Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 203 / Thursday, October 22, 2009 / Proposed Rules 54503 

1 18 CFR 131.80. 

2http://www.ferc.gov/QF. 

(ii) If you find a crack in the fitting, replace 

the fitting with an airworthy fitting before 

further flight. 

(iii) If you find a crack in the shaft, replace 

the shaft with an airworthy shaft before 

further flight by reference to Figure 1 and by 

following paragraph 2.B.3. of ASB 05.00.47 

or 05.45, whichever is appropriate for your 

model helicopter. 

(3) After the effective date of this AD, do 

not install any of the following parts on any 

helicopter: 

(i) Left-hand sliding door, part number 

(P/N) 350A25–0030–00XX, 350A25–0120– 

00XX, and 350AMR–0227–0052; 

(ii) Right-hand sliding door, P/N 350A25– 

0030–01XX, 350A25–0120–01XX, 350A25– 

0120–03XX, and 350AMR–0227–0051; 

(iii) Rail roller pin, P/N 350A25–1275–20; 

and 

(iv) Cast roller support fittings, P/N 

350A25–1270–20 and P/N 350A25–1270–22. 

Differences Between This AD and the MCAI 

AD 

(f) This AD differs from EASA AD No. 

2007–0236 as follows: 

(1) We use the word ‘‘inspect’’ to describe 

the actions required by a mechanic versus the 

word ‘‘check,’’ which is how we describe the 

actions allowed by a pilot. 

(2) We refer to the compliance time as 

hours time-in-service (TIS) rather than flying 

hours. 

(3) We do not require an operator to inform 

the manufacturer if a crack is found in the 

shaft as specified in the service information. 

(4) We do not include the Model L1, which 

is a military model helicopter; but we are 

including the Models 350C and D1 

helicopters. 

Other Information 

(g) Alternative Methods of Compliance 

(AMOCs): The Manager, Safety Management 

Group, Rotorcraft Directorate, ATTN: DOT 

FAA, Southwest Region, Gary Roach, ASW– 

111, Aviation Safety Engineer, Regulations 

and Guidance Group, 2601 Meacham Blvd., 

Fort Worth, Texas 76137, telephone (817) 

222–5130, fax (817) 222–5961, has the 

authority to approve AMOCs for this AD, if 

requested, using the procedures found in 14 

CFR 39.19. 

Related Information 

(h) MCAI EASA AD No. 2007–0236, dated 

August 31, 2007, contains related 

information. 

Joint Aircraft System Component (JASC) 

Code 

(i) JASC Code 5344: Fuselage Door Hinges. 

Issued in Fort Worth, Texas, on October 8, 

2009. 

Larry M. Kelly, 

Acting Manager, Rotorcraft Directorate, 

Aircraft Certification Service. 

[FR Doc. E9–25440 Filed 10–21–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

18 CFR Parts 131 and 292 

[Docket No. RM09–23–000] 

Revisions to Form, Procedures, and 

Criteria for Certification of Qualifying 

Facility Status for a Small Power 

Production or Cogeneration Facility 

October 15, 2009. 

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, DOE. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: In this Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking, the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission (Commission) 

proposes to revise its regulations, which 

currently provide the FERC Form No. 

556 (Form 556) that is used in the 

certification of qualifying status for an 

existing or proposed small power 

production or cogeneration facility. The 

Commission proposes to revise its 

regulations to remove the contents of 

the Form No. 556 from the regulations, 

and, in their place, to provide that an 

applicant seeking to certify qualifying 

facility (QF) status of a small power 

production or cogeneration facility must 

complete, and electronically file, the 

Form No. 556 that is in effect at the time 

of filing. We propose to revise and 

reformat the Form No. 556 to clarify the 

content of the form and to take 

advantage of newer technologies that 

will reduce both the filing burden for 

applicants and the processing burden 

for the Commission. We also propose to 

exempt generating facilities with net 

power production capacities of 1 MW or 

less from the QF certification 

requirement, and to codify the 

Commission’s authority to waive the QF 

certification requirement for good cause. 

Finally, we propose to clarify, simplify 

or correct certain sections of the 

regulations. 

DATES: Comments must be filed on or 

before December 21, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by Docket No. RM09–23–000, 

by one of the following methods: 

Agency Web site: http://www.ferc.gov. 

Follow the instructions for submitting 

comments via the eFiling link found in 

the Comment Procedures Section of the 

preamble. 

Mail: Commenters unable to file 

comments electronically must mail or 

hand deliver an original and 14 copies 

of their comments to: Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, Secretary of the 

Commission, 888 First Street, NE., 

Washington, DC 20426. Please refer to 

the Comment Procedures Section of the 

preamble for additional information on 

how to file paper comments. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Tom Dautel (Technical Information), 

Division of Economic and Technical 

Analysis, Office of Energy Policy and 

Innovation, Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, 888 First Street, NE., 

Washington, DC 20426, Telephone: 

(202) 502–6196, E-mail: 

thomas.dautel@ferc.gov. 

Paul Singh (Technical Information), 

Division of Tariffs and Market 

Development—West, Office of Energy 

Market Regulation, Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, 888 First 

Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426, 

Telephone: (202) 502–8576, E-mail: 

paul.singh@ferc.gov. 

S.L. Higginbottom (Legal Information), 

Office of the General Counsel, Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 

First Street, NE., Washington, DC 

20426, Telephone: (202) 502–8561, Email: samuel.higginbottom@ferc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction 

1. The Commission proposes to revise 

§ 131.80 of its regulations,1 which 

currently sets forth the FERC Form No. 

556 (Form 556) that is used in the 

certification of qualifying status for an 

existing or proposed small power 

production or cogeneration facility. 

Section 131.80 now contains Form No. 

556 and general instructions for 

completing the form. The Commission 

proposes to revise § 131.80 of its 

regulations to remove the contents of 

the Form No. 556 and, in their place, 

provide that an applicant seeking to 

certify qualifying facility (QF) status of 

a small power production or 

cogeneration facility must complete and 

file the Form No. 556 that is in effect at 

the time of filing, which will be made 

available for download from the 

Commission’s QF Web site.2 The 

Commission also proposes to require 

that the Form No. 556 be submitted to 

the Commission electronically. 

2. The Commission proposes to revise 

and reformat the Form No. 556 to clarify 

the content of the form and to take 

advantage of newer technologies that 

will reduce both the filing burden for 

applicants and the processing burden 

for the Commission. 

3. The Commission also proposes 

revisions to the procedures, standards 

and criteria for QF status provided in 

Part 292 of its regulations to accomplish 


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54504 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 203 / Thursday, October 22, 2009 / Proposed Rules 

3 18 CFR Part 292. 

4 18 CFR 292.601. 

5 18 CFR 292.602. 

6Streamlining of Regulations Pertaining to Parts 

II and III of the Federal Power Act and the Public 

Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, Order No. 

575, 60 FR 4831 (Jan. 25, 1995), FERC Stats. & Regs. 

¶ 31,014, order on reh’g, Order No. 575–A, 71 FERC 

¶ 61,121 (1995). 

7There is no fee for a self-certification; there is, 

however, a fee for Commission certification. 18 CFR 

381.505. The Commission will not process an 

application for Commission certification without 

receipt of the applicable fee. 

8 18 CFR 292.207(a). 

9Because recertification is a type of certification, 

policies applicable to self-certification and 

application for Commission certification also apply 

to self-recertification and application for 

Commission recertification. 

10Small Power Production and Cogeneration 

Facilities—Qualifying Status, Order No. 70, FERC 

Stats. & Regs., Regulations Preambles 1977–1981 

¶ 30,134 (1980), order on reh’g, Order Nos. 69–A 

and 70–A, FERC Stats. & Regs., Regulations 

Preambles 1977–1981 ¶ 30,160 (1980), aff’d in part 

and vacated in part, American Electric Power 

Service Corp. v. FERC, 675 F.2d 1226 (D.C. Cir. 

1982), rev’d in part, American Paper Institute, Inc. 

v. American Electric Power Service Corp., 461 U.S. 

402 (1983). 

11Order No. 70, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 30,134 at 

30,954. As discussed below, the Commission, in 

2005, added a requirement that a cogeneration 

facility or small power production facility either 

self-certify or receive Commission certification to 

have QF status. See 18 CFR 292.203(a)(3), (b)(2). 

12 18 CFR 292.207(b). 

13 18 CFR 381.505. 

14See 18 CFR 292.207(d)(ii). A similar 

opportunity for the Commission to revoke the QF 

status of a self-certified facility on the 

Commission’s own motion, or on the motion of 

another party, was not expressly provided in the 

regulations; the Commission, however, allowed 

others to seek the revocation of a self-certified QF 

by filing a petition for declaratory order. In Order 

No. 671, infra note 18, the right to file a motion 

seeking revocation of a self-certification was added 

to the Commission’s regulations. A motion seeking 

revocation requires a filing fee as a declaratory 

order. Chugach Electric Association, Inc., 121 FERC 

¶ 61,287, at P 51–54 (2007). The filing fee for a 

declaratory order is provided in 18 CFR 381.302. 

the following: (1) Exemption of 

generating facilities with net power 

production capacities of 1 MW or less 

from the QF certification requirement; 

(2) codification of the Commission’s 

authority to waive the QF certification 

requirement for good cause; (3) 

extension to all applicants for the QF 

certification requirement (currently 

applicable only to applicants for self 

certification of QF status) to serve a 

copy of a filed Form No. 556 on the 

affected utilities and state regulatory 

authorities; (4) elimination of the 

requirement for applicants to provide a 

draft notice suitable for publication in 

the Federal Register; and (5) 

clarification, simplification or 

correction of certain sections of the 

regulations.3

4. Finally, the Commission proposes a 

change to the exemption of QFs from 

the Federal Power Act,4 and to the 

exemption of QFs from the Public 

Utility Holding Company Act of 2005 

(PUHCA) and certain State laws and 

regulations 5 to make clear that certain 

small power production facilities that 

satisfy the criteria of section 3(17)(E) of 

the Federal Power Act qualify for those 

exemptions. 

5. The Commission is proposing the 

revisions described above with the 

following goals: (1) Making the Form 

No. 556 easier and less time consuming 

to complete and submit; (2) decreasing 

opportunities for confusion and error in 

completing the form; (3) improving 

consistency and quality of the data 

collected by the form; (4) decreasing 

Commission resources dedicated to 

managing errors and omissions in 

submitted forms; and (5) clarifying and 

correcting the regulations governing the 

requirements for obtaining and 

maintaining QF status. 

