About TVA

Providing Power in the Public Interest

New Mobile Site for TVA Information Available at: http://m.tva.com.

TVA is the nation's largest public power company, with 33,000 megawatts of dependable generating capacity. Through 158 locally owned distributors, TVA provides power to about 8.7 million residents of the Tennessee Valley.

President Franklin Roosevelt needed innovative solutions if the New Deal was to lift the nation out of the depths of the Great Depression. And TVA was one of his most innovative ideas. Roosevelt envisioned TVA as a totally different kind of agency. He asked Congress to create "a corporation clothed with the power of government but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private enterprise". On May 18, 1933, Congress passed the TVA Act (PDF file, 175 kb, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Right from the start, TVA established a unique problem-solving approach to fulfilling its mission-integrated resource management. Each issue TVA faced—whether it was power production, navigation, flood control, malaria prevention, reforestation, or erosion control—was studied in its broadest context. TVA weighed each issue in relation to the others.

1930s Men

TVA's First Board of Directors was charged with the task of implementing President Roosevelt's ambitious plans for the Tennessee Valley. Shown in about 1934 are, from left to right, Director Harcourt A. Morgan, Chairman Arthur E. Morgan, and Director David E. Lilienthal.

From this beginning, TVA has held fast to its strategy of integrated solutions, even as the issues changed over the years.

For more information, visit http://www.TVA.gov