Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission and Establishing Procedural Schedule for Licensing and Deadline for Submission of Final Amendments; Bear Swamp Power Company, LLC, 17168-17170 [2018-08073]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 75 (Wednesday, April 18, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17168-17170]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-08073]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 2669-085]


Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission and 
Establishing Procedural Schedule for Licensing and Deadline for 
Submission of Final Amendments; Bear Swamp Power Company, LLC

    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.
    a. Type of Application: New Major License.

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    b. Project No.: 2669-085.
    c. Date Filed: March 30, 2018.
    d. Applicant: Bear Swamp Power Company, LLC (Bear Swamp).
    e. Name of Project: Bear Swamp Project.
    f. Location: The existing project is located on the Deerfield River 
in Berkshire and Franklin Counties, Massachusetts. The project does not 
affect federal lands.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Steven P. Murphy, Director of Licensing, 
Brookfield Renewable Energy Group, 33 West 1st Street South, Fulton, NY 
13069; Telephone (315) 593-3118.
    i. FERC Contact: John Baummer, (202) 502-6837 or 
[email protected].
    j. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    k. Project Description: The existing Bear Swamp Project consists of 
a pumped storage development, the Bear Swamp Pumped Storage 
Development, and a conventional hydropower development, the Fife Brook 
Development, with a combined authorized capacity of 676 megawatts (MW). 
The project generates an average of 483,863 megawatt-hours (MWh) 
annually, and uses an average of 618,293 MWh annually to operate the 
pumped storage development.

Bear Swamp Pumped Storage Development

    The existing Bear Swamp Pumped Storage Development consists of the 
following existing facilities: (1) A 118-acre upper reservoir with a 
gross storage capacity of 8,300 acre-feet at the normal full water 
surface elevation of approximately 1,600 feet National Geodetic 
Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD), which is contained by existing 
topography and 4 dikes: (a) An approximately 1,300-foot-long, 155-foot-
high curved, earth and rock-fill dike (North Dike); (b) an 
approximately 350-foot-long, 23-foot-high earth and rock-fill dike 
extending from the eastside of the North Dike (North Dike Extension); 
(c) an approximately 2,880-foot-long, 140-foot-high earth and rock-fill 
dike (South Dike); and (d) an approximately 750-foot-long, 50-foot-high 
earth and rock-fill dike (East Dike); (2) a 420-foot long emergency 
spillway to the east of the North Dike Extension; (3) an 88-foot-long, 
1.5- to 4-foot-wide, 4-foot-high submerged weir with three 5-foot-wide, 
3-foot-high concrete stoplog gates; (4) a 40-foot-diameter concrete 
inlet/outlet structure located at the bottom of the upper reservoir to 
the west of the North Dike; (5) an approximately 1,430.5-foot-long 
tunnel system that includes: (a) A 75-foot-long concrete-lined section 
that tapers from 40 feet to 25 feet in diameter; (b) an approximately 
965-foot-long, 25-foot-diameter concrete-lined section; (c) a 15-foot-
long concrete-lined section that bifurcates from a single 25-foot-
diameter section to two 20-foot-diameter penstock sections; (d) two 25-
foot-long concrete-lined penstock sections that taper from 20 feet to 
17.5 feet in diameter; (e) two 322-foot-long, 17.5-foot-diameter 
concrete-lined penstock sections; (f) two 20-foot-long concrete-lined 
penstock sections that taper from 17.5 feet to 11 feet in diameter; and 
(g) two 8.5-foot-long, 11-foot-diameter, steel-lined penstock sections; 
(6) a 227-foot-long, 79-foot-wide, 182-foot-high underground powerhouse 
containing two reversible Francis pump turbine-generator units with a 
total authorized capacity of 666 MW; (7) two 504-foot-long, 22-foot-
wide, 29.5-foot-high concrete-lined draft tube tunnels; (8) a lower 
reservoir inlet/outlet structure with four 15-foot-wide, 20-foot-high 
bays, each equipped with 16-foot-wide, 20.6-foot-high steel slide 
gates; (9) four 15-foot-wide, 26.7-foot-tall steel trashracks with 6-
inch bar spacing; (10) two 13.8-kilovolt (kV) motor-generator lead 
electrical lines, one approximately 890 feet long (east lead) and one 
approximately 900 feet long (west lead); (11) a 600-foot-long, 15-foot-
wide, 23-foot-high access tunnel for the generator lead lines; (12) two 
13.8/230-kV step-up transformers; (13) two 230-kV above-ground 
transmission lines, one approximately 4,075 feet long (south line) and 
one approximately 3,960 feet long (north line), which terminate at a 
non-project switchyard owned by National Grid; (14) a 700-foot-long, 
25-foot-wide, 29-foot-high tunnel for the access road; and (15) 
appurtenant facilities.