6. The proposed revisions to the Form 

No. 556 and the procedures for filing the 

Form No. 556 are informed by the 

Commission’s experience both with 

administering the Form No. 556 and 

with new technologies for electronic 

data collection that have become 

available since the Form No. 556 was 

first established by Order No. 575 in 

1995.6 We believe that the proposed 

changes will increase the effectiveness 

of the Commission’s policies 

encouraging cogeneration and small 

power production, as required by 

section 210 of the Public Utility 

Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 

(PURPA). 

II. Background 

7. When the Commission first 

implemented section 201 of PURPA, it 

provided two paths to QF status: selfcertification and Commission 

certification.7 The procedures for selfcertification are contained in 

§ 292.207(a) of the Commission’s 

regulations.8 When a small power 

production facility or cogeneration 

facility self-certifies (or self-recertifies),9

it certifies that it satisfies the 

requirements for QF status. The 

Commission does not formally review 

the self-certification. Instead, the selfcertification is assigned a docket 

number, and Commission staff looks at 

the filing to determine that the selfcertifier has provided the information 

required by the regulations. 

8. Self-certification was an essential 

part of the Commission’s 

implementation of PURPA, and was 

intended, in part, to make the 

certification process quick and not 

unduly burdensome. Thus, when the 

Commission first implemented section 

201 of PURPA in Order No. 70,10 the 

Commission rejected a proposal to 

adopt a case-by-case Commission 

certification requirement for all QFs, but 

instead provided that facilities that met 

the requirements for QF status need 

only furnish notice to the Commission 

of QF status.11 This notice (the selfcertification) was purely for 

informational purposes and to help the 

Commission monitor the market 

penetration of QFs. QF status, however, 

was established by meeting the 

requirements for such status and did not 

depend on the filing. Indeed, the 

Commission noted that QFs and 

purchasing utilities could agree that a 

generation facility met the requirements 

for QF status, and the facility would 

qualify for the benefits of PURPA 

without making any filing with the 

Commission. 

9. The Commission recognized, 

however, that the self-certification 

process would not always satisfy all 

those interested in a particular facility’s 

status. Accordingly, the Commission 

also established, in § 292.207(b) of the 

regulations,12 the ‘‘optional procedure’’ 

for QF status. Under the optional 

procedure, an entity may file an 

application for a determination by the 

Commission that a facility meets the 

requirements for QF status. Such an 

application requires a filing fee.13 After 

receiving an application for Commission 

certification and the required fee, the 

Commission assigns the filing a docket 

number and notices the filing in the 

Federal Register, providing an 

opportunity for interventions and 

protests. The Commission’s regulations 

provide that it will act on an application 

within 90 days of the filing (or of its 

supplement or amendment). The 

process gives those that need assurance 

of a facility’s QF status (or lack of such 

status) a Commission order certifying 

(or denying) QF status. This optional 

procedure is commonly known as an 

application for Commission 

certification. In its original regulations, 

the Commission also provided that, 

once a facility was certified by the 

Commission, its qualifying status could 

be revoked by the Commission, upon 

the Commission’s own motion, or upon 

the motion of any person.14 This 

combination of encouraging selfcertifications, while providing for both 

Commission-certification and an 

opportunity to seek revocation of QF 

status, would assure, the Commission 

believed, that only those generation 

facilities that meet the criteria for QF 

status would receive and retain that 

status. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 203 / Thursday, October 22, 2009 / Proposed Rules 54505 

15Order No. 575, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,014 at 

31,275. 

16A ‘‘new’’ cogeneration facility is defined as any 

cogeneration facility that was either not a qualifying 

cogeneration facility on or before August 8, 2005, 

or that had not filed a notice of self-certification, 

self-recertification or an application for 

Commission certification or Commission 

recertification as a qualifying cogeneration facility 

prior to February 2, 2006. 16 U.S.C. 824a–3(n)(2)(B); 

18 CFR 292.205(d). 

17Revised Regulations Governing Small Power 

Production and Cogeneration Facilities, Order No. 

671, 71 FR 7852 (Feb. 2, 2006), FERC Stats. & Regs. 

¶ 31,203 (2006), order on reh’g, Order No. 671–A, 

71 FR 30585 (May 22, 2006), FERC Stats. & Regs. 

¶ 31,219 (2006). 

18See 18 CFR 292.203(a)(3), (b)(2). 

19 18 CFR 366.23. 

20Order No. 671, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,203 at 

P 81. 

10. As noted above, the Commission, 

when it first enacted its regulations, had 

hoped that self-certifications would be 

the primary means for obtaining QF 

status, but recognized that there would 

be instances in which a Commission 

ruling on QF status would be desirable. 

While the Commission later, in Order 

No. 575, required QFs to provide more 

detailed information about selfcertifying QFs, in Form No. 556, the 

Commission continued to encourage 

self-certification, but also recognized 

that there would be reasons that a QF 

may want or need Commission 

certification (including the requirement 

of some lenders, electric utilities, or 

state regulators that a generator seeking 

QF status and the benefits of PURPA be 

Commission-certified). The Commission 

thus sought to make the selfcertification process more informative 

about the nature of the self-certified QFs 

while keeping the process relatively 

simple. The Commission stated the 

following: 

The Commission continues to believe that 

self-certification should be retained as an 

option; it is unnecessary to conduct a full 

review of each facility, even in instances 

where outside lenders and investors will be 

involved. However, in consideration of the 

various comments, and in recognition of the 

various other clarifications being made in 

this final rule, the Commission will not adopt 

the proposed affidavit requirement. Instead, 

the Commission will modify the selfcertification process to: (a) incorporate the 

Form 556 information requirement that the 

Commission is also adopting for applications 

for Commission certification; and (b) require 

that cogenerators and small power producers 

provide copies of the notice of selfcertification to each affected state 

commission and to each affected electric 

utility. The self-certifying cogenerator or 

small power producer must also specify the 

utility services that it intends to request (see 

item 3b of Form 556).[15] 

11. Following the enactment of the 

Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), 

which imposed new requirements for 

QF status for ‘‘new’’ cogeneration 

facilities,16 the Commission issued 

Order No. 671,17 which implemented 

those new requirements. As part of that 

implementation, for the first time, 

notices of self-certifications for new 

cogeneration facilities were required to 

be published in the Federal Register; 

self-certifications, other than for new 

cogeneration facilities, are not 

published in the Federal Register. In 

addition, as noted above, for the first 

time, the Commission required the filing 

of a notice of self-certification or an 

application for Commission certification 

as a requirement for QF status.18

III. Proposed Revisions to Regulations 

A. Revisions to 18 CFR 131.80 

12. Currently, § 131.80 of the 

Commission regulations contains the 

text of Form No. 556 as well as 

instructions on how to complete the 

form. We propose that § 131.80 of the 

Commission’s regulations will no longer 

contain Form No. 556. In place of the 

current language, we propose to require 

in § 131.80(a) that any person seeking to 

certify a facility as a QF must complete 

and file the Form No. 556 then in effect 

and in accordance with the instructions 

then incorporated in that form. 

13. Revising § 131.80 as proposed will 

make it easier to clarify and correct the 

form, should such changes prove 

necessary or appropriate in the future. 

Future changes to the form would be 

reviewed by the Office of Management 

and Budget following a solicitation of 

comments from the public on proposed 

changes, but would not require a formal 

rulemaking. This treatment is consistent 

with how a number of other 

Commission information collections are 

managed, including FERC Form Nos. 1, 

1–F, 3–Q, 60, 80, 423, 714, and 715, as 

well as the FERC Form No. 580 

Interrogatory.19

14. We are also proposing to require, 

through proposed § 131.80(c), that 

applicants submit their QF applications 

(whether initial certifications or 

recertifications, and whether selfcertifications or applications for 

Commission certification) electronically 

via the Commission’s eFiling website. 

We make this proposal for several 

reasons. First, for most applicants, the 

electronic filing process will be faster, 

easier, less costly and less resourceintensive than hardcopy filing. An 

applicant filing electronically will 

receive an acknowledgement that the 

Commission has received their 

application and a docket number for 

their submittal much more quickly than 

they would by filing in hardcopy 

format. Also, electronic filing will allow 

the Commission to electronically 

process QF applications, dramatically 

reducing required staff resources and 

human error, and allowing the 

Commission to identify patterns of 

reporting errors and noncompliance that 

would be difficult to detect through 

manual processing. Finally, electronic 

filing of QF applications would 

facilitate the compilation of QF data that 

could be made available to the public. 

Each year Commission staff field a 

number of requests for QF certification 

data from private organizations, 

researchers and other government 

agencies. Requiring applicants to file in 

electronic format would make it 

possible to respond to many more such 

requests, and/or to publish compiled QF 

data on the Commission’s website. 

15. While electronic filing of QF 

certifications has many benefits, we 

recognize that some of the parties 

submitting applications for certification 

of QF status are small entities that 

consider the cost of legal representation 

to be burdensome and/or that lack 

access to the computer facilities 

necessary to make an electronic filing. 

16. To address this concern, we 

propose to amend § 292.203 to exempt 

the smallest applicants, those with a net 

power production capacity less than or 

equal to 1 MW, from the requirement to 

make any filing with the Commission in 

order to be a QF. Facilities larger than 

1 MW represent a significant departure 

from residential power generation, and 

we would expect entities certifying such 

facilities to have access to the legal 

representation and the computer 

facilities needed to electronically file a 

Form No. 556. We seek comments on 

this proposal, and, in particular, on 

whether a 1 MW threshold is the 

appropriate threshold. We note that 

until the effective date of Order No. 671, 

no filing, either of a self-certification or 

an application for Commission 

certification, was needed for QF status. 

In instituting the filing requirement for 

QF status, the Commission, among other 

things, explained that requiring a filing 

would help ensure that a ‘‘new’’ 

cogeneration facility would not be able 

to claim QF status without making a 

filing; the Commission believed that the 

Congressional mandate to tighten the 

standards for cogeneration facilities 

required that a filing, either a selfcertification or an application for 

Commission certification, be made by 

an entity claiming QF status.20 While, as 

discussed above, the data submitted on 

Form No. 556 are valuable, there may 

not be as compelling reasons for 


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54506 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 203 / Thursday, October 22, 2009 / Proposed Rules 

21 18 CFR 292.203. 

