Department of Energy November 26, 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.