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Neighbors Powering What Matters

Community Energy: the benefit of Sheffield Utilities and TVA working together
Community Energy

Community Energy—In Sheffield, Ala., Our Power Means More

Our region is powered by a public power model — owned by and accountable to the people who live here. So the initiatives we invest in through our power model serve one purpose: helping our communities thrive.

Because we support public power, we all benefit from Community Energy. It’s the progress our model enables — like more job opportunities thanks to thriving and growing communities, outdoor recreation made possible by our protected lands, cleaner energy sources, and much more.

A Partnership of Service

Sheffield Utilities and TVA work together to power not just our homes and businesses, but our potential too — by combining efforts to help create a future we all believe in.

Working Together to Make Life in Our Community Better

Sheffield Utilities and TVA were founded on a mission to serve — through reliable and affordable energy, a safe and protected environment and thriving economic development.

Sheffield Utilities provides electricity to 19,000 business and residential customers in Colbert County, Alabama, including the City of Sheffield, and manages 1,700 miles of distribution line. 

Eight buildings in Sheffield, Alabama were selected for energy efficient upgrades as a part of the TVA Community Center Growth (CCG) pilot. Steve Hargrove, GM, Sheffield Utilities says, “We chose businesses that needed help with energy efficiency because their outdated lighting and air conditioning systems are expensive to operate. TVA spent $450,000 in downtown Sheffield. They went in there and changed out the lights and A/C. And there’s no catch. TVA genuinely wants to help the businesses stay afloat. I don’t know too many companies giving money away like that.”

The community qualified for this program because it is considered a National Opportunity Zone, based on census data about income and population.

The historic Ritz Theatre is one of the buildings that has benefited from the CCG pilot. They now have new LED lights, an HVAC unit, workshop fan and concession cooler. Covering these expenses gives The Ritz budgetary freedom to build on their plans to be a community arts hub and continue to offer educational programming.

Our energy has fueled progress in our region since 1933. See the ways it's helping shape our future.

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Resources for Your Home, Business and Life

Our partnership makes helpful programs like these possible.

Business

Sheffield Utilities partners with TVA EnergyRight® to help connect businesses and industries to the energy resources they need to thrive and help the whole community flourish. It includes a Preferred Contractors Network to find reliable pros, and incentives to offset costs. Discover all the ways TVA EnergyRight® can help businesses manage energy use and boost the bottom line.

Business

Education

Sheffield Utilities and TVA work together to support community-wide learning about energy efficiency, meet STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) objectives and provide opportunities to develop skills that can prepare students for careers in technical fields.

TVA EnergyRight® School Uplift

Schools enrolled in TVA EnergyRight’s School Uplift program receive behavior-based strategic energy management (SEM) training that helps them integrate energy efficiency practices into their daily operations to save energy and money. Schools compete to win grants for infrastructure upgrades to reduce energy costs and improve the quality of the learning environment.

The community is grateful that several of their schools have been chosen to participate in the School Uplift program. “Each year, it has allowed a total of $300,000 to go back into the classrooms,” Tyler Jones, distribution manager, Sheffield Utilities says. “This is more than a partnership.”

In 2021, School Uplift recipient L E Wilson Elementary School received $200,000 in funding, which they used to upgrade lighting. That same year, W A Threadgill Primary School won a $100,000 grant, and used it to replace windows, an oven, a reach-in refrigerator and kitchen holding cabinet.

Colbert Heights High School, Cherokee High School, and Colbert County High School were chosen for the program in 2022. (Grants will be distributed at a later date.)

TVA STEM Grants

Teachers in public schools that receive power from a TVA distributor can win STEM grants up to $5,000. In 2022 alone, TVA distributed $1 million, in partnership with TVA retiree organization Bicentennial Volunteers Incorporated and the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network. TVA gives preference to applications covering its primary areas of focus–environment, energy, economic development and community problem solving.

Sheffield Junior High School won a TVA STEM grant in 2022 and 2020, and Hatton Elementary School, Leighton Elementary School, L E Wilson Elementary School, Sheffield High School and W A Threadgill Primary School received TVA STEM grants in 2021.

TVA EnergyRight Educational Workshops

Eye Spy Energy Kids’ Workshop

TVA EnergyRight and Sheffield Utilities partner to bring Spark, Bolt, Zap and their other EnergyRight Monster friends to elementary schools across the community, teaching students where energy comes from, how we use it and ways to save at home. Students can continue the energy-saving fun with their families using Eye Spy Energy Kits.

Energy Evolution High School Workshop

TVA EnergyRight and Sheffield Utilities are working together to offer engaging, interactive workshops that empower high school students to reduce their environmental impact and lead the next wave of our planet’s energy evolution.

Reliability

Sheffield Utilities partners with TVA to provide safe, reliable, clean power to service area customers. TVA supplies community energy to 153 local power companies and about 60 large industrial customers and federal facilities at the lowest feasible cost. For more than 20 years, TVA’s transmission system has achieved a reliability rate of 99.999 percent.

More than half of the electricity generated by TVA is derived from carbon-free resources. TVA’s diverse energy portfolio includes coal, gas, nuclear and hydroelectric plants as well as renewables.

Transmission lines

Residential

Sheffield Utilities partners with TVA to help customers make smart home energy decisions and save money on the power bill through TVA EnergyRight®. One of the programs Sheffield Utilities brings customers Green Switch, which gives them the opportunity to purchase solar-generated power in as many 150-kilowatt hour blocks as desired.

Together, they also provide resources such as DIY home energy-saving solutions to reputable local contractor recommendations.

 

A woman adjusting the temperature for a smart thermostat on a tablet