[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 67 (Friday, April 7, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20879-20882]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-07379]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Southeastern Power Administration


Proposed Power Marketing Policy, Public Forum, and Opportunities 
for Public Review and Comment for the Jim Woodruff System Project

AGENCY: Southeastern Power Administration, DOE.

ACTION: Notice of proposed power marketing policy.

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SUMMARY: Southeastern Power Administration (Southeastern) proposes a 
Power Marketing Policy for the Jim Woodruff System Project pursuant to 
Notice published in the Federal Register of August 5, 2022, and in 
accordance with Procedure for Public Participation in the Formulation 
of Marketing Policy published July 6, 1978. The proposed power 
marketing policy will be implemented through contracts for terms not to 
exceed 10 years. Additionally, opportunities will be available for 
interested persons to review the proposed Power Marketing Policy, to 
participate in a public forum and to submit additional written 
comments. Southeastern will evaluate all comments received in this 
process.

DATES: Written comments are due on or before June 23, 2023. A public 
information and comment forum will be held via a virtual web based 
meeting to allow maximum participation June 8, 2023. Persons desiring 
to attend the forum should notify Southeastern by June 1, 2023, so a 
list of forum participants can be prepared. Persons desiring to speak 
at the forum should specify this in their notification to Southeastern; 
others may speak if time permits. Notifications should be submitted by 
email to [email protected]. If Southeastern has not been notified 
by close of business on June 1, 2023, that at least one person intends 
to be present at the forum, the forum may be canceled with no further 
notice.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be submitted to: Administrator, 
Southeastern Power Administration, Department of Energy, 1166 Athens 
Tech Road, Elberton, Georgia 30635-6711; Email: [email protected]. 
The public information and comment forum for the Jim Woodruff System 
Project will take place via a virtual web based meeting.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carter Edge, Assistant Administrator 
for Finance and Marketing, Southeastern Power Administration, 
Department of Energy, 1166 Athens Tech Road, Elberton, Georgia 30635, 
(706) 213-3800; Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice of intent to create a marketing 
policy for future disposition of power from the Jim Woodruff System was 
published in the Federal Register August 5, 2022 (87 FR 48016). The 
notice advised interested parties to provide comments and proposals in 
formulating the proposed marketing policy. Comments and proposals were 
accepted through October 4, 2022. Comments were received from two 
interested parties.
    Written comments were received from Seminole Electric Cooperative, 
Inc. and Southeastern Federal Power Customers, Inc. (SeFPC) are 
summarized below. Southeastern's responses are also provided.
    Comment 1: Seminole Electric Cooperative, Inc. is interested in 
receiving allocation of power and energy generated at Jim Woodruff Lock 
and Dam, if such power were deemed available.
    Response 1: Southeastern does not expect any additional power or 
energy to be available to be allocated. Southeastern has included a 
mechanism in the proposed policy to allow power and energy to be 
allocated should any become available in the future.
    Comment 2: SeFPC encourages Southeastern to follow the statutory 
guidance in the Flood Control Act of 1944, 16 U.S.C. 825s, to market 
the output of the Jim Woodruff Project to eligible ``preference 
customers.''
    Response 2: Southeastern will follow the guidance in the Flood 
Control Act of 1944.
    Comment 3: SeFPC encourages the marketing plan include the 
following important components:
    1. Limiting the marketing plan to the Jim Woodruff Project. SEPA 
has previously rejected calls to create an integrated marketing area 
for all power available from Corps multipurpose projects in the 
Southeast. This approach should be followed with the marketing plan for 
the Jim Woodruff Project.
    2. Extend allocations to preference customers with existing 
contracts. In revising marketing plans for the Georgia-Alabama-South 
Carolina system of projects, SEPA offered allocations to existing 
customers.
    3. Refrain from allocating the output of the Jim Woodruff project 
on a pro rata basis to all potential preference customers. Although the 
Flood Control Act of 1944 calls for allocations to promote ``widespread 
use,'' SEPA has previously reconciled that responsibility with the 
obligation to allocate power consistent with sound business principles. 
In this context, SEPA must recognize that the limited output of the Jim 
Woodruff Project requires allocations that provide a meaningful rather 
than marginal benefit.
    Response 3: Jim Woodruff could be integrated financially, 
hydraulically and electrically with the GA-AL-SC System of projects to 
provide back stand service to this single-project, run-of-the-river 
system. Preliminary discussions with the transmission provider indicate 
a 70% increase in the amount of purchased power costs passed through to 
the customer each month without integration under the Open Access 
Transmission Tariff. However, delivering federal hydropower at the

