Department of Energy July 5, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

IPR-GDF SUEZ Energy Marketing North America, Inc. (GSEMNA) has applied for authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Mexico pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA).

The Department of Energy has submitted to the OMB for clearance, a proposal for collection of information pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The collection would be used to develop a scorecard that would assist DOE's Clean Cities Coalitions and stakeholders in assessing the level of readiness of their communities for plug-in electric vehicles. Information collected would allow DOE to provide respondents with an objective assessment of their communities' readiness for PEV adoption and an understanding of their commitment to successful deployment of PEVs, and is needed to ensure appropriate evaluation of progress in deploying PEVS.

In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is submitting the information collection FERC-725, Certification of Electric Reliability Organization; Procedures for Electric Reliability Standards, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review of the information collection requirements. Any interested person may file comments directly with OMB and should address a copy of those comments to the Commission as explained below. The Commission issued a Notice in the Federal Register (77 FR 24189, 04/23/2012) requesting public comments. FERC received no comments on the FERC-725 and is noting this in its submittal to OMB.

Under section 215 of the Federal Power Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) proposes to approve a modification to the currently-effective definition of ``bulk electric system'' developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Commission-certified Electric Reliability Organization. The revised definition of ``bulk electric system'' removes language allowing for regional discretion in the currently-effective bulk electric system definition. The revised definition establishes a bright-line threshold that includes all facilities operated at or above 100 kV. The modified definition also identifies specific categories of facilities and configurations as inclusions and exclusions to provide clarity in the definition of ``bulk electric system.'' The Commission also proposes to approve: (1) NERC's contemporaneously filed revisions to its Rules of Procedure, which creates an exception procedure to add elements to, or remove elements from, the definition of ``bulk electric system'' on a case-by-case basis; (2) NERC's proposed form entitled ``Detailed Information To Support an Exception Request'' that entities will use to support requests for exception from the ``bulk electric system'' definition; and (3) NERC's proposed implementation plan for the revised ``bulk electric system'' definition.