[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 39 (Tuesday, February 27, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8465-8466]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-03938]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy


Notice of Request for Information (RFI) on Expanding Hydropower 
and Pumped Storage's Contribution to Grid Resiliency and Reliability

AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of 
Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Request for information (RFI).

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[[Page 8466]]

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy 
Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Water Power Technologies Office 
(WPTO) seeks information from the public on understanding, accessing, 
and utilizing the full potential of the hydropower fleet, including 
pumped storage, to contribute to electric grid resiliency and 
reliability. The WPTO also seeks information about opportunities for 
the existing and potential pumped storage and hydropower fleet to 
expand its contribution to the grid in the future. This information 
will help WPTO develop a research portfolio that intends to lower 
system costs, bring insight to hydropower technology development and 
research investments, promote optimization of hydroelectric resources, 
and ultimately support a more secure and reliable electric power 
system. WPTO seeks concise feedback from all relevant stakeholders.

DATES: Responses to the RFI must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. 
(ET) on April 6, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are to submit comments electronically to 
[email protected]. Include ``Hydropower RFI'' in the subject of the 
title. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 
25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Only 
electronic responses will be accepted. Please identify your answers by 
responding to a specific question or topic if possible. Respondents may 
answer as many or as few questions as they wish. The complete RFI 
document is located at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions may be addressed to Timothy 
Welch, Hydropower Program Manager, Water Power Technologies Office, by 
email at [email protected], or by phone at 202-586-7055. Further 
instruction can be found in the RFI document posted on EERE Exchange.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Through this RFI, WPTO seeks input on new 
research to maximize the value of hydropower's contribution to grid 
resiliency and reliability today and into the future. This approach 
includes pumped storage and traditional hydropower, and covers both new 
technology design as well as modeling and analysis to assess the range 
of value streams hydropower provides in the current and future power 
grid. This information/strategy will help build targeted insight into 
economic, policy and technological barriers, inform future hydropower 
technology development, and improve the tools by which investment and 
operational decisions are made.
    WPTO is looking for feedback from electric utilities, reliability 
oversight entities, regulatory commissions, electricity market 
operators, electric storage developers, hydropower owners and 
operators, federal hydropower asset managers and marketers, hydropower 
facility regulators, public and private financing institutions, 
environmental and recreational non-profits, industry associations, 
academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other 
stakeholders on issues related to pumped storage hydropower and 
existing hydroelectric facilities. WPTO is specifically interested in 
understanding critical gaps in pumped storage and hydropower valuation 
data and analysis; and in barriers to expanding pumped storage and 
hydropower's value proposition that could be overcome through research 
investments. This is solely a request for information and not a Funding 
Opportunity Announcement (FOA). WPTO is not accepting applications at 
this time. The complete RFI document is located at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/.

Confidential Business Information

    Pursuant to 10 CFR 1004.11, any person submitting information that 
he or she believes to be confidential and exempt by law from public 
disclosure should submit via email two well marked copies: One copy of 
the document marked ``confidential'' including all the information 
believed to be confidential, and one copy of the document marked ``non-
confidential'' with the information believed to be confidential 
deleted. DOE will make its own determination about the confidential 
status of the information and treat it according to its determination.
    Factors of interest to DOE when evaluating requests to treat 
submitted information as confidential include: (1) A description of the 
items; (2) whether and why such items are customarily treated as 
confidential within the industry; (3) whether the information is 
generally known by or available from other sources; (4) whether the 
information has previously been made available to others without 
obligation concerning its confidentiality; (5) an explanation of the 
competitive injury to the submitting person that would result from 
public disclosure; (6) when such information might lose its 
confidential character due to the passage of time; and (7) why 
disclosure of the information would be contrary to the public interest.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on February 21, 2018.
Hoyt Battey,
Acting Director, Water Power Technologies Office, Energy Efficiency and 
Renewable Energy.
[FR Doc. 2018-03938 Filed 2-26-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6450-01-P