Let me give you an example. We had some shortages scattered across the U.S. last summer, and we could find ourselves in even worse shape when the warm weather returns in July and August of this year. Now, private utilities know that the American economy is increasingly dependent on electrical power, just as TVA does. But their bottom-line calculations don't allow for the generation of a whole lot of excess capacity just because we might, in a heat wave, find ourselves running short. Right now, they might argue, construction of another nuclear plant or coal-fired facility won't produce the return on investment their shareholders demand.
Surplus capacity is unsold inventory.
At TVA, of course, we don't have shareholders. We have the public. So, while TVA doesn't build facilities for power production greater than the requirements of our service area, we do operate with a surplus to avoid a power shortage to our customers. At TVA, we see it as our public responsibility to continue to provide a power margin for the Valley as the load continues to grow. Which is not to say that we couldn't actually run short of power in the Tennessee Valley this summer, or the next.