Department of Energy May 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is soliciting public comment on FERC-521 (Payments for Benefits from Headwater Improvements) and will be submitting FERC-521 to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review of the information collection requirements.

Powerex Corp (Applicant or Powerex) has applied to renew its authorization to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to the Federal Power Act.

In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is soliciting public comment on the currently approved information collection, FERC-561 (Annual Report of Interlocking Positions).

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) gives notice of updated guidance for the Energy Policy Act of 2005 program. The guidance describes the hydroelectric incentive payment requirements and explains the type of information that owners or authorized operators of qualified hydroelectric facilities must provide DOE when applying for hydroelectric incentive payments. This incentive is available for electric energy generated and sold for a specified 10-year period as authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In Congressional appropriations for Federal fiscal year 2020, DOE received funds to support this hydroelectric incentive program. At this time, DOE is only accepting applications from owners and authorized operators of qualified hydroelectric facilities for hydroelectricity generated and sold in calendar year 2019.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is initiating an effort to determine whether to amend the current energy conservation standards for air-cooled commercial package air conditioning and heating equipment (referred to as air-cooled commercial unitary air conditioners and heat pumps (ACUACs and ACUHPs) in this document), and commercial warm air furnaces (CWAFs). This request for information (RFI) solicits information from the public to help DOE determine whether amended standards for ACUACs, ACUHPs, and CWAFs, subsets of covered commercial equipment, would result in significant additional energy savings and whether such standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified. DOE welcomes written comments from the public on any subject within the scope of this document (including those topics not specifically raised in this RFI), as well as the submission of data and other relevant information.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) addresses requests for rehearing and clarification and reaffirms its determinations in Order No. 864. In Order No. 864, the Commission required public utilities with transmission formula rates to propose tariff revisions to implement certain excess and deficient accumulated deferred income taxes (ADIT)-related mechanisms in their transmission formula rates as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act). The Commission continued to require public utilities with transmission stated rates to address excess and deficient ADIT resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in their next rate cases.