Waste Management Renewable Energy Becomes First Participant of TVA's Renewable Standard Offer Contract

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has inked a contract with Waste Management Renewable Energy as the first participant in its new Renewable Standard Offer initiative for 20 years. According to the contract, about 4.8 MW of power produced from Waste Management's landfill gas plant situated in Camden, Tennessee will be added to the renewable power portfolio of TVA.

The landfill gas plant is slated to commence supplying power in September 2011 via the Benton County Electric System in Camden. TVA included the Renewable Standard Offer in October 2010 as a fresh initiative for co-firing or gasification, wind, methane recovery, medium-size generators of biomass direct-combustion and solar that generates 201 kW to 20 MW of power.

The new initiative is intended to house projects that are huge for TVA's Generation Partners program, which was designed for projects producing less than or equal to 200kW of power for household and small industrial clients. The Renewable Standard Offer enables developers to sign long-term contracts that will assist TVA to eliminate increasing purchased power prices and thus maintain consumer prices. In the beginning, the Renewable Standard Offer will be restricted to a total power capacity of 100 MW from all participants, with none of the contracts accounting for over 50 MW of the total.