As part of its review of pre-Christmas rolling blackouts to combat record demand amid sub-zero temperatures, TVA announced Thursday it had appointed a “blue ribbon panel” as part of the process.

Panel members are Joy Ditto, president of the American Public Power Association; former U.S. Sen. Robert Corker of Tennessee and Mike Howard, retired CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute.

Related: Rolling blackouts ‘worked as intended,’ Huntsville Utilities says

TVA called on its local utility partners across its seven-state footprint to implement brief blackouts to help the public utility deal with an unprecedented demand for electricity Dec. 23-24. The blackouts included utility companies in north Alabama, including the state’s largest city of Huntsville.

Days later, TVA said it took “full responsibility” for the blackouts and promised a review to uncover lessons to be applied in the future and whatever corrective actions are necessary.

The panel will give the review an independent perspective, TVA said.

“These leaders bring tremendous experience and expertise not only in public power and energy systems, but also an understanding of the growing energy needs of the region,” TVA Chief Operating Officer Don Moul said in the announcement.

“As we work through our internal review and develop actions, we appreciate and value their independent review and insights.”

U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, who lives in the Huntsville suburb of Monrovia, said he experienced blackouts at his home. He posted on his campaign Facebook page that he would “have a lot of tough questions for TVA.”

On Thursday, Strong said he had a long conversation with TVA CEO Jeff Lyash about the blackouts. And though it was the first time in TVA’s 90-year history that it resorted to rolling blackouts to avoid overloading its grid, Strong said there is concern going forward for the fast-growing north Alabama area.

“If you’re consuming more than you’re producing, you’re going to have problems, multiple issues there. But I promise you this right here, I feel that there are solutions that will solve that. But I do know that we’ve got to do a better job as a team because if you’re recruiting industry to your community and you do not have enough energy to sustain, I can promise you, that will create a huge issue really quick. So we’ll continue that conversation with TVA.”

Strong also alluded to the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant near Scottsboro – located about 50 miles east of Huntsville. His predecessor in Congress, Mo Brooks, also called for Bellefonte to be completed in the aftermath of the blackouts.

It seems unlikely, though, that had the sale for Bellefonte not fallen through in 2018 and plans for completion had continued, that the plant would have helped avoid the blackout. In the summer of 2018, months before the expected completed sale of the plant by TVA to Nuclear Development LLC, the potential buyers said it would be five years before the plant would be completed – which would have projected to at least a 2023 date, long after the blackouts. That projected date also was made before the COVID-19 pandemic and months of supply chain issues that have plagued manufacturers across the country.