The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) operates four coal plants, which are required to comply with the Clean Air Act (CAA). In 2023, changes to the CAA required the reduction of nitrogen oxide (NOx) from power plants. To comply with the changes, TVA made the decision to install Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems at TVA’s Shawnee Fossil Plant (SHF) for Units 2, 3, 7, and 8 and entered into a $59.5 million contract for the design and delivery of SCR systems (SCR systems are emission control technology designed to remove NOx from flue gases emitted by combustion sources). The contract included performance guarantees for meeting metrics such as NOx emissions, and system pressure drop. Due to the importance of complying with environmental regulations and the cost of the project, we initiated an evaluation to determine whether performance guarantees were met for the SHF SCR project.
We determined metrics associated with performance guarantees for the SHF SCR project were met. However, TVA project support personnel performed the SCR tuning, which was a defined contractor responsibility. This resulted in unnecessary risk and additional cost to TVA.