Fife Brook Development

    The existing Fife Brook Development consists of: (1) An 890-foot-
long, 130-foot-high earthen rock-fill dam; (2) a 152-acre impoundment 
with a gross storage capacity of 6,900 acre-feet at a normal maximum 
water surface elevation of 870 feet NGVD, which also serves as the 
lower reservoir for the Bear Swamp Pumped Storage Development; (3) two 
36-foot-wide, 40-foot-high steel Tainter spillway gates that are 
integral with the dam; (4) a concrete intake structure that is integral 
with the dam and includes an 11.2-foot-wide, 24-foot-tall trashrack 
with 3-inch bar spacing and a 15-foot-wide, 18-foot-high headgate; (5) 
a 10-foot-diameter, 200-foot-long steel penstock; (6) an approximately 
79.25-foot-long, 44-foot-wide, 94-foot-tall concrete powerhouse 
containing a 10-MW Francis turbine-generator unit; (7) a 21-foot-long 
steel-lined draft tube; (8) an approximately 325-foot-long, 30-inch-
diameter minimum flow release pipe that is gated at its intake and 
bifurcates into an approximately 55-foot-long, 20-inch-diameter pipe 
and an approximately 55-foot-long, 24-inch-diameter pipe; (9) a 
partially buried (860-foot-long section) and partially above-ground 
(7,060-foot-long section) 13.8-kV transmission line that connects the 
turbine-generator unit to the regional grid at a non-project substation 
owned by Great River Hydro, LLC; and (10) appurtenant facilities.
    The Bear Swamp Pumped Storage Development uses a storage capacity 
of 4,600 acre-feet to generate approximately 3,028 MWh of energy over a 
generation run time of approximately 5.3 hours. The Bear Swamp Pumped 
Storage Development normally generates and pumps back some or all of 
its useable storage capacity over a 24-hour period.
    The impoundment for the Fife Brook Development is the lower 
reservoir of the Bear Swamp Pumped Storage Development. The Fife Brook 
impoundment has an allowable drawdown of 40 feet to provide a useable 
storage capacity of 4,600 acre-feet to the upper reservoir of the Bear 
Swamp Pumped Storage Development for daily peaking operations. Releases 
from Fife Brook dam generally match the inflow from the Station No. 5 
Development of Great River Hydro, LLC's Deerfield River Project (FERC 
No. 2323), which discharges directly into the Fife Brook impoundment.
    The project's current license requires Bear Swamp to release a 
continuous minimum flow of 125 cubic feet per second (cfs) from Fife 
Brook dam, and to use water from the Bear Swamp Pumped Storage 
Development to meet the required 125 cfs minimum flow as necessary. The 
existing license also requires Bear Swamp to provide 106 scheduled 
annual releases of 700 cfs for whitewater recreation downstream of the 
Fife Brook dam from April 1 through October 31.
    l. Locations of the Application: A copy of the application is 
available for review at the Commission in the Public Reference Room or 
may be viewed on the Commission's website at https://www.ferc.gov using 
the ``eLibrary'' link. Enter the docket number excluding the last three 
digits in the docket number field to access the document. For 
assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at 
[email protected], (866) 208-3676 (toll free), or (202) 502-
8659 (TTY). A copy is also available for inspection and

[[Page 17170]]

reproduction at the Rowe Town Library, located at 318 Zoar Road, Rowe, 
MA 01367; or the North Adams Public Library, located at 74 Church 
Street, North Adams, MA 01247.
    m. You may also register online at https://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/esubscription.asp to be notified via email of new filings and issuances 
related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support.
    n. Procedural Schedule: Pursuant to section 5.19(d) of the 
Commission's regulations, the Director, Office of Energy Projects will 
issue an order within 30 days of the filing date of the final license 
application to resolve study requests that were filed in comments on 
the draft license application. At this time, the application is 
expected to be processed according to the following preliminary Hydro 
Licensing Schedule. Revisions to the schedule may be made following the 
Director's determination on the study requests, or as otherwise 
appropriate.

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                  Milestone                           Target date
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Notice of Acceptance/Notice of Ready for       October 2018.
 Environmental Analysis.
Filing of recommendations, preliminary terms   December 2018.
 and conditions, and fishway prescriptions.
Commission issues Draft Environmental          June 2019.
 Assessment (EA).
Comments on Draft EA.........................  August 2019.
Modified terms and conditions................  October 2019.
Commission issues Final EA...................  January 2020.
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    o. Final amendments to the application must be filed with the 
Commission no later than 30 days from the issuance date of the notice 
of ready for environmental analysis.

    Dated: April 12, 2018.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-08073 Filed 4-17-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P