Tennessee Valley Authority told investors and regulators it is changing course on previously planned retirement timelines for two of its remaining coal plants in Tennessee, according to new filings. TVA said it prefers to keep the Kingston Fossil Plant and the Cumberland Fossil Plant operating rather than shutter them on the earlier schedule, even as it continues plans to add natural gas generation at both locations. The proposal would require additional action from the utility’s board.
TVA said the shift reflects what it described as regulatory changes and growing demand for electricity in its seven-state service area, where it partners with local power companies to supply roughly 10 million customers. In a statement, TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said, “As power demand grows, TVA is looking at every option to bolster our generating fleet to continue providing affordable, reliable electricity to our 10 million customers, create jobs and help communities thrive.”
Under the filing, TVA signaled it wants to drop the closure dates for Kingston and Cumberland, a change that would still include introducing natural gas-fired plants at both sites. TVA had previously intended to shutter its remaining aging coal plants by 2035 as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.
Advocates for clean energy said they viewed the change as raising questions about TVA’s decision-making, pointing to what TVA has said about needing additional natural gas plants to replace coal generation. Appalachian Voices said in a news release that the utility was extending operation of two major coal plants without what it called a public meeting. “Without even a public meeting, TVA is telling the people who live near these coal plants that they will breathe in toxic pollution from not one, but two major power plants for the foreseeable future,” said Gabi Lichtenstein, Tennessee Program Coordinator for Appalachian Voices. She added the move was “salt in the wound after ignoring widespread calls for cleaner, cheaper replacements for the Kingston and Cumberland coal plants.”
TVA’s board situation also figures into the timing of the proposal. The Trump administration selected a majority of TVA board members, and Trump fired enough board members chosen by the prior administration to leave the utility without a quorum, limiting what the board could do during that period. With a quorum restored after the U.S. Senate confirmed four Trump board nominees in December, TVA’s board was scheduled to meet Wednesday in Kentucky.
The filings arrive amid an earlier history of TVA’s shifting relationships to coal and gas. TVA had already faced criticism from advocates for planning to open more natural gas plants as it wound down its coal fleet. The utility’s long-term goals have included an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 over 2005 levels, and net-zero emissions by 2050, with a heavy emphasis on nuclear power.
TVA has cited load growth tied to data centers as part of its power-demand picture. During an investors call last week, TVA President and CEO Don Moul said data center demand grew to 18% of TVA’s industrial load in 2025, and he said TVA expects it to double by 2030 across the service region. The company also said the fairness of new data center pay rates is a priority for TVA.
The new plan would change earlier, site-specific details for coal-to-gas transitions. Under a 2024 final decision, TVA planned a 1,500-megawatt natural gas facility at Kingston with 4 megawatts of solar and 100 megawatts of battery storage, alongside a 2,470-megawatt coal plant finished in 1955. The 2024 plan also targeted the gas plant coming online by the end of 2027 while the coal plant would close, with the coal plant at the site tied to a massive 2008 coal ash spill. TVA’s updated proposal would keep the coal, gas, and battery components but drop the solar.
At Cumberland, TVA’s earlier plan involved phasing out the coal generation in two stages, with a mothballing schedule aimed at replacing coal with a 1,450-megawatt natural gas plant, first by the end of 2026 and then by the end of 2028. The Cumberland coal plant, completed in 1973, is TVA’s largest generating asset in its coal fleet.
The latest shift also follows a broader political history involving Trump and TVA. Trump opposed a coal plant closure during his first term, and in 2019 the TVA board still voted to close the Paradise Fossil Plant in Kentucky, whose last towers were demolished in 2024. In 2020, Trump fired the former TVA board chairman and another board member and also pushed TVA to reverse course on hiring foreign labor for information technology jobs, according to the reporting. TVA has said it does not receive federal taxpayer money and instead is funded by electricity customers, and it said the CEO pay it cited fell in the bottom quartile of the power industry.