The Tennessee Valley Authority will spend $3 million over the next year and a half to help chart its future for the next 20 years.

The federal utility this week is launching an integrated resource plan, the first for the agency since 1995, with an appeal to the public to tell TVA how it should produce power and protect its reservoirs. TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci said staff members plan to take the results of online surveys, public meetings and e-mail comments to prepare energy options and preferences for the TVA board to consider by early 2011.

Billed as "TVA's Environmental and Energy Future," the plan will outline various sources for producing electricity, their costs and reliability and their potential impacts on the environment. The study also will look at ways to conserve and manage natural resources and consider types of renewable generation that are available.

TVA President Tom Kilgore said he wants the plan to be more flexible and more project specific than the 1995 plan to help TVA directors sort through energy and environmental choices in an era of new regulations and policies.

The study will begin with a series of public meetings in July to get public input on TVA's natural resource management activities and power source options. One of the meetings is scheduled from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on July 21 in the University Center at UTC.

"These meetings and the resulting plan will help TVA determine what is most important to Tennessee Valley stakeholders and ratepayers in energy and environmental matters," said TVA Senior Vice President Anda Ray, who is overseeing the 18-month study.

As part of an online survey, TVA is asking Tennessee Valley residents to rate the relative importance of everything from cheap power to water recreation to clean air.

"Some people are more concerned about energy prices, some on reliability of energy services, while others are more concerned about environmental quality," Ms. Ray said in a notice published this week in the Federal Registry. "Ultimately, it is TVA's responsibility to balance all of these factors as it plans for the future."