TVA Today:
Daily news for employees

Monday, October 6, 2003

John Sevier Plant Celebrates Another Year of Excellent Performance
John Sevier Fossil Plant employees celebrated the plant’s achievements during the past year, including 13 consecutive years without a lost-time injury, at a luncheon last Wednesday at the plant.

The 13-year safety record, currently the longest among TVA coal-fired plants, was reached this past May. The extension of the record continues, with John Sevier employees having logged more than 4.5-million safe workhours since the last lost-time injury.

Other achievements during the past fiscal year include a plant continuous-run record of 121 days, a plant Equivalent Availability Factor above 90 percent for the 10th time in the past 11 years, meeting the plant’s Operations & Maintenance budget, and several community-service activities for local schools and other events.

“I commend our employees for another excellent year in areas of safety, operations and financial stewardship,” says Plant Manager Mike Wagner. “Their continued high standards in all areas enable John Sevier to do its part in being a good neighbor in the local community and in providing Tennessee Valley homes and businesses with affordable, reliable power.”

Located on the bank of the Holston River near Rogersville, Tenn., the four-unit plant has about 150 employees.

In fiscal year 2003, the plant generated almost 5 million megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to serve about 330,000 homes in the Valley for a year.

ORNL Hybrid Solar Lighting Summit Tuesday and Wednesday
TVA is participating in the Hybrid Solar Lighting Summit, hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 7-8, in Knoxville.

The summit will focus on the technology, market and environmental forces that are leading to the development and commercialization of new hybrid-solar-lighting technology. ORNL says this innovative use of sunlight is poised to become the preferred use of solar energy in commercial buildings.

The gathering is intended for a broad audience, including energy and environmental policymakers, scientists and engineers, solar- and clean-energy advocates, lighting designers, architects, utilities and green-power providers, and prospective commercialization partners.

Director Bill Baxter is scheduled to speak about the commercial value of hybrid solar lighting on the first day of the summit.

Hybrid solar lighting makes better use of sunlight in its natural form and specifically targets the energy consumed by electric lights, which represents the largest consumption of electricity in commercial buildings. Rather than converting sunlight into electricity, collectors concentrate sunlight into flexible optical fibers. Sunlight is routed into buildings using the flexible cables where the light is combined with electric light in “hybrid” light fixtures. The natural and electric light sources work in unison to illuminate the inside of buildings. Lighting controls automatically reduce the amount of electric light used in accordance with the amount of sunlight available.