[[Page 20880]]

project busbar and providing a pro rata reduction in energy deliveries 
in lieu of replacement power is being proposed as a solution to 
maintain the Jim Woodruff system financially, electrically, and 
hydraulically independent of any other Southeastern system.
    Southeastern does not expect any additional power or energy to be 
available to be allocated. Southeastern has included a mechanism in the 
proposed policy to allow power and energy to allocated should any 
become available in the future. Southeastern has historically 
determined a meaningful level to be 500kW.
    Comment 4: SeFPC notes Southeastern may look to adopt marketing 
criteria used by the Western Area Power Administration (``WAPA'') in 
recent marketing plans to determine allocations of power from projects 
within the WAPA marketing area. In recent marketing plans, WAPA 
included criteria requiring an allottee to have utility status and be 
``ready willing and able'' to utilize the allocation of power. This 
approach has promoted widespread use of preference power and ensured 
that the benefits of an allocation of power are provided to entities 
that may need to address legal impediments prior to using an 
allocation.
    Response 4: Southeastern defers to the opinion of US Attorney 
General, Herbert Brownell, Jr. at 41 Op. Att'y Gen.236 (1955) regarding 
the criteria for preference eligible customers.
    Comment 5: SeFPC supports the development of a marketing policy 
that incorporates equitable considerations in the allocation of power. 
Here, the Administrator should give consideration to the financial 
contribution that existing customers have made in repaying the Federal 
debt associated with the Jim Woodruff Project.
    Response 5: Southeastern values the long-standing relationship it 
has with its customers and recognizes the $42.183M Cumulative Repayment 
and $1.45M allocated to Customer Funding provided through their 
payments for federal hydropower. The Total Remaining Investment of 
$43.358M represents a commitment to continue providing clean, carbon-
free, cost-based power to our customers.
    Comment 6: SeFPC encourages Southeastern to adopt each proposed 
component outlined above in the marketing policy for the Jim Woodruff 
Project.
    Response 6: Southeastern has duly considered each proposal and has 
either adopted or rejected and provided rationale for each in 
developing the draft marketing policy for the Jim Woodruff Project.
    General: The project and power products subject to this policy are:
    Project:

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                                                                    Average
                     Name                       Capacity  (kw)   energy  (MWh)          Energy attribute
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Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam.....................          36,000         193,530  Renewable Energy Certificate.
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    This Power Marketing Policy for electric power and energy not 
required in the operation of Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam will replace the 
arrangements in the contract between Duke Energy Florida and 
Southeastern Power Administration (Southeastern) dated July 19, 1957 
(Rate Schedule No. 65), which provided for a fair and reasonable 
arrangement for the circumstances prevailing at the time the power was 
sold. Arrangements for the sale, purchase, wheeling and firming of 
power from the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam will be implemented as soon as 
contract revisions pursuant to this policy can be negotiated.
    The Final Marketing Policy will be implemented through contracts 
for terms not to exceed 10 years.
    Deliveries will be made at the project bus bar. The project will be 
hydraulically, electrically, and financially integrated as a single 
project system and will be operated to make maximum contribution to the 
respective utility areas. Preference in the sale of the power will be 
given to public bodies and cooperatives.
    Marketing Area: Southeastern's marketing area shall be the entire 
state of Florida. The marketing area contains 52 eligible public bodies 
and cooperatives, as listed on Appendix A attached hereto.
    Allocations of Power: It is Southeastern's goal to allocate all 
available and usable system power (that power remaining after provision 
for reserves and losses) to preference customers.
    As to the power sold to the existing preference customers prior to 
contracts executed to implement this policy, each existing preference 
customer within the Duke Energy Florida service area will continue with 
its allocated share of the marketed capacity and resulting pro-rata 
share of the associated energy. Current capacity allocations are 
summarized below:

