TVA's role in recruiting jobs to East Tennessee

Even in times of economic prosperity, there is one rallying cry from workers across East Tennessee that makes its way to the ears of East Tennessee community leaders.

"Job creation is number one," Steve Jones, Clinton's City Manager said.

Clinton recently unveiled plans for Confluence Solar to come to town along with 250 jobs in the first phase of a brand new solar plant.

During the announcement at the capitol in Nashville, the backdrop prominently featured "TVA."  There's a reason for that.

"They're probably one of the first three phone calls," Rhonda Rice, the Executive Vice President of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce said.

Consistent, affordable power is key.  Jones said Confluence had some estimates their power bills would run up to five times as high in some areas of China as they are expected to be in Clinton.

It's one thing East Tennessee has going for it as the battle over jobs in this recession wages on.

"It's part of the necessary infrastructure and their costs up front.  If you have a section of 1-10 questions, utilities are going to be in your top ten," Rice said.

The Tennessee Valley Authority says no matter how much industry the state can draw, their power source should shine bright.  The agency says economic recovery estimates could mean an annual two percent growth in the amount of power needed in their service area. 

Right now, TVA is developing a comprehensive plan on how to meet those needs into the next 20 years.

Recent history shows even on the highest of power consumption days, TVA has only used about 90% of their capacity of 36,000 megawatts.

Regional recruiters say that's good news, because they see the power of reliable power only becoming a bigger deal as time goes by.

"It's a cost.  As companies are really looking at where they need to make budget and make cuts, you can't really make cuts to your electricity, because if you don't have the power than you can't run the plant, and you don't have a product," Rice said.

As long as there is power for that product, there will be an East Tennessean waiting to land that job.