Department of Energy November 3, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces the availability of the ROD to implement the Proposed Action identified in the Klondike III/Biglow Canyon Wind Integration Project Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) (DOE/ EIS-0374, September 2006). BPA will offer PPM Energy, Inc. contract terms for interconnection of the proposed Klondike III Wind Project, located in Sherman County, Oregon, with the Federal Columbia River Transmission System (FCRTS). BPA will also offer Portland General Electric contract terms for interconnection of its proposed Biglow Canyon Wind Farm, also located in Sherman County, Oregon, with the FCRTS, as proposed in the Final EIS. To interconnect these wind projects, BPA will build and operate a 12-mile-long, 230-kilovolt (kV) double-circuit transmission line between the wind projects and BPA's new 230-kV John Day Substation located in Sherman County, Oregon. BPA will also expand its existing 500-kV John Day Substation.

Pursuant to section 215 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), the Commission is proposing to approve 83 of 107 proposed Reliability Standards, including six of the eight regional differences, and the Glossary of Terms Used in Reliability Standards developed by the North American Electric Reliability Council, on behalf of its wholly-owned subsidiary, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which the Commission has certified as the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) responsible for developing and enforcing mandatory Reliability Standards. Those Reliability Standards meet the requirements of section 215 of the FPA and Part 39 of the Commission's regulations. However, although we believe it is in the public interest to make these Reliability Standards mandatory and enforceable by June 2007, we also find that much work remains to be done. Specifically, we believe that many of these Reliability Standards require significant improvement to address, among other things, the recommendations of the Blackout Report. We therefore propose, pursuant to section 215(d)(5), to require the ERO to make significant improvements to many of the 83 Reliability Standards that are being approved as mandatory and enforceable. Appendix D provides a list of the Reliability Standards that should be given the highest priority when the ERO undertakes to make these improvements. With respect to the remaining 24 Reliability Standards, the Commission proposes that they remain pending at the Commission until further information is provided. The Commission is not proposing to remand any Reliability Standards. The Commission proposes to amend the text of its regulation to require that each Reliability Standard identify the subset of users, owners and operators to which that particular Reliability Standard applies. The Commission also is proposing to amend its regulations to require that each Reliability Standard that is approved by the Commission will be maintained in the Commission's Public Reference Room and on the ERO's Internet Web site for public inspection.