The Tennessee Valley Authority is at it again.

The 89-year-old federally owned electric utility, which changed the lives of millions in the 1930s through flood control and also aided in World War II efforts, plans to convert its fleet of 1,200 light- and medium-duty vehicles from gasoline and diesel power to electricity by 2030.

One new member of the fleet will be the electric Volkswagen ID4 SUV. The ID4 will come with heavy-duty suspension, beefed up 18-inch off-road tires and wheels, and a power station. It will also have custom storage for the authority's drones and field equipment.

The vehicle will make its public debut Nov. 1 at Volkswagen's booth at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association show in Las Vegas.

The TVA's fleet being replaced is made up of 400 light-duty cars, SUVs and pickups and 800 medium-duty trucks, all carbon emitting.

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the TVA during the Great Depression to reduce poverty and flooding from Virginia to Mississippi.

The TVA, which receives no tax money and operates like a for-profit utility, created jobs and provided electricity for homes and industry across the impoverished region.

By the 1940s, it was powering aluminum production for aircraft and the Manhattan Project in WWII.

Today, it supplies electricity to more than 10 million people, using solar, wind, gas and nuclear power as well as its original hydroelectric dams and coal plants.

Its service area includes all of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. Operations range from line maintenance to environmental studies.

The ID4 isn’t the TVA’s first electric Volkswagen. In 1978, the TVA tested a fleet of 10 electric minibuses. Each vehicle had 24 12-volt batteries and a 46.2-mile range.

Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Beefed up electric VW will be first to support TVA drone surveys