Raccoon Mountain plant powers up to 1 million homes in the Tennessee Valley; how does it work?
Raccoon Mountain provides power to 1,000,000 homes in the Tennessee Valley. It is TVA’s largest hydroelectric facility. Inside, it has four 425-megawatt units.
During Thursday’s tour, guides told visitors they were 1,200 feet under the lake. Water is pumped to the reservoir on top of the mountain and then used to generate electricity when additional power is needed by the TVA system.
TVA workers say the shift from traditional walking inspections to aerial mapping has been a game changer, improving safety and efficiency.
“What you’re seeing here with the large cylinders is inside there. There is a generator, and it sits atop a turbine, so our units are vertical, so the turbine sits underneath. There’s a generator that is tied to the top, just like a common power plant. When the water comes down from the reservoir, it comes into the turbine, which spins the unit,” explained Holli Hess, general manager of the Raccoon Mountain plant.
The turning motion inside eventually will create an electrical current. The power is fed through generator leads that are sent up transformers.
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The cable then goes up to the top of the mountain, where power is distributed to the Tennessee Valley.
“We are a different kind of facility in that we are able we have a turbine. The turbine itself is reversible, so during times of high demand, often during the day, the turbine will turn in one way and produce power while the other. During periods of low demand, the turbine will reverse and pump the other way. when you’re pumping, you’re pumping water up to the reservoir, so it does it in the different direction,” explained Holli Hess, general manager of Raccoon Mountain.
Strain on the power grid will grow this week.
The location has its benefits, like being protected from environmental factors.
“Whether you count winter storm Elliot, whether you count winter storm Fern, the folks who work here have been able to produce power reliably without the ups and downs of a power plant shutting down because of cold,” said Hess.
TVA will also expand into Jackson County, Alabama, adding a similar plant like the one at Raccoon Mountain. That project is expected to cost $2-$4 million.
“We’re continuing our study that we’ve been on for about two years now. We’re getting down to the final stages of that. The heavy lifting is done with the field environmental and the geologic studies. So now we’re just finalizing the financial analysis to make sure that a facility this order of magnitude of investment makes sense for the portfolio at this time,” said Scottie Barrentine, Jackson County Pumped Storage Project Manager.