Department of Energy March 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is soliciting public comment on the currently approved information collection, FERC 725X (Mandatory Reliability Standards: Voltage and Reactive (VAR) Standards).

This notice announces a virtual meeting of the National Coal Council (NCC) via WebEx. The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.

In this order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) addresses arguments raised on rehearing, sets aside in part, and clarifies in part its final rule amending its regulations to remove barriers to the participation of distributed energy resource aggregations in the capacity, energy, and ancillary service markets operated by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators (RTOs/ISOs).

On February 24, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive order directing several Federal agency actions to secure and strengthen America's supply chains. One of these directions is for the Secretary of Energy to submit, within 100 days, a report to the President identifying risks in the high-capacity batteries, including electric- vehicle batteries, supply chain and policy recommendations to address these risks. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or Department) invites public comment on its Request for Information (RFI) number DE-FOA- 0002502 regarding the Risks in the High-Capacity Batteries, including Electric Vehicle Batteries Supply Chain.

On June 11, 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy (``DOE'') issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (``NOPR'') to amend the test procedure for room air conditioners (``room ACs''). That proposed rulemaking serves as the basis for the final rule. Specifically, this final rule adopts the following updates to the test procedure for room ACs at appendix F: Incorporate by reference current versions of applicable industry standards; establish test provisions to measure energy use of variable-speed room ACs during a representative average use cycle; update definitions to define key terms and support provisions for testing variable-speed room ACs; and incorporate specifications and minor corrections to improve the test procedure repeatability, reproducibility, and overall readability. This final rule does not modify the test procedures for single-speed room ACs and does not affect the measured energy use for these models. The provisions established to measure energy use of variable-speed room ACs will improve the representativeness of the measured energy use of these models.

The Department of Energy (DOE), pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, intends to extend for three years, an information collection request with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

This final rule amends the current test procedure for hot gas defrost unit coolers by making it consistent with a recent update to the industry testing standard that is incorporated by reference in the relevant Federal test procedure for walk-in freezer refrigeration systems. This final rule updates the equations used to calculate defrost energy and heat contributions applicable to these systems to provide a consistent performance evaluation between hot gas defrost and electric defrost unit coolers when tested alone.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is undertaking an early assessment review for consumer boilers to determine whether to amend the applicable energy conservation standards for this product. Specifically, through this request for information (RFI), DOE seeks data and information to evaluate whether amended energy conservation standards would result in significant savings of energy, be technologically feasible, and be 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 concerning this early assessment review.

This notice announces an online virtual meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) Chairs. The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that public notice of this conference call be announced in the Federal Register.