By Bill Grubb

ROGERSVILLE - Although the title - plant manager - is relatively new, Phil Ball has been on the job at the John Sevier Fossil Plant for approximately eight years.
    Ball, who has served as engineering manager, maintenance manager and operations manager, was named plant manager approximately six weeks ago.
    A graduate of the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, Ball has an engineering degree and more than 25 years of experience working with TVA.
    As plant manager, Ball will be overseeing a facility with approximately 158 full-time TVA employees and 12 contract workers.
    The John Sevier plant has been in the news lately, not because of the personnel change, but as a result of a ruling handed down in the federal court ruling in North Carolina.
    In  January, the court said emissions from four TVA coal-fired power plants in Tennessee and Alabama, including John Sevier constituted a public nuisance in North Carolina, although plants were in compliance with their Clean Air Act permits and were meeting emission limits set by the states of Tennessee and Alabama.
    TVA officials countered the power supplier has "one of the most aggressive clean-air programs in the nation," and has already invested more than $6 billion of ratepayer dollars to reduce emissions.
    "TVA has been doing more to reduce its emissions than any other major electric utility in the region," said Bill McCollum, TVA's Chief Operating Officer. "We stand on TVA's record of environmental progress."
    The court ordered TVA to upgrade or install scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) and SCRs to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) at its Bull Run, Kingston, John Sevier and Widows Creek plants.
    The court also ordered TVA to accelerate the installation of scrubbers and SCRs already planned for the John Sevier plant, giving TVA less than three years to install all the equipment. To meet this schedule, TVA would have to install both the scrubbers and SCRs at the plant at the same time.
    According to TVA officials, this would require the shut down of units at the plant for approximately 20 months.
    "The accelerated schedule is a significant problem for the power system," said McCollum in a news release announcing an appeal of the ruling.
    John Sevier is TVA's easternmost power plant. Without generation in East Tennessee, TVA officials warned the system is more likely to become unstable and had asked the court to modify its order, but the court declined to do so.
    Last week the TVA board approved transferring funds to build a new gas-fired power plant in East Tennessee, by 2011, to make certain the region has an adequate power supply.
    "This gives us the flexibility to keep the voltage up and keep the light on," Gil Francis, a TVA spokesman explained.  "If for some reason we are on the accelerated schedule because of the lawsuit and the units here are down in the summer that would cause some issues for us." 
    Francis also noted the John Sevier plant is a key part of the TVA system "because right now we need every one to be able to meet the growing demand."
    No decision has been made on a site for gas plant, although it will need to be near transmission lines and gas line.
    Francis also noted several of the system's gas-fired plants are located at coal burning facilities.