tennessee Valley.

Wheeling. The movement of electricity from one utility to another over the transmission facilities of one or more intervening utilities.