13062 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 35 / Wednesday, February 21, 2024 / Notices 

online at: https://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/ 

oe417.aspx. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

information collection request contains 

(1) OMB No.: 1901–0288; 

(2) Information Collection Request 

Title: Electric Emergency Incident and 

Disturbance Report; 

(3) Type of Request: Three-year 

extension with changes; 

(4) Purpose: DOE uses Form DOE–417 

Emergency Incident and Disturbance 

Report to monitor electric emergency 

incidents and disturbances in the 

United States (including all 50 States, 

the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 

the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. 

Territories) and to investigate significant 

interruptions of electric power or threats 

to the electric system reliability. Form 

DOE–417 also enables DOE to meet the 

Department’s national security 

responsibilities as the coordinating 

agency for Emergency Support Function 

(ESF) #12—Energy, under the National 

Response Framework, and the SectorSpecific Agency for the energy sector, 

pursuant to Presidential Policy Directive 

21—Critical Infrastructure Security and 

Resilience, Presidential Policy Directive 

41—United States Cyber Incident 

Coordination, and the Fixing Americas 

Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, 

Public Law 114–94. The information 

may also be shared with other nonregulatory federal agencies assisting in 

emergency response and recovery 

operations or investigating the causes of 

an incident or disturbance to the 

national electric system. Public 

summaries of Form DOE–417 

submissions are published on the DOE– 

417 web page (https://www.oe.netl.doe.

gov/oe417.aspx) on a regular basis to 

keep the public informed. 

(4a) Changes to Information 

Collection: DOE proposes to make 

changes to Form DOE–417 to continue 

to ensure future alignment with the 

North American Electric Reliability 

Corporation (NERC) CIP–008–6 

Reliability Standard, as well as the 

NERC EOP–004–6 Reliability Standard, 

and potential future changes. The 

continued alignment between Form 

DOE–417 and NERC reporting 

requirements helps minimize confusion 

among industry stakeholders about 

where and how to file reports and 

enable industry stakeholders to train 

personnel to report using a single form. 

Additional changes to Form DOE–417 

clarify reporting criteria and updated 

types of entities that are required to 

submit certain criteria. A summary of 

these and other changes to Form DOE– 

417 is provided below: 

• Minor edit to alert criteria 2 to add 

‘‘as defined in the NERC Glossary of 

Terms’’ 

• Under ‘‘Criteria for Filing’’ section 

added alert criteria 27, ‘‘Uncontrolled 

loss of a total of 500 MW or more from 

inverter-based resource(s) for greater 

than 30 minutes at a common point of 

interconnection to the bulk electric 

system.’’ 

• Under ‘‘Cause’’ in the ‘‘Type of 

Emergency’’ section added the following 

subcategories to physical attack: 

Æ Ballistic 

Æ Arson 

Æ Explosive device 

Æ Other 

• Under ‘‘Cause’’ in the ‘‘Type of 

Emergency’’ section added the following 

subcategories to suspicious activity: 

Æ Aircraft or Unmanned Aerial System 

(UAS) 

Æ Trespassing or non-destructive 

intrusion 

Æ Surveillance 

Æ Vandalism 

Æ Other 

• Under ‘‘Cause’’ in the ‘‘Type of 

Emergency’’ combined ‘‘(Cyber event 

information technology)’’ and ‘‘cyber 

event (operational technology)’’ and 

added the following subcategories: 

Æ Information Technology 

Æ Operational Technology 

• Updated Instructions: Replaced 

‘‘Office of Electricity’’ with ‘‘Office of 

Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and 

Emergency Response 

• Updated Instructions: Replaced 

‘‘oe417@hq.doe.gov’’ with ‘‘DOE417@

hq.doe.gov.’’ 

• Updated Instructions: Replaced 

‘‘Assistant Secretary’’ with ‘‘Director’’ 

• Updated Instructions: Appendix A. 

Replace ‘‘What is Excluded’’ text for 

generating entities with ‘‘Entities who 

have 300 MW or more of generation 

detected to one or more end-use 

customers (e.g. retail or industrial 

customers), except for commercial 

power reactors regulated by the Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission and subject to 

the physical and cybersecurity event 

notification requirements of 10 CFR part 

73. All items need to be addressed.’’ 

• On Line F., Date/Time Incident 

Began.: Added Atlantic and Chamorro 

time zones 

• On Line G., Date/Time Incident 

Ended: Added Atlantic and Chamorro 

time zones 

(5) Annual Estimated Number of 

Respondents: 2,174; 

(6) Annual Estimated Number of 

Total Responses: 400; 

(7) Annual Estimated Number of 

Burden Hours: 5,025; 

(8) Annual Estimated Reporting and 

Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $438,984. 

