Department of Energy March 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the DOE Loan Guarantee to Royal Bank of Scotland for Construction and Startup of the Topaz Solar Farm, San Luis Obispo County, California (DOE/EIS-0458D) (Draft EIS) for public review and comment, as well as the date, location and time for a public hearing. The Draft EIS analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the DOE's proposed action of issuing a Federal loan guarantee to support construction and startup of the Topaz Solar Farm Project located in San Luis Obispo County, California (Proposed Project). The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, as Lender-Applicant, with Topaz Solar Farms, LLC (Topaz) as the borrower, submitted an application to DOE under the Federal loan guarantee program pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005). Topaz is a limited liability company that is owned by First Solar, Inc. The loan guarantee would support the financing arranged by the Royal Bank of Scotland for the construction and start up of the Proposed Project. Topaz proposes to develop the Project on up to 4,100 acres of land. As proposed, the nominal 550-megawatt electric generation project would include the installation of about nine million photovoltaic (PV) solar modules within approximately 437 arrays and associated electric equipment. Generated electricity would be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) under a long-term power purchase agreement. The Project would be interconnected into PG&E's existing Morro Bay-Midway 230- kilovolt (kV) transmission line, which runs in an east-to-west direction through the site and portions of Kern County.

This document announces receipt by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) of 29 petitions from 27 manufacturers seeking a 180-day extension of the compliance date related to recent amendments to the DOE test procedure for residential furnaces and boilers to address the standby mode and off mode energy consumption of those products. The petitioners demonstrated that meeting the specified compliance date would impose an undue hardship. Accordingly, today's Decision and Order grants these petitions to extend the compliance date by the requested 180 days.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will hold a public meeting to discuss and receive comments on the equipment classes that DOE plans to analyze for establishing energy conservation standards for commercial refrigeration equipment; the analytical framework, models, and tools that DOE is using to evaluate standards for this equipment; the results of preliminary analyses performed by DOE for this equipment; the potential energy conservation standard levels derived from these analyses that DOE could consider for this equipment; and any other issues relevant to the development of energy conservation standards for commercial refrigeration equipment. In addition, DOE encourages written comments on these subjects. To inform interested parties and facilitate this process, DOE has prepared an agenda, a preliminary technical support document (preliminary TSD), and briefing materials.

This notice announces receipt of and publishes the BSH Corporation (BSH) petition for waiver (hereafter, ``petition'') from specified portions of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure for determining the energy consumption of dishwashers. Today's notice also grants an interim waiver of the dishwasher test procedure. Through this notice, DOE also solicits comments with respect to the BSHpetition.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Paducah. 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.

This notice is being issued under the authority of section 131a. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. The Department is providing notice of a proposed subsequent arrangement under Article X paragraph 3 of the Agreement for Cooperation Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Korea Concerning Civil Uses of Atomic Energy and the Agreement for Cooperation Between the United States of America and the Argentine Republic Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.

This notice is being issued under the authority of section 131a. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. The Department is providing notice of a proposed subsequent arrangement under the Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy Between the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the United States of America and the Agreement for Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Norway Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) Chairs. 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.

This notice announces receipt of and publishes the Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (Samsung) petition for waiver (hereafter, ``petition'') from specified portions of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure for determining the energy consumption of electric refrigerators and refrigerator-freezers. The waiver request pertains to Samsung's product lines that incorporate multiple defrost cycles. In its petition, Samsung provides an alternate test procedure that DOE recently published in an interim final rule. DOE solicits comments, data, and information concerning Samsung's petition and the suggested alternate test procedure. DOE also publishes notice of the grant of an interim waiver to Samsung.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Recommendation 2010-1, concerning Safety Analysis Requirements for Defining Adequate Protection for the Public and the Workers was published in the Federal Register on November 30, 2010 (75FR 74022). In accordance with section 315(b) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2286d(b), the Secretary of Energy transmitted the following response to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on February 28, 2011.

Under section 215 of the Federal Power Act, the Commission approves regional Reliability Standard of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) IRO-006-WECC-1 (Qualified Transfer Path Unscheduled Flow Relief) and six associated new definitions submitted to the Commission for approval by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. This Reliability Standard is intended to mitigate transmission overloads due to unscheduled flow on a transfer path designated by WECC as being qualified for unscheduled flow mitigation.

This notice announces a meeting of the Ultra-Deepwater Advisory Committee. 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.

In this Final Rule, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) amends its regulations under the Federal Power Act to ensure that when a demand response resource participating in an organized wholesale energy market administered by a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) or Independent System Operator (ISO) has the capability to balance supply and demand as an alternative to a generation resource and when dispatch of that demand response resource is cost-effective as determined by the net benefits test described in this rule, that demand response resource must be compensated for the service it provides to the energy market at the market price for energy, referred to as the locational marginal price (LMP). This approach for compensating demand response resources helps to ensure the competitiveness of organized wholesale energy markets and remove barriers to the participation of demand response resources, thus ensuring just and reasonable wholesale rates.

The Commission denies rehearing and otherwise reaffirms its determinations in Order No. 743. In addition, the Commission clarifies certain provisions of the Final Rule. Order No. 743 directed the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) to revise the definition of the term ``bulk electric system'' through the ERO's Reliability Standards Development Process to address the Commission's policy and technical concerns and ensure that the definition encompasses all facilities necessary for operating an interconnected electric transmission network pursuant to section 215 of the Federal Power Act.