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Procurement of Long-Lead Transmission Materials

Report Information

Date Issued
Report Number
2026-17608
Report Type
Inspection / Evaluation
Description
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) must continually invest in transmission assets to ensure reliable power delivery.  In recent years, lead times for transmission materials, including some power circuit breakers and transformers, switch houses, conductors, and poles, have increased substantially.  The TVA Risk Portfolio includes extended lead times as an emerging issue within supply chain and states that delayed materials could threaten timely project completion.  Due to the importance of having materials and equipment available when needed, we performed an evaluation to determine if TVA was effectively managing procurement of long-lead transmission materials.    We determined TVA effectively managed the procurement of long-lead transmission materials.  Specifically, procurement of long-lead transmission materials did not delay the in-service date for completed projects and had not impacted approved in-service dates for ongoing projects we reviewed.  However, we determined the project management software assigns a default duration for long-lead materials that is significantly shorter than actual time frames, which could result in inaccurate project planning. 
Joint Report
No
Agency Wide
Yes (agency-wide)
Questioned Costs
$0
Funds for Better Use
$0

Recommendations

We recommend the Senior Vice President, Generation Projects and Fleet Services, take steps to ensure that milestone durations for procurement and delivery of long-lead materials reflect the actual lead times for those materials.