Department of Energy 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is hereby granting a nationwide limited waiver of the Buy American requirements of section 1605 of the Recovery Act under the authority of Section 1605(b)(2) (iron, steel, and the relevant manufactured goods are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality) with respect to (1) surface mounting time switches with 24- hour program dials and single-pole-double-throw switches; (2) HVAC units with 8.375' W x 9.5' H x 2.72' DOnly when the application requires an HVAC unit with a height of 10' or less due to documented space constraints; (3) low temperature thermostats with a temperature range of 15-55 degrees Fahrenheit and manual reset; (4) Programmable DDC controllers for LON protocol, where an existing LON system exists that will not interface with other protocols without the input of extensive time and expense equal to or greater than the cost of the controllers themselves; and (5) Hardware necessary for implementation of Honeywell Enterprise Buildings Integrator (EBI) software for integration of water management and HVAC systems including: Customized Dell PowerEdge T610 Computer Server; Honeywell XL50UMMIPC-CBLON; Echelon LPR-10 42100R; SloanMCR231-D; SloanMCR140A, that will be used on eligible EERE-Recovery Act funded projects.

Under section 215 of the Federal Power Act, the Commission approves two Personnel Performance, Training and Qualifications (PER) Reliability Standards, PER-004-2 (Reliability CoordinationStaffing) and PER-005-1 (System Personnel Training), submitted to the Commission for approval by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the Electric Reliability Organization certified by the Commission. The approved Reliability Standards require reliability coordinators, balancing authorities, and transmission operators to establish a training program for their system operators, verify each of their system operators' capability to perform tasks, and provide emergency operations training to every system operator. The Commission also approves NERC's proposal to retire two existing PER Reliability Standards that are replaced by the standards approved in this Final Rule.

In this Final Rule, pursuant to section 215 of the Federal Power Act (FPA),\1\ the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) adopts, with modifications, the proposal outlined in its March 18, 2010 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to require the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) to revise its definition of the term ``bulk electric system.'' \2\ The Commission directs the ERO, through the ERO's Reliability Standards Development Process, to revise the definition to address the Commission's technical concerns, as discussed fully below, and ensure that the definition encompasses all facilities necessary for operating an interconnected electric transmission network. The Commission believes that the best way to accomplish these goals is to eliminate the regional discretion in the current definition, maintain a bright-line threshold that includes all facilities operated at or above 100 kV except defined radial facilities, and establish an exemption process and criteria for excluding facilities that are not necessary for operating the interconnected transmission network. However, this Final Rule allows the ERO, in accordance with Order No. 693, to develop an alternative proposal for addressing the Commission's concerns with the present definition with the understanding that any such alternative must be as effective as, or more effective than, the Commission's proposed approach in addressing the identified technical and other concerns, and may not result in a reduction in reliability.

This Notice announces the Department of Energy (DOE) acceptance of claims in FY 2011 from eligible active uranium and thorium processing site licensees for reimbursement under Title X of the Energy Policy Act of 1992. In FY 2009, Congress appropriated $70 million for Title X in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). In addition, Congress provided $10 million for Title X through the normal appropriation process. As of the end of FY 2010, there are approximately $24.3 million of Recovery Act funds available for reimbursement in FY 2011, as well as the $10 million provided by the FY 2009 appropriation. Approximately $9 million of the Recovery Act funds will be reimbursed to licensees in early calendar year 2011 following the review of claims received by April 30, 2010.

Under section 215 of the Federal Power Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposes to approve three new Interconnection Reliability Operations and Coordination Reliability Standards and seven revised Reliability Standards related to Emergency Preparedness and Operations, Interconnection Reliability Operations and Coordination, and Transmission Operations. These proposed Reliability Standards were submitted to the Commission for approval by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which the Commission has certified as the Electric Reliability Organization responsible for developing and enforcing mandatory Reliability Standards. The proposed Reliability Standards were designed to prevent instability, uncontrolled separation, or cascading outages that adversely impact the reliability of the interconnection by ensuring prompt action to prevent or mitigate instances of exceeding Interconnection Reliability Operating Limits. The Commission also proposes to approve the addition of two new terms to the NERC Glossary of Terms. In addition, pursuant to section 215(d)(5) of the Federal Power Act, the Commission proposes to direct NERC to develop a modification to the proposed term ``Real-time Assessment'' to address a specific concern identified by the Commission. The Commission raises some concerns with regard to certain aspects of NERC's proposals and, based on the responses from NERC and industry, may choose to direct certain modifications to the proposed new and revised Reliability Standard, as well as the new Glossary Terms, as discussed below.

Under section 215 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) proposes to approve Reliability Standards EOP-001-1 (Emergency Operations Planning), EOP- 005-2 (System Restoration from Blackstart Resources), and EOP-006-2 (System Restoration Coordination) submitted to the Commission by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) certified by the Commission. In addition, the Commission seeks comment from the ERO and other interested parties regarding specific concerns. The Commission may determine that, after considering such comments, it is appropriate to direct the ERO, under section 215(d)(5) of the FPA, to develop additional modifications to proposed EOP-005-2 and EOP-006-2. The proposed Reliability Standards require that plans, facilities and personnel are prepared to enable system restoration using designated blackstart resources.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposes to revise its test procedures for fluorescent lamp ballasts established under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The proposed test method would eliminate the use of photometric measurements in favor of purely electrical measurements with the goal of reducing measurement variation. Furthermore, this proposed test procedure would measure a new metric, ballast luminous efficiency (BLE), which more directly assesses the electrical losses in a ballast compared to the existing ballast efficacy factor (BEF) metric. Rather than testing a ballast with a resistive load as proposed in the March 24, 2010 notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), the BLE test procedure would measure the performance of a ballast while operating a fluorescent lamp.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Oak Ridge Reservation. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.