22 18 CFR 292.203(b)(1). 

23See Ashland Windfarm, LLC, 124 FERC 

¶ 61,068 (2008) (Commission granted waiver of the 

filing requirement for QF status). 

24 ‘‘Geothermal’’ was inadvertently omitted when 

the regulation was written. The change we are 

proposing obviates the need to correct this 

omission. 

25 18 CFR 292.205(d). 

26 Id. (emphasis added). 27The significance of August 8, 2005 is that it is 

the date on which the Energy Policy Act of 2005 

was signed into law. 

28 16 U.S.C. 824a–3(n)(2)(A) (emphasis added). 

29See Revised Regulations Governing Small 

Power Production and Cogeneration Facilities, 

Order No. 671, 71 FR 7852 at P 81 (Feb. 2, 2006), 

FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,203, at P 81 (2006). 

30 16 U.S.C. 824a–3(n)(2)(B). 

facilities that are very small, such as 

solar generation facilities installed at 

residences or other relatively small 

electric consumers such as retail stores, 

hospitals, or schools, to make filings 

with the Commission for QF status. 

17. Alternatively, we could maintain 

a hardcopy filing requirement for small 

facilities instead of exempting small 

facilities from any certification 

requirement; however, such a policy 

would add considerably to the 

complexity of the Commission’s 

regulations. The very limited benefit of 

such a policy does not seem to justify 

this added complexity or the burden on 

the affected parties. 

B. Revisions to 18 CFR 292.203 

18. Section 292.203 of our 

regulations 21 lists the general 

requirements for QF status. For a 

qualifying small power production 

facility, those requirements currently 

state that the facility must meet the 

maximum size criteria specified in 

§ 292.204(a), meet the fuel use criteria 

specified in § 292.204(b), and must have 

filed a notice of self-certification or an 

application for Commission certification 

that has been granted. For a qualifying 

cogeneration facility, those 

requirements currently state that the 

facility must meet any applicable 

operating and efficiency standards 

provided in § 292.205(a) and (b), and 

that the facility must have filed a notice 

of self-certification or an application for 

Commission certification that has been 

granted. 

19. We propose to correct an 

inadvertent error in § 292.203(b)(1) of 

our regulations.22 Order No. 671 

implemented additional technical 

requirements for certain cogeneration 

facilities in § 292.205(d), but 

§ 292.203(b)(1) was not updated to 

reflect that a facility must comply with 

these new requirements (if applicable) 

in order to be a qualifying cogeneration 

facility. We propose to add the reference 

to § 292.205(d) in § 292.203(b). Because 

the technical requirements of 

§ 292.205(d) are not ‘‘operating and 

efficiency standards,’’ we propose to 

amend § 292.203(b) to delete the phrase 

‘‘operating and efficiency standards’’ 

and to replace it with the phrase 

‘‘standards and criteria.’’ 

20. Finally, as mentioned above, we 

seek comments on whether to add a 

§ 292.203(d) which would exempt 

certain very small facilities from the 

requirement to make a filing for 

qualifying status and would make 

explicit the Commission’s authority to 

grant waiver of the filing requirement 

upon petition where good cause is 

shown.23 As discussed above, certain 

very small facilities may find the filing 

requirement for obtaining QF status to 

be unduly burdensome. On the other 

hand, there is value to the data received 

in a self-certification, the selfcertification process has been designed 

to be and is relatively easy, and we 

intend to make it easier with the 

adoption of an easier-to-use Form No. 

556. 

C. Revisions to 18 CFR 292.204 

21. Section 3(17)(E) of the Federal 

Power Act provides that an ‘‘eligible 

solar, wind, waste or geothermal 

facility’’ is a facility which produces 

electric energy solely by the use, as a 

primary energy source, of solar energy, 

wind energy, waste resources or 

geothermal resources, but only if such 

facility meets certain criteria for dates of 

certification and construction. Section 

3(17)(A) of the Federal Power Act 

provides that any eligible solar, wind, 

waste, or geothermal facility is a small 

power production facility, regardless of 

its size. The Commission implemented 

these sections of the Federal Power Act 

in § 292.204(a), including the statement 

that there are no size limitations for 

‘‘eligible’’ solar, wind or waste 

facilities,24 as defined by section 

3(17)(E) of the Federal Power Act. The 

regulation then states that, for ‘‘a noneligible facility,’’ the size limitation for 

a qualifying small power production 

facility is 80 MW. 

22. The wording of § 292.204(a) has 

created confusion for many applicants. 

Applicants not familiar with section 

3(17)(A) or (E) of the Federal Power Act 

frequently confuse the statutory concept 

of ‘‘eligibility’’ with more general 

questions of whether their facility is 

eligible for QF status. They often 

assume that an ‘‘eligible facility’’ is any 

facility that is eligible for qualifying 

status. In an attempt to reduce such 

confusion, we propose to revise 

§ 292.204(a) to be more clear while 

achieving the same regulatory outcome 

as the current § 292.204(a); the proposed 

revision avoids using the term 

‘‘eligible.’’ 

D. Revisions to 18 CFR 292.205 

23. The text of § 292.205(d) of the 

Commission’s regulations 25 contains an 

error in the description of the new 

cogeneration facilities that are subject to 

the requirements of §§ 292.205(d)(1) and 

(2). Section 292.205(d) provides that the 

following facilities are subject to these 

requirements: 

Any cogeneration facility that was either 

not certified as a qualifying cogeneration 

facility on or before August 8, 2005, or that 

had not filed a notice of self-certification, 

self-recertification or an application for 

Commission certification or Commission 

recertification as a qualifying cogeneration 

facility under § 292.207 of this chapter prior 

to February 2, 2006, and which is seeking to 

sell electric energy pursuant to section 210 of 

the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 

1978, 16 U.S.C. 824a–1.[26] 

24. From this language, the criteria for 

QF status include whether or not a 

cogeneration facility was ‘‘certified as’’ 

a qualifying cogeneration facility by 

August 8, 2005.27 However, the text of 

section 210(n)(2) of PURPA states that 

the Commission’s prior cogeneration 

requirements shall continue to apply to 

any facility that ‘‘was a qualifying 

cogeneration facility on [August 8, 

2005].’’ 28 Furthermore, at the time of 

enactment of EPAct 2005, the 

Commission’s regulations did not 

require that a facility that complied with 

the requirements for QF status be 

certified in order to be a QF.29 As such, 

there were many facilities that were QFs 

on August 8, 2005, even though they 

were not certified as QFs by that date. 

To correct this error, we propose to 

strike the words ‘‘certified as’’ from the 

first sentence of § 292.205(d). 

25. Section 210(n)(2) of PURPA also 

states that the Commission’s prior 

cogeneration requirements will continue 

to apply to any facility that ‘‘had filed 

with the Commission a notice of selfcertification, self recertification or an 

application for Commission certification 

under 18 CFR 292.207 prior to [February 

2, 2006].’’ 30 The Commission 

implemented this provision in 

§ 292.205(d) by not applying the new 

cogeneration requirements to any 

cogeneration facility that had filed ‘‘a 

notice of self-certification, selfrecertification or an application for 

Commission certification or 

Commission recertification as a 

qualifying cogeneration facility under 

§ 292.207 of this chapter prior to 

February 2, 2006.’’ Because any facility 


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31 18 CFR 292.207(a)(2). 

32 18 CFR 292.207(a)(1)(iv). 

33 18 CFR 292.207(b)(4). 

that had recertified (either by selfrecertification or application for 

Commission recertification) prior to 

February 2, 2006 must necessarily have 

made its original certification prior to 

February 2, 2006, the inclusion of ‘‘selfrecertification’’ and ‘‘application for 

Commission recertification’’ in this 

provision is unnecessary. We propose to 

simplify § 292.205(d) to state that the 

new cogeneration requirements will not 

apply to any facility that had filed ‘‘a 

notice of self-certification or an 

application for Commission certification 

as a qualifying cogeneration facility 

under § 292.207 of this chapter prior to 

February 2, 2006.’’ This proposed 

revision would achieve the same 

regulatory result while decreasing the 

complexity of the regulatory text, and 

thus the opportunities for confusion. 

E. Revisions to 18 CFR 292.207 

1. Elimination of Pre-Authorized 

Commission Recertification 

26. We propose to eliminate the 

procedure for pre-authorized 

Commission recertification contained in 

§ 292.207(a)(2).31 That procedure was 

established to give applicants for 

facilities that have been certified under 

the procedures for Commission 

certification in § 292.207(b) a list of 

insubstantial alterations and 

modifications that would not result in 

the revocation of QF status previously 

granted by the Commission. Section 

292.207(a)(2)(ii) also requires those 

making the changes listed in 

§ 292.207(a)(2)(i) to notify the 

Commission and each affected utility 

and State regulatory authority of each 

such change. 

27. The pre-authorized Commission 

recertification process does not 

currently require the use of Form No. 

556, and historically the very few 

applicants that have filed preauthorized Commission recertifications 

have done so in the form of a letter 

describing the changes to their facilities. 

In this rulemaking, we are 

implementing procedures to require that 

self-certifications or applications for 

Commission certification be made 

through the electronic submission of a 

Form No. 556. Removing the preauthorized recertification option 

ensures that all QF certification filings 

will be made electronically using Form 

No. 556. We could opt to revise the 

procedure for the pre-authorized 

Commission recertification to require 

such filings to be made electronically 

using a Form No. 556, but such a 

revised procedure would be essentially 

identical to the procedure for selfcertification. Having such a duplicative 

procedure appears unjustified, 

particularly given the increase in 

complexity to the Form No. 556 and the 

Commission’s regulations that would 

result. 

28. Furthermore, we note that the 

types of changes listed in 

§ 292.207(a)(2)(i) may be somewhat 

misleading, as a strict reading of that list 

may imply that almost any change to a 

QF, no matter how small, would require 

notice to the Commission and to the 

affected utilities and State regulatory 

authorities. In reality, changes falling 

below a certain level of importance are 

not significant enough to justify the 

burden on the applicant of the 

recertification requirement. 