DOE estimates that respondents will 

have no additional costs associated with 

the surveys other than the burden hours 

and the maintenance of the information 

during the normal course of business. 

Statutory Authority: 15 U.S.C. 772(b), 

764(b); 764(a); and 790a and 42 U.S.C. 

7101 et seq. and the Public Utility 

Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 

U.S.C. 2601, Pub. L. 93–275. 

Signed in Washington, DC, on February 15, 

2024. 

Samson A. Adeshiyan, 

Director, Office of Statistical Methods & 

Research, U. S. Energy Information 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2024–03515 Filed 2–20–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Project No. 2607–016] 

Spencer Mountain Hydropower, LLC; 

Notice Soliciting Scoping Comments 

Take notice that the following 

hydroelectric application has been filed 

with the Commission and is available 

for public inspection. 

a. Type of Application: Subsequent 

License. 

b. Project No.: P–2607–016. 

c. Date Filed: June 26, 2023. 

d. Applicant: Spencer Mountain 

Hydropower, LLC (SMH). 

e. Name of Project: Spencer Mountain 

Hydroelectric Project (Spencer 

Mountain Project). 

f. Location: On the South Fork 

Catawba River, near the town of 

Gastonia, in Gaston County, North 

Carolina. 

g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power 

Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)–825(r). 

h. Applicant Contact: Mr. Kevin 

Edwards and Mrs. Amy Edwards, 

Spencer Mountain Hydropower, LLC, 

916 Comer Rd., Stoneville, NC 27048; 

Phone at (336) 589–6138, or smhydro@

pht1.com. 

i. FERC Contact: Michael Spencer at 

(202) 502–6093; or michael.spencer@

ferc.gov. 

j. Deadline for filing scoping 

comments: March 15, 2024. 

The Commission strongly encourages 

electronic filing. Please file scoping 

comments using the Commission’s 

eFiling system at https://ferconline.ferc.

gov/FERCOnline.aspx. Commenters can 

submit brief comments up to 6,000 

characters, without prior registration, 

using the eComment system at https:// 

ferconline.ferc.gov/Quick

Comment.aspx. You must include your 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 35 / Wednesday, February 21, 2024 / Notices 13063 

1SMH’s non-capacity amendment to replace the 

horizontal Unit 1 turbine and generator with a 

vertical shaft turbine and generator of the same 

generating capacity was approved on June 11, 2020 

(See 171 FERC ¶ 62,126 (2020)). The replacement of 

Unit 1 is pending. (See Exhibit A, Project 

Description and Operation in the FLA, filed June 

26, 2023). 

name and contact information at the end 

of your comments. For assistance, 

please contact FERC Online Support at 

FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov, (866) 

208–3676 (toll free), or (202) 502–8659 

(TTY). In lieu of electronic filing, you 

may submit a paper copy. Submissions 

sent via the U.S. Postal Service must be 

addressed to: Debbie-Anne A. Reese, 

Acting Secretary, Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street 

NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426. 

Submissions sent via any other carrier 

must be addressed to: Debbie-Anne A. 

Reese, Acting Secretary, Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins 

Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852. All 

filings must clearly identify the 

following on the first page: Spencer 

Mountain Hydroelectric Project (P– 

2607–016). 

The Commission’s Rules of Practice 

and Procedure require all interveners 

filing documents with the Commission 

to serve a copy of that document on 

each person on the official service list 

for the project. Further, if an intervener 

files comments or documents with the 

Commission relating to the merits of an 

issue that may affect the responsibilities 

of a particular resource agency, they 

must also serve a copy of the document 

on that resource agency. 

k. The application is not ready for 

environmental analysis at this time. 

l. The existing Spencer Mountain 

Project consists of: (1) a 12-foot-high, 

636-foot-long masonry and rubble dam 

with a crest elevation of 634.7 feet mean 

sea level (msl); (2) a 68-acre reservoir 

with a storage capacity of 166 acre-feet; 

(3) a 58.9-foot-long canal headwork, 

consisting of four 6-foot-wide gates; (4) 

a 53.8-foot-long canal spillway 

connected to the downstream side of the 

canal headwork; (5) a 30-foot-wide, 10- 

foot-deep, 3,644-foot-long open earthen 

canal; (6) a 32-foot-wide trash rack at 

the powerhouse forebay with 2.5-inch 

clear bar-spacing; (7) a 36-inch-diameter 

bypass pipe; (8) a 22.5-foot-high, 49.5- 

foot-long, 48.75-foot-wide powerhouse 

containing two Francis-type generating 

units with a total capacity of 0.64 

megawatts; (9) a concrete lined tailrace 

discharging flows back into the South 

Fork Catawba River; (10) a substation 

containing a 2.3/44-kilovolt (kV) 

transformer and interconnection to 

Duke Energy’s 44 kV transmission line; 

and (11) appurtenant facilities. The 

project creates a 3,644-foot-long 

bypassed reach of the South Fork 

Catawba River. 

