The Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors on Thursday approved a series of actions to protect consumers, ensure long-term reliability and strengthen the nation’s energy security as demand for electricity accelerates across the Tennessee Valley region and the country, according to a press release from TVA.

The board approved the recommendations in the Integrated Resource Plan, approved the FY 2027 budget and made modifications to TVA’s wholesale rate structure to keep residential rates low while meeting growing data center demand.

The board approved updates to TVA’s wholesale rate structure to increase transparency, be more aligned to cost and protect residential and manufacturing customers from subsidizing the expenses associated with the growth of data center load in the area.

To meet customers’ expanding power demands, the board approved the recommendations in the Final 2026 Integrated Resource Plan that provides a long-term resource strategy balancing reliability, affordability, sustainability and flexibility. Between now and 2040, the plan suggests that the region will need 11 to 32 GW of additional generation capacity. Approving the plan is an important step in energy security because the study identifies a host of diverse generation mixes that could be needed to serve a rapidly growing region and maintain dependable year-round service.

The board also approved a new budget, which included more than $13 billion planned through FY29 to maintain reliability and expand capacity, including more than $1 billion annually to maintain and strengthen TVA’s existing generation fleet and transmission system.

Also provided for was construction of 4,120 MW of new TVA-owned capacity and 3,000 MW currently under evaluation.