2. Elimination of Procedures for 

Referring to Information From Previous 

Certifications 

29. Section 292.207(a)(1)(iii) provides 

that subsequent notices of selfrecertification for the same facility may 

reference prior notices or prior 

Commission certifications, and need 

only refer to changes which have 

occurred with respect to the facility 

since the prior notice or the prior 

Commission certification. We propose 

to delete this provision, and, as a result, 

to change the Commission’s policy so 

that applicants are required to provide 

all of the information for their facility in 

each Form No. 556 they submit with a 

self-recertification or an application for 

Commission recertification. We believe 

this proposed change will result in 

greater transparency. During the 

processing of routine QF petitions and 

periodic compliance reviews of selfcertifications, the Commission 

frequently finds that the original 

certification data for some facilities 

(particularly facilities originally 

certified in the 1980s) can be difficult to 

obtain. And requiring the provision of 

full data in a recertification would be a 

small, one-time burden for applicants, 

because applicants may, after their first 

recertification subsequent to a Final 

Rule implementing this proposal, 

simply download their previous 

electronically-filed Form No. 556 from 

eLibrary and update the relevant 

responses to generate their new Form 

No. 556. Given the significant benefit 

and the small, one-time burden, 

deletion of § 292.207(a)(1)(iii) appears 

appropriate. 

3. Elimination of Requirement to 

Provide a Draft Notice Suitable for 

Publication in the Federal Register 

30. Section 292.207(a)(1)(iv) of our 

regulations 32 currently requires that 

notices of self-certifications and selfrecertifications for new cogeneration 

facilities be published in the Federal 

Register. Similarly, § 292.207(b)(4) of 

our regulations 33 requires that notices 

of applications for Commission 

certification or recertification be 

published in the Federal Register. For 

these applications that require 

publication of notices in the Federal 

Register, §§ 292.207(a)(1)(iv) and (b)(4) 

require that applicants provide with 

their filing a draft notice suitable for 

publication in the Federal Register on 

electronic media. 

31. We propose to continue to publish 

notices self-certification and selfrecertification for new cogeneration 

facilities and applications for 

Commission certification and 

recertification in the Federal Register, 

and we include that requirement in the 

proposed § 292.207(c). However, we 

propose to delete §§ 292.207(a)(1)(iv) 

and (b)(4) in order to eliminate the 

requirement that applicants for those 

types of filings provide a draft notice 

suitable for publication in the Federal 

Register. We have found that there is a 

significant amount of confusion among 

many QF applicants—particularly 

smaller applicants—about exactly what 

a Federal Register notice is, and how to 

provide a draft of such a notice on 

electronic media. Furthermore, because 

under the proposed changes to § 131.80 

applicants would file their Forms 556 

electronically, the Commission can 

automatically generate Federal Register 

notices directly from the Form No. 556 

data, without requiring a draft notice 

submitted by the applicant. We expect 

this proposed amendment will result in 

a decrease in the burden to small QF 

applicants. 

4. Requirement to Serve a Copy of a 

Form No. 556 on Affected Utilities and 

State Commissions 

32. Currently applicants for selfcertification are required to serve a copy 

of their QF self-certification filings on 

each electric utility with which they 

expect to interconnect, transmit or sell 

electric energy to, or purchase 

supplementary, standby, back-up and 

maintenance power from, and the State 

regulatory authority of each state where 

the facilities and each affected electric 


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54508 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 203 / Thursday, October 22, 2009 / Proposed Rules 

34 18 CFR 292.207(a)(ii). 35 18 CFR 292.601(a). 36Public Law 101–575, 104 Stat. 2834 (1990), as 

amended by Public Law 102–46, 105 Stat. 249 

(1991). 

37Cambria Cogen Co., 53 FERC ¶ 61,459, at 

62,619 (1990). 38Because 18 CFR 292.602(a) states that the 

exemption from PUHCA and State laws and 

regulations provided in that section applies to any 

QF described in 18 CFR 292.601(a), and because the 

QFs described by 18 CFR 292.601(a) include all QFs 

other than those described by 18 CFR 292.601(b), 

the Incentives Act’s exemption of ‘‘eligible 

facilities’’ from the size limitation contained in 18 

CFR 292.601(b) has the effect of making such 

facilities also eligible for the exemptions from 

PUHCA and State laws and regulations in 18 CFR 

292.602. 

39http://www.ferc.gov/QF. The proposed revised 

Form No. 556 will not be attached to the Microsoft 

Word version of this document. 

40 44 U.S.C. 3507(d). 

41Order No. 575, 60 FR 4831 (Jan. 13, 1995), 

FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,014, at 31,282 and 31,285. 

utility is located.34 No such requirement 

currently exists for applications for 

Commission certification. 

33. We propose to amend the 

regulations to require that any applicant 

filing a self-certification, selfrecertification, application for 

Commission certification or application 

for Commission recertification must 

serve a copy of its filing on each affected 

electric utility and State regulatory 

authority. Specifically, we propose to 

make the following revisions: (1) Delete 

§ 292.207(a)(1)(ii); (2) rename 

§ 292.207(c) ‘‘Notice requirements’’ 

instead of the current ‘‘Notice 

requirements for facilities of 500 kW or 

more’’; (3) insert § 292.207(c)(1) before 

the current first paragraph in 

§ 292.207(c), that would establish that 

any applicant for self-certification, selfrecertification, Commission certification 

or Commission recertification must 

serve on each affected utility and state 

regulatory authority a copy of its filing; 

and (4) revise the existing text of 

§ 292.207(c), which will become 

§ 292.207(c)(2), requiring facilities of 

500 kW or more to provide that an 

electric utility is not required to 

purchase electric energy from a facility 

with a net power production capacity of 

500 kW or more until 90 days after the 

facility meets the notice requirements in 

§ 292.207(c)(1). 

5. Other Proposed Changes 

34. We propose to remove reference to 

‘‘pre-authorized Commission 

recertification’’ in the title of 

§ 292.207(a) and in the body text of 

§ 292.207(d)(1)(i). We also propose to 

delete the current § 292.207(a)(1), and to 

replace it, in § 292.207(a), with a 

procedure for self-certification that 

incorporates clear reference to proposed 

§ 131.80 and to the notice requirements 

in § 292.207(c). 

F. Revisions to 18 CFR 292.601 

35. We propose to amend § 292.601(a) 

of our regulations 35 to make clear the 

exemption from the specified Federal 

Power Act sections is applicable to any 

facility that meets the definition of an 

‘‘eligible solar, wind, waste or 

geothermal facility’’ under section 

3(17)(E) of the Federal Power Act. 

Section 4 of the Solar, Wind, Waste, and 

Geothermal Power Production 

Incentives Act of 1990 (Incentives 

Act) 36 provides that ‘‘eligible facilities’’ 

shall not be subject to the size 

limitations contained in § 292.601(b) of 

the Commission’s regulations, unless 

the Commission otherwise specifies. 

The Commission has found that the size 

limitation for eligibility for the 

exemptions contained in §§ 292.601 and 

292.602, otherwise applicable to other 

small power production facilities, does 

not apply to ‘‘eligible facilities.’’ 37 We 

propose to amend § 292.601(a) to make 

that clear.38

G. Revisions to 18 CFR 292.602 

36. We propose to amend 

§ 292.602(c)(1) to clarify that it is only 

the QFs described in paragraph (a) of 

that section that may take advantage of 

the exemptions provided in § 292.602, 

and to correct a typographical error. 

Finally, we propose to correct a 

typographical error in the title of 

§ 292.602. 

IV. Proposed Revisions to the Form No. 

556 

A. General 

37. We propose to make a number of 

changes to the content and organization 

of the Form No. 556. A proposed revised 

Form No. 556 is included as Attachment 

A to this document, and will be 

available for download from the 

Commission’s QF Web site.39 As 

discussed above, we are not proposing 

to include the content of the Form No. 

556 in the Commission’s regulations, 

however, the changed Form No. 556, 

once approved, will become ‘‘the Form 

No. 556 then in effect’’ for purposes of 

the proposed § 131.80. We are therefore 

giving notice of our proposed changes to 

Form No. 556, which after receiving and 

considering comments on those 

changes, we will submit for OMB 

approval pursuant to the provisions of 

the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.40

38. In addition to the structure of the 

proposed Form No. 556, we propose to 

include (in the Final Rule version of the 

form) data controls, automatic 

calculations, error handling and other 

programmatic features to assist 

applicants and maintain data quality. 

We request comment on any specific 

features that interested persons would 

find useful, and that should be included 

in the form. 

39. Most of the proposed changes to 

the Form No. 556 are intended to make 

use of new electronic data structuring. 

While, in most cases, we propose to 

collect the same data that is currently 

collected in the Form No. 556, the new 

form will allow the Commission to more 

efficiently administer the QF program. 

Commission staff spends a significant 

amount of time working with applicants 

that either misunderstand the current 

form, pay insufficient attention to the 

informational requirements on the 

current form, or both. By making Form 

No. 556 easier to understand, we will 

make the submission of Form No. 556 

less burdensome to applicants. 

40. Our experience has been that the 

open-ended nature of the current Form 

No. 556 data collection—where 

applicants are able to type any answer 

or no answer in response to an item— 

often results in applicants incorrectly 

answering or skipping items or portions 

of items that they mistakenly feel do not 

apply to them. Improved instructions, 

the use of a greater number of questions 

which are individually narrower in 

scope, and the use of certain electronic 

data controls and validation options, 

such as checkboxes and data entry fields 

that only accept data formatted in the 

appropriate way, are proposed to 

minimize these problems. 

41. We seek comments on any aspect 

of the proposed form. While many of the 

changes to the form are self-explanatory, 

we discuss the more significant changes 

below. 

B. Name of Form 

42. In Order No. 575, the Commission 

adopted San Diego Gas and Electric 

Company’s suggestion to title the Form 

No. 556 to make clear that it applies to 

proposed as well as to existing 

facilities.41 We are not proposing to 

change the applicability of the form to 

proposed and existing facilities; 

however, as part of our attempt to make 

the Form No. 556 as simple and clear as 

possible, we propose to shorten the 

name of the form to ‘‘Certification of 

Qualifying Facility (QF) Status for a 

Small Power Production or 

Cogeneration Facility.’’ 

C. Geographic Coordinates 

43. Over the years we have received 

a number of inquiries from the public 

seeking certain information about QFs. 