The current license requires SMH to 

operate in a run-of-river mode with a 

continuous minimum flow of 76 cubic 

feet per second (cfs), or inflow, 

whichever is less, released to the 

bypassed reach. SMH proposes no 

changes to the project facilities or 

operations.1 The project has an average 

annual generation of 4,064 megawatthours. 

SMP proposes to continue operating 

the project in run-of-river mode, and to 

continue releasing a continuous 

minimum flow of 76 cfs to the bypassed 

reach. 

m. Copies of the application can be 

viewed on the Commission’s website at 

https://www.ferc.gov using the 

‘‘eLibrary’’ link. Enter the project’s 

docket number excluding the last three 

digits in the docket number field to 

access the document. For assistance, 

contact FERC Online Support at 

FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov. 

You may also register at https://ferc

online.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx to be 

notified via email of new filings and 

issuances related to this or other 

pending projects. For assistance, please 

contact FERC Online Support at 

FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov. 

n. The Commission’s Office of Public 

Participation (OPP) supports meaningful 

public engagement and participation in 

Commission proceedings. OPP can help 

members of the public, including 

landowners, environmental justice 

communities, Tribal members and 

others, access publicly available 

information and navigate Commission 

processes. For public inquiries and 

assistance with making filings such as 

interventions, comments, or requests for 

rehearing, the public is encouraged to 

contact OPP at (202) 502–6595 or OPP@

ferc.gov. 

o. Scoping Process. Pursuant to the 

National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA), Commission staff intends to 

prepare either an environmental 

assessment (EA) or an environmental 

impact statement (EIS) (collectively 

referred to as the ‘‘NEPA document’’) 

that describes and evaluates the 

probable effects, including an 

assessment of the site-specific and 

cumulative effects, if any, of the 

proposed action and alternatives. The 

Commission’s scoping process will help 

determine the required level of analysis 

and satisfy the NEPA scoping 

requirements, irrespective of whether 

the Commission issues an EA or an EIS. 

At this time, we do not anticipate 

holding an on-site scoping meeting. 

Instead, we are soliciting written 

comments and suggestions on the 

preliminary list of issues and 

alternatives to be addressed in the 

NEPA document, as described in 

scoping document 1 (SD1), issued 

February 13, 2024. 

Copies of the SD1 outlining the 

subject areas to be addressed in the 

NEPA document were distributed to the 

parties on the Commission’s mailing list 

and the applicant’s distribution list. 

Copies of SD1 may be viewed on the 

web at http://www.ferc.gov using the 

‘‘eLibrary’’ link. Enter the docket 

number excluding the last three digits in 

the docket number field to access the 

document. For assistance, call 1–866– 

208–3676 or for TTY, (202) 502–8659. 

Dated: February 14, 2024. 

Debbie-Anne A. Reese, 

Acting Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2024–03492 Filed 2–20–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket No. ER24–1231–000] 

Wythe County Solar Project, LLC; 

Supplemental Notice That Initial 

Market-Based Rate Filing Includes 

Request for Blanket Section 204 

Authorization 

This is a supplemental notice in the 

above-referenced proceeding of Wythe 

County Solar Project, LLC’s application 

for market-based rate authority, with an 

accompanying rate tariff, noting that 

such application includes a request for 

blanket authorization, under 18 CFR 

part 34, of future issuances of securities 

and assumptions of liability. 

Any person desiring to intervene or to 

protest should file with the Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 

First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, 

in accordance with Rules 211 and 214 

of the Commission’s Rules of Practice 

and Procedure (18 CFR 385.211 and 

385.214). Anyone filing a motion to 

intervene or protest must serve a copy 

of that document on the Applicant. 

Notice is hereby given that the 

deadline for filing protests with regard 

to the applicant’s request for blanket 

authorization, under 18 CFR part 34, of 

future issuances of securities and 

assumptions of liability, is March 4, 

2024. 

The Commission encourages 

electronic submission of protests and 

interventions in lieu of paper, using the 

FERC Online links at http://

www.ferc.gov. To facilitate electronic 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES