New Caledonia Gas Plant

Lowndes County, Mississippi

Updated January 10, 2025

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed construction of six dual-fuel frame combustion turbines (CTs) capable of generating approximately 500 Megawatts of power at TVA’s existing New Caledonia (NCG) Site in Lowndes County, Mississippi. The purpose of the Proposed Action is to support continued load growth within the region, and to meet the demand for electricity while facilitating the integration of renewables onto the electric grid, thereby advancing TVA’s decarbonization goals. CTs are needed to provide firm, dispatchable generation capacity to ensure that TVA can reliably meet year-round generation requirements, maximum capacity system demands, and planning reserve margin targets, and comply with the requirement under the TVA Act that power be sold at the lowest feasible rates.

In the FEIS TVA evaluated a No Action Alternative and an Action Alternative. Under the No Action Alternative, TVA would not develop the TVA-owned property in Lowndes County for energy generation. Under the Action Alternative TVA would construct and operate six CTs at NCG. TVA consulted with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and federally recognized tribes about the proposal.

TVA anticipates making a decision in February 2025. 

Public Involvement

TVA released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on July 15, 2024. The Notice of Availability was published in the Federal Register on July 19, 2024, and public comments were accepted through September 4, 2024. Additionally, TVA held its public meeting for the DEIS on August 15, 2024, in Caledonia, Mississippi. Collectively, TVA received 100 comments on the DEIS from the public, agencies, and other interested parties. TVA’s responses to comments can be found in Appendix A of the Final EIS.