Talquin Elec. Coop. 13,500 kW
City of Quincy 8,400 kW
Tri County Elec Coop 5,200 kW
Suwannee Valley Elec Coop 4,800 kW
Central Florida Elec Coop 2,300 kW
City of Chattahoochee 1,800 kW

    Southeastern does not expect any additional capacity or energy to 
be marketable from the project in the foreseeable future. However, both 
existing and preference-eligible customers will be eligible to share 
equitably in any capacity remaining after reductions for reserves, 
losses or capacity and energy relinquished by existing customers. 
Allocations of any newly available power and energy to a particular 
preference customer will be based on the relationship of such 
customer's maximum 2020 demand to the sum of the 2020 maximum demands 
of all preference customers sharing such power so long as such customer 
demand is expected to be and will be treated hereunder in each month as 
not less than 500 kilowatts. Southeastern recognizes that West Florida 
Electric Cooperative Association Incorporated was previously included 
in Jim Woodruff allocations but is now served by Southeastern's GA-AL-
SC system. For allocation purposes, they will be treated as if they are 
a preference-eligible customer.
    There will be times when hydraulic conditions reduce the operating 
head or the available streamflow of the project and not all the 
allocated capacity can be made available. The power available from the 
project shall be reduced, pro-rata based on project capability.
    Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs): Southeastern has included a 
process for REC distribution in this marketing policy. The REC 
distribution process will not impact power allocation within the System 
marketing area.
    The M-RETS Tracking System creates and tracks certificates 
reporting generation attributes, by generating unit, for each megawatt-
hour (MWh) of energy produced by registered generators. The System 
project is registered within M-RETS. The RECs potentially satisfy 
Renewable Portfolio Standards, state policies, and other

[[Page 20881]]

regulatory or voluntary clean energy standards in a number of states. 
Southeastern has subscribed to M-RETS and has an account in which RECs 
are collected and tracked for each MWh of energy produced from the 
System. Within M-RETS, certificates can be transferred to other M-RETS 
subscribers or to a third-party tracking system. M-RETS creates a REC 
for every MWh of renewable energy produced, tracks the life cycle of 
each REC created, and ensures against any double counting or double-use 
of each REC.
    REC Distribution: M-RETS (or a successor application) will be the 
transfer mechanism for all RECs related to the System. Southeastern 
shall maintain an account with M-RETS and collect RECs from the 
generation at the System project. Southeastern will verify the total 
amount of RECs each month. Preference Customers with an allocation of 
power from the System are eligible to receive RECs by transfer from 
Southeastern's M-RETS account to their M-RETS account or that of their 
agent. Transfers to each customer will be based on the customer's 
monthly invoices during the same three-month period (quarter). All RECs 
distributed by Southeastern shall be transferred within forty-five days 
of the end of a quarter. Each customer must submit to Southeastern, by 
the tenth business day after the quarter, any notice of change to M-
RETS account or agent. Any REC transfers that were not claimed, or if a 
transfer account was not provided to Southeastern, will be forfeited if 
they become nontransferable as described in the M-RETS terms of 
service, procedures, policies, or definitions of reporting and trading 
periods, or any subsequent rules and procedures for transfers as 
established. The initial transfer process in M-RETS will be 
accomplished by the sixtieth day after the end of the first completed 
quarter subsequent to publication of the final policy.
    Any balance of RECs that exist in Southeastern's M-RETS account, 
other than the first quarter after policy revision publication, may 
also be transferred to Preference Customers according to the customer's 
invoiced energy at the time of the REC creation.
    Rates: No rates shall be established by Southeastern for RECs 
transferred to Preference Customers. Any cost to Southeastern, such as 
the M-RETS subscription, will be incorporated into marketing costs and 
included in recovery through the energy and capacity rates of the 
System.
    Utilization at Utility Systems: In the absence of transmission 
facilities of its own, Southeastern may use area generation and 
transmission systems as may be necessary to dispose of system power 
under reasonable and acceptable marketing arrangements. Utility systems 
providing such services shall be entitled to adequate compensation.
    Wholesale Rates: Rate schedules shall be drawn to recover all costs 
associated with producing and transmitting the power in accordance with 
then current repayment criteria. Production costs will be determined on 
a system basis and rate schedules will be related to the integrated 
output of the project. Rates schedules may be revised periodically.
    Resale Rates: Resale rate provisions requiring the benefits of 
Southeastern's power to be passed on to the ultimate consumer will be 
included in each customer contract with Southeastern which provides for 
Southeastern to supply more than 25 percent of the customers' total 
power requirements during the term of the contract.
    Conservation Measures: Each customer purchasing Southeastern's 
power shall agree to take reasonable measures to encourage the 
conservation of energy by ultimate consumers.
    Appendix A: Preference-eligible customers