Many of these inquiries were from 

academics, research organizations or 


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42Revised Regulations Governing Small Power 

Production and Cogeneration Facilities, Order No. 

671, 71 FR 7852 (Feb. 2, 2006), FERC Stats. & Regs. 

¶ 31,203 (2006), order on reh’g, Order No. 671–A, 

71 FR 30585 (May 22, 2006), FERC Stats. & Regs. 

¶ 31,219 (2006). 

43As defined in section 3(22) of the Federal 

Power Act. 16 U.S.C. 796(22). 

44As defined in section 1262(8) of the Public 

Utility Holding Company Act of 2005. 42 U.S.C. 

16451(8). 

45The 10 percent ownership threshold is 

proposed to be consistent with the 10 percent 

ownership thresholds used in the definition of a 

‘‘holding company’’ in section 1262(8) of the Public 

Utility Holding Company Act of 2005, 42 U.S.C. 

16451(8), and in the definition of ‘‘affiliate’’ in 18 

CFR 35.36(a)(9). However, we seek comments on 

whether a different threshold would be more 

appropriate in this context. 

46 18 CFR 292.204(b). 

47 18 CFR 292.204(b)(2). 

48Particularly since the wording of the current 

item 7 of the Form No. 556 states the fuel use 

requirements of the Commission’s regulations, we 

would find unconvincing any argument that an 

applicant was justified in violating the fuel use 

requirements of the Commission’s regulations by 

virtue of its statements in item 7. 

other government entities performing 

studies of the effectiveness of PURPA 

and the Commission’s regulations 

implementing PURPA. Often such 

inquiries have involved the dates that 

applications for different types of QFs 

were filed (particularly relative to 

certain changes in policies) and the 

locations of the QFs. Currently, location 

information is collected only through 

the street address of the facility, even 

though some facilities in rural or 

wilderness areas do not have a street 

address. 

44. We believe it may be useful to 

researchers (as well as the public in 

general, and affected electric utilities 

and State regulatory authorities in 

particular) to have specific locational 

data for QFs, even for facilities that do 

not have street addresses. In addition to 

having value for researchers, such 

specific locational data would also 

provide a transparent means of 

determining compliance with the size 

requirement for small power production 

facilities, which is based in part on the 

distance between adjacent generating 

facilities. As such, we propose to 

include a new line 3c that will require 

applicants for facilities without a street 

address to provide the geographic 

coordinates (latitude and longitude) of 

their facilities. The text of the proposed 

line 3c directs applicants to the 

Geographic Coordinates section of the 

instructions on page 4 which discusses 

several different ways through which 

applicants might obtain the geographic 

coordinates of their facilities: Through 

certain free online map services (with 

links available through the 

Commission’s QF Web site); a GPS 

device; Google Earth; a property survey; 

various engineering or construction 

drawings; a property deed; or a 

municipal or county map showing 

property lines. Applicants are directed 

in line 3c to provide their geographic 

coordinates to three decimal places, and 

are given a simple formula for how to 

convert degrees, minutes and seconds to 

decimal degrees. We solicit comments 

on the submission of locational 

information for facilities that do not 

have a street address. 

D. Ownership 

45. In Order No. 671, the Commission 

eliminated the limitation on electric 

utility and electric utility holding 

company ownership of QFs, but 

maintained the requirement that 

applicants provide ownership 

information in the Form No. 556.42

46. The wording of item 1c of the 

current Form No. 556 has proven 

confusing with respect to the collection 

of ownership information. In particular, 

item 1c does not specify the amount of 

equity interest in the facility above 

which the applicant is required to 

identify the owner. For facilities with 

many owners, this can prove 

burdensome, particularly if the 

ownership changes frequently. 

47. Experience has also shown that 

the current wording of item 1c proves 

confusing to applicants with respect to 

which types of owners (direct or 

upstream) they are supposed to identify. 

48. We propose to clarify both the 

level of ownership above which 

applicants are required to identify 

owners, and which information must be 

provided for direct and upstream 

owners. First, while maintaining the 

current requirement that applicants 

indicate the percentage of direct 

ownership held by any electric utility 43

or holding company,44 we propose to 

clarify in line 5a of the proposed Form 

No. 556 that applicants need only 

provide information for direct owners 

that hold at least 10 percent equity 

interest in the facility.45 Second, we 

propose to require in line 5b that 

applicants identify all upstream owners 

that both (1) hold at least a 10 percent 

equity interest in the facility and (2) are 

electric utilities or holding companies. 

49. We seek comments on these 

changes to the ownership requirement. 

In particular, we seek comment on 

whether the 10 percent equity interest 

threshold is the proper threshold. 

E. Fuel Use for Small Power Production 

Facilities 

50. Section 292.204(b) of the 

Commission’s regulations 46 allows 

small power production facilities to use 

oil, natural gas or coal in amounts up to 

and including 25 percent of the total 

energy input to the facility as calculated 

during the 12-month period beginning 

with the date the facility first produces 

electric energy and any calendar year 

subsequent to the year in which the 

facility first produces electric energy. 

Such use of oil, natural gas or coal is 

limited to certain purposes specified in 

section 3(17)(B) of the Federal Power 

Act as implemented in § 292.204(b)(2) of 

the Commission’s regulations.47

51. Item 7 of the current Form No. 556 

requires applicants to describe ‘‘how 

fossil fuel use will not exceed 25 

percent of the total annual energy input 

limit,’’ and ‘‘how the use of fossil fuel 

will be limited to the following 

purposes to conform to Federal Power 

Act Section 3(17)(B): Ignition, start-up, 

flame stabilization, control use, and 

minimal amounts of fuel required to 

alleviate or prevent unanticipated 

equipment outages and emergencies 

directly affecting the public.’’ 

Experience with this item has indicated 

two problems. First, because applicants 

have significant latitude in how they 

respond, they often make statements 

which do not, on their face, commit 

themselves to fuel use that would meet 

the Commission’s requirements for 

qualifying small power production 

facilities. While these responses are 

unlikely to represent an intentional 

attempt on the part of applicants to 

circumvent the Commission’s 

regulations for fuel use,48 the statements 

could make enforcement of the 

Commission’s regulations more 

difficult. 

52. On the other hand, applicants who 

are very specific in their response to 

item 7 may feel that they have 

committed themselves to only engage in 

the particular uses they specified in 

their Forms 556, despite the fact that the 

Commission’s regulations may permit 

more flexibility in the use of fossil fuel. 

53. We propose a simpler method of 

certifying compliance with the 

Commission’s fuel use requirements for 

small power production facilities that 

should avoid these problems. Rather 

than requiring applicants to describe 

how they will comply, we propose to 

simply state what the fuel use 

requirements are, and to require the 

applicant to certify, by checking a box 

next to each requirement, that they will 

comply. This proposal will, we believe, 

obligate the applicant to comply with 

the stated requirements, while not 

creating an impression that the 

applicant must limit its fuel use to some 

standard which is more stringent than 


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49Congress in EPAct 2005, and the Commission 

in implementing EPAct 2005, referred to the 

facilities subject to the EPAct 2005 requirements as 

‘‘new’’ cogeneration facilities. 16 U.S.C. 824a–3(n); 

18 CFR 292.205(d). To avoid confusion that this 

‘‘new’’ label will create as time passes and such 

facilities are not ‘‘new’’ anymore (except with 

respect to the date of the implementation of EPAct 

2005), we will refer in the proposed Form No. 556 

to such facilities as ‘‘EPAct 2005 cogeneration 

facilities.’’ 

50Order No. 671, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,203 at 

P 17 (2006). 

that established in the Commission’s 

regulations. 

F. Mass and Heat Balance Diagrams for 

Cogeneration Facilities 

54. Item 10 of the current Form No. 

556 requires applicants for qualifying 

cogeneration facility status to provide a 

mass and heat balance diagram 

depicting average annual hourly 

operating conditions. As part of item 10, 

applicants are required to provide the 

following on their mass and heat 

balance diagrams: All fuel flow inputs 

in Btu/hr. specified using lower heating 

value, separately indicating fuel inputs 

for supplementary firing; average net 

electric output in kW or MW; average 

net mechanical output in horsepower; 

number of hours of operation used to 

determine the average annual hourly 

facility inputs and outputs; and working 

fluid flow conditions at input and 

output of prime mover(s) and at delivery 

to and return from each useful thermal 

application. Working fluid flow 

conditions required to be provided 

include the following: Flow rates in 

lbs./hr.; temperature in °F; pressure in 

psia; and enthalpy in Btu/lb. 

55. Some applicants have complained 

that, for relatively simple cogeneration 

facilities, some of the information 

required is meaningless or not known. 

For example, small diesel generators 

utilizing jacket water cooling systems to 

capture waste heat are often certified as 

qualifying cogeneration facilities. Such 

systems typically have no steam at any 

point in the system, and instead use 

pressurized water or an antifreeze 

solution to recover the waste heat and 

transport it to the useful thermal 

application. For such systems, 

applicants have complained that 

specifying pressure has no significance, 

since the effect of pressure on enthalpy 

(a measure of thermal energy content) is 

negligible for liquids at standard 

conditions. Likewise, applicants have 

complained that, since pressure in allliquid systems is not an important 

design variable, it is often not known to 

any degree of accuracy in such systems. 

56. Some applicants have also pointed 

out that, in systems which are all liquid 

water, the extra work required to 

determine and specify enthalpy is not 

necessary. Since enthalpy in liquid 

water is a nearly linear function of 

temperature (because the specific heat 

of water does not vary significantly 

under standard conditions), 

specification of temperature at each 

required location and a specification of 

the specific heat of the working fluid 

(usually water) is all that is necessary to 

describe the energy balance of the 

cogeneration facility. 

57. We agree. We propose to include 

language in new line 10b of the Form 

No. 556 indicating that, for systems 

where the working fluid is liquid only 

(no vapor at any point in the cycle) and 

where the type of liquid and specific 

heat of that liquid is clearly indicated 

on the diagram or in the Miscellaneous 

section of the Form No. 556, only mass 

flow rate and temperature (not pressure 

and enthalpy) need be specified. 

