The aim is to save as much as 1,400 megawatts by 2012 on the hottest days of summer when air conditioners are running hardest. That's equal to the output of one nuclear reactor.

"We are going to have to spend some money on that. It doesn't come for free," TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said Thursday after a briefing on draft plans for new efficiency and renewable energy programs.

The 1,400-megawatt goal would only meet about 30 percent of TVA's projected need for more power, which is expected to rise about 1.7 percent, or around 800 megawatts, a year. And that still doesn't address a broader energy conservation policy.

But David Reister, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist active in the Sierra club, was encouraged. "We think that energy efficiency is the most important source of new energy," said Reister, who urged directors of the nation's largest public utility to reduce its carbon footprint.

TVA plans to hold a series of public meetings and confer with its 159 power distributors before adopting specific energy efficiency programs. It also will test some special pricing programs with industrial and commercial customers this summer that could encourage cuts in energy use.

But Kilgore said the first programs could be rolled out in 12 to 18 months.

"The first thing we have to do is educate people a lot on what this means in economic terms that they will understand," he said. "We really want to give them an incentive to get off our peak. That will save both of us money."

Time-of-use pricing is being considered to encourage conservation by residential consumers during the peak 4 p.m.-8 p.m. period in the summer and 6 a.m.-8 a.m. period in the winter, possibly by charging more for electricity during those times or offering some other incentives.

"The cost to the consumer, if you are talking about shifting the load, is not much," Kilgore said. "It's a little behavior modification, maybe some inconvenience." Like taking showers later in the day or running the dishwasher in the middle of the night.

TVA has budgeted $22 million this year to create these programs. Future spending may help distributors buy new electric meters or related infrastructure.

Jack Simmons, who heads a TVA distributors group, said the key concern is compatibility for a distributor network that ranges from 900-customer electric cooperatives to 400,000-customer metro utilities.

Joe Hoagland, a TVA vice president overseeing the energy efficiency program, said distributors also have concerns about broader conservation programs that could reduce their revenues.

Steve Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said he was most interested in TVA's plans for "demand response" or conservation. "Unfortunately, what they presented was missing those details," he said.

Meanwhile, TVA also is preparing a renewable energy policy that anticipates mandates from Congress requiring utilities to increase use of carbon-free wind, solar, geothermal, biomass or landfill gas.

TVA executive Anda Ray, who is leading a team drafting that plan, said TVA wants to use renewable energy sources developed in the Tennessee Valley, not credits from energy produced elsewhere, because of the environmental and economic benefits to the region.

But she said it's doubtful TVA could meet a 20 percent renewable energy portfolio standard by 2020, the most stringent of the proposals being discussed by Congress, because of a lack of resources _ notably not enough wind or sun or biomass in the TVA region.