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                                                          2020 Peak Load
                       Municipals                               MW
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alachua.................................................              28
Bartow..................................................              60
Blountstown.............................................               8
Bushnell................................................               6
Chattahoochee...........................................               6
Clewiston...............................................              22
Fort Meade..............................................              10
Fort Pierce.............................................             113
Gainesville.............................................             410
Green Cove Springs......................................              24
Havana..................................................               7
Homestead Energy Services...............................             115
JEA formerly Jacksonville Electric Authority............           2,658
Jacksonville Beach dba Beaches Energy Services..........             168
Keys Energy Services formerly Key West..................             145
Kissimmee...............................................             374
Lake Worth Beach........................................              96
Lakeland Electric.......................................             667
Leesburg................................................             118
Moore Haven.............................................               4
Mount Dora..............................................              23
New Smyrna Beach........................................             105
Newberry................................................               9
Ocala...................................................             314
Orlando.................................................           1,294
Quincy..................................................              28
Reedy Creek Utilities...................................             166
St. Cloud...............................................             186
Starke..................................................              16
Tallahassee.............................................             616
Vero Beach..............................................             180
Wauchula................................................              14
Williston...............................................               8
Winter Park.............................................              94
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                          2020 Peak Load
                      Cooperatives                              MW
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Central Florida Electric Cooperative....................             131
Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO)............             219
Clay Electric Cooperative...............................             788
Escambia River Electric Cooperative.....................              43
Glades Electric Cooperative.............................              60
Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative.........................              86
Lee County Electric Cooperative.........................             970
Okefenoke Electric Cooperative..........................             178
Peace River Electric Cooperative........................             205
PowerSouth Energy Cooperative (G&T).....................           2,027
SECO Energy (Sumter Electric Coop)......................             865
Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative....................             119
Talquin Electric Cooperative............................             213
Tri-County Electric Cooperative.........................              60
West Florida Electric Cooperative.......................             123
Withlacoochee Electric Cooperative......................           1,002
Florida Keys Electric Cooperative.......................             156
Seminole Electric Cooperative (G&T).....................           3,409
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Legal Authority

    The policy is developed under authority of section 5 of the Flood 
Control Act of 1944, 16 U.S.C. 825s, and section 302(a) of the 
Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, 42 U.S.C. 7152. This 
power marketing policy was developed in accordance with the Procedure 
for Public Participation in the Formulation of Marketing Policy 
published July 6, 1978, 43 FR 29186.

Environmental Impact

    Southeastern has determined this action fits within the following 
categorical exclusions listed in appendix B to subpart D of 10 CFR part 
1021: B4.1 (Contracts, policies, and marketing and allocation plans for 
electric power). Categorically excluded projects and activities do not 
require preparation of either an environmental impact statement or an 
environmental assessment.

Determination Under Executive Order 12866

    Southeastern has an exemption from centralized regulatory review 
under Executive Order 12866; accordingly, no clearance of this notice 
by the Office of Management and Budget is required.

[[Page 20882]]

Signing Authority

    This document of the Department of Energy was signed on March 31, 
2023, by Virgil G. Hobbs III, Administrator for Southeastern Power 
Administration, pursuant to delegated authority from the Secretary of 
Energy. That document, with the original signature and date, is 
maintained by DOE. For administrative purposes only, and in compliance 
with requirements of the Office of the Federal Register, the 
undersigned DOE Federal Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to 
sign and submit the document in electronic format for publication, as 
an official document of the Department of Energy. This administrative 
process in no way alters the legal effect of this document upon 
publication in the Federal Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on April 4, 2023.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2023-07379 Filed 4-6-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P