58. Our experience has shown that a 

relatively high level of deficiency and 

rejection letters for QF applications are 

a result of noncompliance with the 

requirements for the mass and heat 

balance diagram. This is likely due to a 

combination of the fact the requirements 

for the mass and heat balance diagram 

are long, technical and not always clear, 

and the fact that some applicants do not 

put sufficient effort and attention into 

ensuring compliance. To improve 

reporting and to decrease future 

noncompliance, we propose to require 

applicants for qualifying cogeneration 

facility status to certify compliance with 

each of the requirements for the mass 

and heat balance diagram by checking a 

box next to each written requirement. 

We expect that, by requiring applicants 

to proceed box by box through the 

individual requirements, which will be 

stated more clearly than in the current 

Form No. 556, reporting will improve 

and noncompliance will drop 

dramatically. 

G. EPAct 2005 Cogeneration Facilities 

59. In response to EPAct 2005, the 

Commission implemented in Order No. 

671 additional requirements for new 

cogeneration facilities selling power 

pursuant to section 210 of PURPA.49

The Commission implemented the 

‘‘productive and beneficial’’ and 

‘‘fundamental use’’ requirements of 

EPAct 2005 through the inclusion of a 

new section in the Form No. 556 that 

required applicants to respond to the 

text of the statute, providing applicants 

space to demonstrate compliance with 

EPAct 2005’s requirements. In practice, 

Form No. 556 has not provided 

sufficient guidance to applicants 

through the determination of whether 

EPAct 2005 applies to their facilities, 

whether their facilities enjoy a 

presumption of compliance under 

§ 292.205(d)(4) of the Commission’s 

regulations, or whether such facilities 

fall within the safe harbor established 

by the ‘‘fundamental use test’’ in 

§ 292.205(d)(3). 

60. We note that, in implementing the 

‘‘productive and beneficial’’ 

requirement of EPAct 2005, the 

Commission essentially maintained its 

long-standing ‘‘usefulness’’ standard, 

except that what it deemed as 

presumptively useful was now 

rebuttable.50 The current Form No. 556 

requirement that applicants demonstrate 

compliance both with the ‘‘productive 

and beneficial’’ standard (in item 15) 

and the ‘‘useful’’ standard (in items 12, 

13 and/or 14) can be condensed and 

streamlined without degrading the 

information provided or the level of 

Commission and public oversight of the 

QF program. We propose to consolidate 

these requirements into the portion of 

the proposed Form No. 556 where 

applicants demonstrate the ‘‘usefulness’’ 

of the thermal output (lines 12a, 12b, 

14a, and 14b of the proposed form). 

61. The ‘‘fundamental use’’ 

requirement for EPAct 2005 

cogeneration facilities, on the other 

hand, does involve data collection that 

is specific to EPAct 2005 facilities. As 

such, we propose to implement a new 

section of the Form No. 556 entitled 

‘‘EPAct 2005 Requirements for 

Fundamental Use of Energy Output 

from Cogeneration Facilities.’’ This 

section would replace the current ‘‘For 

New Cogeneration Facilities’’ section. 

We propose this new section to facilitate 

an applicant’s determination (1) 

whether the EPAct 2005 cogeneration 

requirements apply to its facility, given 

the date on which the facility was 

originally a QF or originally filed for QF 

certification; (2) whether its pre-EPAct 

2005 facility (if applicable) is subject to 

EPAct 2005 by virtue of changes to the 

facility which essentially make it a 

‘‘new’’ EPAct 2005 facility; (3) whether 

its facility is excluded from the 

‘‘fundamental use’’ requirement by 

virtue of the fact that power will not be 

sold from the facility pursuant to 

section 210 of PURPA; (4) whether its 

facility enjoys a rebuttable presumption 

of compliance with the ‘‘fundamental 

use’’ requirement by virtue of its small 

electric output; and/or (5) whether its 

facility complies with the fundamental 

use requirement by virtue of meeting the 

fundamental use test established in 

§ 292.205(d)(3) of the Commission’s 

regulations. If an applicant’s facility is 

found to be subject to the EPAct 2005 

requirements, but to fail the 


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51 Id. P 115. 52 44 U.S.C. 3507(d). 

fundamental use test, then the applicant 

is instructed by line 11d of the proposed 

Form No. 556 to provide a narrative 

explanation of and support for why its 

facility meets the requirement that the 

electrical, thermal, chemical and 

mechanical output of an EPAct 2005 

cogeneration facility is used 

fundamentally for industrial, 

commercial, residential or institutional 

purposes and is not intended 

fundamentally for sale to an electric 

utility, taking into account 

technological, efficiency, economic, and 

variable thermal energy requirements, as 

well as state laws applicable to sales of 

electric energy from a QF to its host 

facility. 

62. We seek comments on the 

proposed ‘‘EPAct 2005 Requirements for 

Fundamental Use of Energy Output 

from Cogeneration Facilities’’ section. In 

particular, we seek comments on 

proposed line 11c. In the proposed line 

11c, we seek information to be used in 

determining whether a modification to a 

pre-EPAct 2005 cogeneration facility 

might be so significant that the facility 

should be considered a new facility that 

would be subject to the additional 

requirements (if applicable) for EPAct 

2005 cogeneration facilities. In Order 

No. 671, the Commission established a 

rebuttable presumption that a pre-EPAct 

2005 cogeneration facility does not 

become an EPAct 2005 cogeneration 

facility merely because it files for 

recertification; however, the 

Commission cautioned that ‘‘changes to 

an existing cogeneration facility could 

be so great (such as an increase in 

capacity from 50 MW to 350 MW) that 

what an applicant is claiming to be an 

existing facility should, in fact, be 

considered a ‘new’ cogeneration facility 

at the same site.’’ 51 We will continue 

this rebuttable presumption, but also 

require that an applicant filing a selfrecertification or an application for 

Commission recertification for a preEPAct 2005 cogeneration facility 

provide sufficient information about any 

changes to the facility to evaluate 

whether in fact the changes are so 

significant that the facility should be 

considered an EPAct 2005 cogeneration 

facility. 

63. Thus an applicant for 

recertification of a pre-EPAct 2005 

cogeneration facility which intends to 

rely upon the rebuttable presumption 

that recertification of its existing facility 

does not make the facility subject to the 

EPAct 2005 requirements must provide 

a description of the relevant changes to 

the facility, including the purpose of the 

changes, and an explanation why the 

facility should not be considered an 

EPAct 2005 cogeneration facility. 

64. We stress that we are not 

proposing a finding that every facility 

that has undergone a change should be 

considered an EPAct 2005 cogeneration 

facility; rather, we are proposing to 

require that an applicant filing a selfrecertification or an application for 

Commission recertification for a preEPAct 2005 cogeneration facility 

provide enough information about any 

changes to the facility to allow the 

Commission and the public to evaluate 

the changes. 

V. Information Collection Statement 

65. The collections of information 

contained in this proposed rule have 

been submitted to the Office of 

Management and Budget for review 

under section 3507(d) of the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995.52 The 

Commission solicits comments on the 

Commission’s need for this information, 

whether the information will have 

practical utility, the accuracy of the 

burden estimates, ways to enhance the 

quality, utility and clarity of the 

information to be collected or retained, 

and any suggested methods for 

minimizing respondents’ burden, 

including the use of automated 

information techniques. 

A. Estimated Annual Burden 

66. The Commission has previously 

broken down its estimated annual 

burden for completing the Form No. 556 

by filing type (self-certification or 

Commission certification). We believe 

that breaking down the filings by facility 

type (small power production facility or 

cogeneration facility) in addition to 

filing type will result in a significantly 

improved burden estimate. Using this 

method, the total estimated annual time 

for the collection of information 

associated with the Form No. 556 is 

2,156 hours, calculated as follows: 

Facility type Filing type Number of 

respondents 

Hours per 

respondent 

Total annual 

hours 

cogeneration facility > 1 MW .......................... self-certification .............................................. 100 8 800

cogeneration facility > 1 MW .......................... application for Commission certification ........ 3 50 150 

small power production facility > 1 MW .......... self-certification .............................................. 400 3 1200 

small power production facility > 1 MW .......... application for Commission certification ........ 1 6 6 

67. Information Collection Costs: The 

Commission seeks comments on the 

costs to comply with these 

requirements. As almost all of the 

regulation changes are intended to make 

seeking certification easier, and because 

we are proposing to exempt applicants 

for facilities not greater than 1 MW from 

the certification requirement, the 

Commission estimates that the 

collection costs associated with the new 

form will be less burdensome than with 

the existing form. Although the length 

of the form has increased, this is a result 

of the proposal to change the form to 

more effectively ‘‘walk’’ applicants 

through the certification and 

compliance determinations that they 

currently have to research and process 

on their own. 

Title: FERC Form No. 556, 

‘‘Certification of qualifying facility (QF) 

status for small power production or 

cogeneration facility.’’ 

Action: Proposed information 

collection. 

OMB Control No.: 1902–0075. 

Respondents: Residences, businesses 

or other for profit entities, and 

government agencies. 

Frequency of responses: On occasion. 

Necessity of the information: The 

Form No. 556 was established in Order 

No. 575 to allow an applicant to selfcertify or to request the Commission to 

determine whether a facility meets the 

criteria for qualifying small power 

production or cogeneration status under 

the Commission’s regulations, and thus 

whether the applicant is eligible to 

receive the benefits available to it under 

PURPA. 

Internal review: The Commission has 

reviewed its proposed changes to the 

requirements pertaining to the 

certification of qualifying small power 

production and cogeneration facilities 

and determined the proposed changes 

appear to decrease the existing burden 

on applicants. These proposed 

requirements conform to the 

Commission’s plan for efficient 

information collection, communication 

and management within the energy 


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53See Regulations Implementing the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969, Order No. 486, 

FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 30,783 (1987). 

54See 18 CFR 380.4(a)(5). 

55 5 U.S.C. 601–12. 

industry. The Commission has assured 

itself, by means of internal review, that 

there is specific, objective support for 

the burden estimates associated with the 

information requirements. 

68. Interested persons may obtain 

information on the reporting 

requirements by contacting: Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 

First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426 

[Attention: Michael Miller, Office of the 

Deputy Chief Information Officer, 

phone: (202) 502–8415, fax: (202) 273– 

0873, e-mail: Michael.Miller@ferc.gov]. 

Comments concerning the collection of 

information and the associated burden 

estimates, should be sent to the contact 

listed above and to the Office of 

Management and Budget, Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs, 

Washington, DC 20503 [Attention: Desk 

Officer for the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, phone (202) 

395–4638; fax (202) 395–7285]. 

