Maintenance of TVA-Owned Gas Pipelines

The Office of the Inspector General included an audit of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) maintenance of its owned gas pipelines in our annual audit plan due to pipeline issues identified at other utilities and potential risks to TVA. Our audit objective was to determine if TVA’s maintenance of its owned gas pipelines is adequate. We found TVA did not provide sufficient oversight of the two Contract Operations Providers and the Contract Engineering Provider. We found the lack of oversight resulted in inadequate maintenance in some areas and inconsistencies in reporting that hindered TVA’s ability to track and correct the identified deficiencies. In addition, we found TVA’s Gas Transmission Pipelines Policy (TVA Power Operations Standard Programs and Processes 09.120, Natural Gas Transmission Pipeline Operations) in place between July 2016 and October 2020 was limited and outdated on contractor oversight.