Western Area Power Administration October 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Energy (DOE) received applications from North Branch Resources, LLC (NBR) and Generadora del Desierto, S.A. de C.V. (GDD) to construct the proposed San Luis Rio Colorado Project in Yuma County, Arizona. NBR and GDD (collectively termed the Applicants) are each wholly owned subsidiaries of North Branch Holding, LLC. GDD applied to Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE), an organizational unit within DOE, for a Presidential permit to construct, connect, operate, and maintain a double-circuit 500,000-volt (500-kilovolt [kV]) electric transmission line across the United States-Mexico international border. NBR submitted a request to Western Area Power Administration (Western), another organizational unit within DOE, to interconnect the double-circuit 500-kV electric transmission line to Western's existing Gila Substation. The Applicants proposed that Western construct, own, operate, and maintain the transmission components within the United States at the Applicants' expense. Western's decision is to allow the Applicants to interconnect with its transmission system at Gila Substation, and to construct the Agency Preferred Alternative upon completion of Western's Large Generator Interconnection Procedures (LGIP) process. Accordingly, Western intends to enter into interconnection and construction agreements with NBR, and to construct, own, operate, and maintain the transmission system additions in the United States that would allow the interconnection.