VI. Environmental Analysis 

69. The Commission is required to 

prepare an Environmental Assessment 

or an Environmental Impact Statement 

for any action that may have a 

significant adverse effect on the human 

environment.53 No environmental 

consideration is needed for the 

promulgation of a rule that addresses 

information gathering, analysis, and 

dissemination.54 These proposed rules, 

if finalized, involve information 

gathering, analysis, and dissemination. 

Consequently, neither an Environmental 

Impact Statement nor Environmental 

Assessment is required. 

VII. Regulatory Flexibility Act 

70. The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 

1980 (RFA) 55 requires rulemakings to 

contain either a description or analysis 

of the effect that the rule will have on 

small entities or a certification that the 

rule will not have a significant 

economic impact on a substantial 

number of small entities. In this notice, 

we propose three different types of 

regulatory changes, and we address each 

in turn. 

71. First, we propose to clarify and 

streamline the Form No. 556. These 

changes make the form easier for 

applicants, whether large or small, to 

complete, because the proposed form 

leads applicants step-by-step through 

the compliance determinations. 

72. Second, we propose certain 

limited additional disclosures of 

information. In particular, we propose 

(1) to collect in line 3g of the proposed 

form the geographic coordinates of 

facilities that do not have a street 

address, and (2) to collect certain 

information used to determine 

applicability of the EPAct 2005 

cogeneration requirements that was not 

previously explicitly required to be 

included in Form No. 556. 

73. The requirement to report 

geographic coordinates is applicable 

only to those facilities that do not have 

a street address and is therefore not 

generally applicable to all applicants. 

Moreover, in most cases, geographic 

coordinates can be obtained from a 

simple web search (with help provided 

by the instructions and the 

Commission’s website); a GPS device 

(including some cellular phones); the 

use of free computer programs (such as 

Google Earth); or the review of certain 

documents, such as a property survey, 

various engineering or construction 

drawings, a property deed, or a 

municipal or county map showing 

property lines. 

74. The new information proposed to 

be collected from applicants for 

cogeneration facilities in lines 11a 

through 11f serves to guide the 

applicants through the determination 

whether the EPAct 2005 cogeneration 

requirements apply to their facilities. 

The process of completing lines 11a 

through 11f replicates, but in a clearer 

and more concise manner, the process 

that such applicants already have to go 

through in completing the current form. 

Completing lines 11a through 11f 

should substantially decrease the 

burden of complying with the EPAct 

2005 cogeneration requirements for 

most or all applicants for cogeneration 

facilities. In the absence of this step-bystep guide proposed in lines 11a 

through 11f, applicants (particularly 

small applicants) must independently 

research the requirements and 

determine compliance with the 

relatively complex EPAct 2005 

cogeneration requirements. 

75. Third, we propose to require 

applicants for certification of QF status 

to submit their Forms 556 

electronically, via the Commission’s 

eFiling website. We also propose, 

however, to exempt applicants for 

facilities with net power production 

capacities of 1 MW and smaller from 

any filing requirement. If both of these 

proposals are adopted, then the 

electronic filing requirement would not 

apply to applicants for small QFs. We 

believe that any applicant for a facility 

larger than 1 MW should have access to 

the resources needed to make an 

electronic filing. 

VIII. Comment Procedures 

76. The Commission invites interested 

persons to submit comments on the 

matters and issues proposed in this 

notice to be adopted, including any 

related matters or alternative proposals 

that commenters may wish to discuss. 

Comments are due on or before 

December 21, 2009. Comments must 

refer to Docket No. RM09–23–000, and 

must include the commenter’s name, 

the organization he or she represents, if 

applicable, and his or her address. 

77. The Commission encourages 

comments to be filed electronically via 

the eFiling link on the Commission’s 

web site at http://www.ferc.gov. The 

Commission accepts most standard 

word processing formats, and 

commenters may attach additional files 

with supporting information in certain 

other file formats. Commenters filing 

electronically do not need to make a 

paper filing. 

78. Commenters who are not able to 

file comments electronically must send 

an original and 14 copies of their 

comments to: Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, Secretary of the 

Commission, 888 First Street, NE., 

Washington, DC 20426. 

79. All comments will be placed in 

the Commission’s public files and may 

be viewed, printed, or downloaded 

remotely as described in the Document 

Availability section below. Commenters 

on this notice of proposed rulemaking 

are not required to serve copies of their 

comments on other commenters. 

IX. Document Availability 

80. In addition to publishing the full 

text of this document (with the 

exception of the Form No. 556 itself— 

which will be available in eLibrary and 

posted at http://www.ferc.gov/QF) in the 

Federal Register, the Commission 

provides all interested persons an 

opportunity to view and/or print the 

contents of this document via the 

Internet through the Commission’s 

home page (http://www.ferc.gov) and in 

the Commission’s Public Reference 

Room during normal business hours 

(8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time) at 888 

First Street, NE., Room 2A, Washington, 

DC 20426. 

81. From the Commission’s home 

page on the Internet, this information is 

available in the Commission’s document 

management system, eLibrary. The full 

text of this document is available on 

eLibrary in PDF and Microsoft Word 

format for viewing, printing, and/or 

downloading. To access this document 

in eLibrary, type the docket number 

excluding the last three digits of this 

document in the docket number field. 


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82. User assistance is available for 

eLibrary and the Commission’s Web site 

during normal business hours. For 

assistance, please contact FERC Online 

Support at 1–866–208–3676 (toll free) or 

202–502–6652 or e-mail at 

ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov, or the 

Public Reference Room at (202) 502– 

8371, TTY (202) 502–8659. E-mail at 

public.referenceroom@ferc.gov. 

List of Subjects 

18 CFR Part 131 

Electric power, Natural gas, Reporting 

and recordkeeping requirements. 

18 CFR Part 292 

Electric power, Electric power plants, 

Electric utilities. 

By direction of the Commission. 

Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr., 

Deputy Secretary. 

In consideration of the foregoing, the 

Commission proposes to amend parts 

131 and 292 of Title 18 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations, as set forth below: 

Subchapter D—Approved Forms, Federal 

Power Act and Public Utility Regulatory 

Policies Act of 1978 

PART 131—FORMS 

1. The authority citation for part 131 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 791a–825r. 2601– 

2645; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 42 U.S.C. 7101–7352. 

2. Section 131.80 is revised to read as 

follows: 

§ 131.80 FERC Form No. 556, Certification 

of qualifying facility (QF) status for a small 

power production or cogeneration facility. 

(a) Who must file. Any person seeking 

to certify a facility as a qualifying 

facility pursuant to sections 3(17) or 

3(18) of the Federal Power Act, 16 

U.S.C. 796(3)(17), (3)(18), unless 

otherwise exempted or granted a waiver 

by Commission rule or order pursuant 

to § 292.203(d), must complete and file 

the Form of Certification of Qualifying 

Facility (QF) Status for a Small Power 

Production or Cogeneration Facility, 

FERC Form No. 556. Every Form of 

Certification of Qualifying Status must 

be submitted on the FERC Form No. 556 

then in effect and must be prepared in 

accordance with the instructions 

incorporated in that form. 

(b) Availability of FERC Form No. 556. 

The currently effective FERC Form No. 

556 shall be made available for 

download from the Commission’s Web 

site. 

(c) How to file a FERC Form No. 556. 

All applicants must file their FERC 

Forms No. 556 electronically via the 

Commission’s eFiling Web site. 

Subchapter K—Regulations Under the 

Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 

1978 

PART 292—REGULATIONS UNDER 

SECTIONS 201 AND 210 OF THE 

PUBLIC UTILITY REGULATORY 

POLICIES ACT OF 1978 WITH REGARD 

TO SMALL POWER PRODUCTION AND 

COGENERATION 

1. The authority citation for part 292 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 791a–825r, 2601– 

2645; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 42 U.S.C. 7101–7352. 

2. Revise § 292.203 to read as follows: 

§ 292.203 General requirements for 

qualification. 

(a) Small power production facilities. 

Except as provided in paragraph (c) of 

this section, a small power production 

facility is a qualifying facility if it: 

(1) Meets the maximum size criteria 

specified in § 292.204(a); 

(2) Meets the fuel use criteria 

specified in § 292.204(b); and 

(3) Unless exempted by paragraph (d), 

has filed with the Commission a notice 

of self-certification, pursuant to 

§ 292.207(a); or has filed with the 

Commission an application for 

Commission certification, pursuant to 

§ 292.207(b)(1), that has been granted. 

(b) Cogeneration facilities. A 

cogeneration facility, including any 

diesel and dual-fuel cogeneration 

facility, is a qualifying facility if it: 

(1) Meets any applicable standards 

and criteria specified in §§ 292.205(a), 

(b) and (d); and 

(2) Unless exempted by paragraph (d), 

has filed with the Commission a notice 

of self-certification, pursuant to 

§ 292.207(a); or has filed with the 

Commission an application for 

Commission certification, pursuant to 

§ 292.207(b)(1), that has been granted. 

(c) Hydroelectric small power 

production facilities located at a new 

dam or diversion. (1) A hydroelectric 

small power production facility that 

impounds or diverts the water of a 

natural watercourse by means of a new 

dam or diversion (as that term is defined 

in § 292.202(p)) is a qualifying facility if 

it meets the requirements of: 

(i) Paragraph (a) of this section; and 

(ii) Section 292.208. 

(2) [Reserved] 

(d) Exemptions and waivers from 

filing requirement. (1) Any facility with 

a net power production capacity of 1 

MW or less is exempt from the filing 

requirements of paragraphs (a)(3) and 

(b)(2) of this section. 

(2) The Commission may waive the 

requirement of paragraphs (a)(3) and 

(b)(2) of this section for good cause. Any 

applicant seeking waiver of paragraphs 

(a)(3)and (b)(2) of this section must file 

a petition for declaratory order 

describing in detail the reasons waiver 

is being sought. 

3. In § 292.204, paragraph (a)(1) is 

revised and paragraph (a)(4) is added to 

read as follows: 

§ 292.204 Criteria for qualifying small 

power production facilities. 

(a) Size of the facility—(1) Maximum 

size. Except as provided in paragraph 

(a)(4) of this section, the power 

production capacity of a facility for 

which qualification is sought, together 

with the power production capacity of 

any other small power production 

facilities that use the same energy 

resource, are owned by the same 

person(s) or its affiliates, and are located 

at the same site, may not exceed 80 

megawatts. 

