FERC News

FERC licenses 24-MW Lake Livingston; Alaska project files

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an original license to the 24-MW Lake Livingston hydroelectric project in Texas and received a license application for the 6.5-MW Allison Creek project in Alaska during the month of August.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an original license to the 24-MW Lake Livingston hydroelectric project in Texas and received a license application for the 6.5-MW Allison Creek project in Alaska during the month of August.

The Energy Infrastructure Update for August 2011, compiled by FERC’s Office of Energy Projects, said FERC issued an original license in August to East Texas Electric Cooperative Inc. for Lake Livingston (No. 12632). The project is to be built at the Trinity River Authority’s Lake Livingston Dam on the Trinity River near Livingston.

On behalf of East Texas Electric, the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp. secured a $10.2 million allocation of Clean Renewable Energy Bond authority for the Lake Livingston project in 2008. The cooperative proposes to build a headrace channel, an intake, three new penstocks, a powerhouse, a tailrace channel, a 3.2-mile transmission line, and a switchyard.

The commission also reported that Copper Valley Electric Association Inc. filed a final license application for the 6.5-MW Allison Creek project (No. 13124) proposed for Allison Creek at Port Valdez, Alaska.

FERC also received two applications for conduit exemptions from two applicants:
o Snohomish County Public Utility District, 735-kW Rucker Hill (No. 14255) on a 19-mile water line from Chaplain Reservoir in Everett, Wash., and
o Jordan Whittaker of Leadore, Idaho, 460-kW Eightmile (No. 14259) on the applicant’s irrigation pipeline in Lemhi County, Idaho.

FERC also reported that Duke Energy Carolinas LLC applied for a “non-capacity” amendment of its license for the 26.175-MW East Fork project on the Tuckasegee River in Jackson County, N.C.

Duke seeks to install a 395-kW minimum flow turbine at its Cedar Cliff development to release flows required by its new license. In May FERC relicensed East Fork and Duke’s 24.6-MW West Fork project (No. 2686).

Because the amendment would increase East Fork project capacity by less than 2 MW and would increase the project’s maximum hydraulic capacity by less than 15 percent, it is considered a non-capacity amendment under federal regulations.

FERC, which previously used the infrastructure update as an in-house tool, began making the monthly update public beginning with December 2010. The report allows the public to track the activities of the Office of Energy Projects in the areas of hydropower, natural gas, electric generation, and electric transmission.

The Office of Energy Projects’ Energy Infrastructure Update for August 2011 may be obtained from the FERC Internet site under http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/09-19-11-energy-infrastructure.pdf.

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