* * * * * 

(4) Exception. Facilities meeting the 

criteria in section 3(17)(E) of the Federal 

Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796(17)(E)) have 

no maximum size, and the power 

production capacity of such facilities 

shall be excluded from consideration 

when determining the maximum size of 

other small power production facilities 

within one mile of such facilities. 

* * * * * 

4. In § 292.205, paragraph (d) 

introductory text is revised to read as 

follows: 

§ 292.205 Criteria for qualifying 

cogeneration facilities. 

* * * * * 

(d) Criteria for new cogeneration 

facilities. Notwithstanding paragraphs 

(a) and (b) of this section, any 

cogeneration facility that was either not 

a qualifying cogeneration facility on or 

before August 8, 2005, or that had not 

filed a notice of self-certification or an 

application for Commission certification 

as a qualifying cogeneration facility 

under § 292.207 of this chapter prior to 

February 2, 2006, and which is seeking 

to sell electric energy pursuant to 

section 210 of the Public Utility 

Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, 16 

U.S.C. 824a–1, must also show: 

* * * * * 

5. In § 292.207, paragraphs (a) through 

(d)(1)(i) are revised to read as follows: 

§ 292.207 Procedures for obtaining 

qualifying status. 

(a) Self-certification. The qualifying 

facility status of an existing or a 

proposed facility that meets the 

requirements of § 292.203 may be selfcertified by the owner or operator of the 

facility or its representative by properly 

completing a Form No. 556 and filing 


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that form with the Commission, 

pursuant to § 131.80 of this chapter, and 

complying with paragraph (c) of this 

section. 

(b) Optional procedure—(1) 

Application for Commission 

certification. In lieu of the selfcertification procedures in paragraph (a) 

of this section, an owner or operator of 

an existing or a proposed facility, or its 

representative, may file with the 

Commission an application for 

Commission certification that the 

facility is a qualifying facility. The 

application must be accompanied by the 

fee prescribed by part 381 of this 

chapter, and the applicant for 

Commission certification must comply 

with paragraph (c) of this section. 

(2) General contents of application. 

The application must include a properly 

completed Form No. 556 pursuant to 

§ 131.80 of this chapter. 

(3) Commission action. (i) Within 90 

days of the later of the filing of an 

application or the filing of a 

supplement, amendment or other 

change to the application, the 

Commission will either: inform the 

applicant that the application is 

deficient; or issue an order granting or 

denying the application; or toll the time 

for issuance of an order. Any order 

denying certification shall identify the 

specific requirements which were not 

met. If the Commission does not act 

within 90 days of the date of the latest 

filing, the application shall be deemed 

to have been granted. 

(ii) For purposes of paragraph (b) of 

this section, the date an application is 

filed is the date by which the Secretary 

of the Commission has received all of 

the information and the appropriate 

filing fee necessary to comply with the 

requirements of this Part. 

(c) Notice requirements—(1) General. 

An applicant filing a self-certification, 

self-recertification, application for 

Commission certification or application 

for Commission recertification of the 

qualifying status of its facility must 

concurrently serve a copy of such filing 

on each electric utility with which it 

expects to interconnect, transmit or sell 

electric energy to, or purchase 

supplementary, standby, back-up or 

maintenance power from, and the State 

regulatory authority of each state where 

the facility and each affected electric 

utility is located. The Commission will 

publish a notice in the Federal Register 

for each application for Commission 

certification and for each selfcertification of a cogeneration facility 

that is subject to the requirements of 

§ 292.205(d). 

(2) Facilities of 500 kW or more. An 

electric utility is not required to 

purchase electric energy from a facility 

with a net power production capacity of 

500 kW or more until 90 days after the 

facility meets the notice requirements in 

paragraph (c)(1) of this section. 

(d) Revocation of qualifying status. 

(1)(i) If a qualifying facility fails to 

conform with any material facts or 

representations presented by the 

cogenerator or small power producer in 

its submittals to the Commission, the 

notice of self-certification or 

Commission order certifying the 

qualifying status of the facility may no 

longer be relied upon. At that point, if 

the facility continues to conform to the 

Commission’s qualifying criteria under 

this part, the cogenerator or small power 

producer may file either a notice of selfrecertification of qualifying status 

pursuant to the requirements of 

paragraph (a) of this section, or an 

application for Commission 

recertification pursuant to the 

requirements of paragraph (b) of this 

section, as appropriate. 

* * * * * 

6. In § 292.601, paragraph (a) is 

revised to read as follows: 

§ 292.601 Exemption to qualifying facilities 

from the Federal Power Act. 

(a) Applicability. This section applies 

to qualifying facilities, other than those 

described in paragraph (b) of this 

section. This section also applies to 

qualifying facilities that meet the 

criteria of section 3(17)(E) of the Federal 

Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796(17)(E)), 

notwithstanding paragraph (b) of this 

section. 

* * * * * 

7. In § 292.602, revise the section 

heading and paragraph (c)(1) to read as 

follows: 

§ 292.602 Exemption to qualifying facilities 

from the Public Utility Holding Company 

Act of 2005 and certain State laws and 

regulations. 

* * * * * 

(c) Exemption from certain State laws 

and regulations. (1) Any qualifying 

facility described in paragraph (a) of this 

section shall be exempted (except as 

provided in paragraph (c)(2) of this 

section) from State laws or regulations 

respecting: 

* * * * * 

Note: The following Appendix will not be 

published in the Code of Federal 

Regulations. 

Appendix A—Proposed FERC Form No. 

556 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 


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[FR Doc. E9–25261 Filed 10–21–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–C 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Coast Guard 

33 CFR Part 151 

46 CFR Part 162 

[USCG–2001–10486] 

RIN 1625–AA32 

Standards for Living Organisms in 

Ships’ Ballast Water Discharged in 

U.S. Waters 

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 

ACTION: Notice of public meetings. 

SUMMARY: This notice provides the times 

and locations of two public meetings 

which will be held by the Coast Guard 

(USCG) regarding the Notice of 

Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) entitled 

‘‘Standards for Living Organisms in 

Ships’ Ballast Water Discharged in U.S. 

Waters’’ that published in the Federal 

Register on Friday, August 28, 2009. 

DATES: Public meetings will be held in 

the Oakland, CA (October 27, 2009) and 

New York, NY (October 29, 2009) areas 

to provide opportunities for oral 

comments. The comment period for the 

NPRM closes on December 4, 2009. All 

comments and related material 

submitted after a meeting must either be 

submitted to our online docket via 

http://www.regulations.gov on or before 

December 4, 2009 or reach the Docket 

Management Facility by that date. 

ADDRESSES: The public meetings will be 

held at the Marriott Oakland City 

Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 

94607, on October 27, 2009, and the 

Marriott New York Downtown, 85 West 

Street at Albany Street, New York, NY 

10006, on October 29, 2009. 

All meetings will be held from 9 a.m. 

until 4 p.m. local time unless otherwise 

noted. The meetings may conclude 

before the allotted time if all matters of 

discussion have been addressed. 

You may submit written comments 

identified by docket number USCG– 

2001–10486 before or after the meeting 

using any one of the following methods: 

(1) Federal eRulemaking Portal: 

http://www.regulations.gov. 

(2) Fax: 202–493–2251. 

(3) Mail: Docket Management Facility 

(M–30), U.S. Department of 

Transportation, West Building Ground 

Floor, Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590– 

0001. 

(4) Hand delivery: Same as mail 

address above, between 9 a.m. and 5 

p.m., Monday through Friday, except 

Federal holidays. The telephone number 

is 202–366–9329. 

To avoid duplication, please use only 

one of these four methods. Our online 

docket for this rulemaking is available 

on the Internet at http:// 

www.regulations.gov under docket 

number USCG–2001–10486. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If 

you have questions on this proposed 

rulemaking, call or e-mail Mr. John 

Morris, Project Manager, Environmental 

Standards Division, U.S. Coast Guard 

Headquarters, telephone 202–372–1433, 

e-mail: John.C.Morris@uscg.mil. If you 

have questions on viewing or submitting 

material to the docket, call Ms. Renee V. 

Wright, Program Manager, Docket 

Operations, telephone 202–366–9826. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

The Coast Guard published a Notice 

of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the 

Federal Register on Friday, August 28, 

2009 (74 FR 44632), entitled ‘‘Standards 

for Living Organisms in Ships’ Ballast 

Water Discharged in U.S. Waters.’’ In it, 

we stated our intention to hold public 

meetings, and to publish a notice with 

additional details regarding those public 

meetings as soon as the information was 

available (74 FR 44632). 

On Monday, September 14, 2009, we 

published a Notice of Public Meeting to 

inform the public of the date for each 

public meeting, as well as the city in 

which those meetings will be held (74 

FR 46964). That notice also stated that 

additional notice(s) would be published 

in the Federal Register as specific 

locations and details for these meetings 

were finalized. 

On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, we 

published a Notice of Public Meeting 

with the specific locations and details 

for the first two of the six public 

meetings (74 FR 48190). Then, on 

Monday, September 28, 2009, we 

published a Notice of Public Meeting 

providing the same information for the 

second two public meetings and 

restating the details for the first two 

public meetings (74 FR 49355). This 

notice provides those details for the 

final two public meetings. 

On Thursday, October 15, 2009, we 

published a Notice to extend the periods 

of public comment on the Notice of 

Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and the 

Draft Programmatic Environmental 

Impact Statement (DPEIS) to December 

4, 2009 (74 FR 52941). 

The October 27, 2009 meeting will be 

held at the Marriott Oakland City 

Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 

94607. The phone number for the 

location is 510–451–4000. 

The October 29, 2009 meeting will be 

held at the Marriott New York 

Downtown, 85 West Street at Albany 

Street, New York, NY 10006. The phone 

number for the location is 212–385– 

4900. 

Live webcasts (audio and video) of the 

public meetings will also be broadcast 

online at http://ballastwater.us/. 

Written comments and related 

material may also be submitted to Coast 

Guard personnel specified at those 

meetings for inclusion in the official 

docket for this rulemaking. 

Information on Service for Individuals 

With Disabilities 

For information on facilities or 

services for individuals with disabilities 

or to request special assistance at the 

public meetings, contact Mr. John 

Morris at the telephone number or email address indicated under the FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 

this notice. 


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