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NWCC NATIONAL WIND COORDINATING COLLABORATIVE |
HIGHLIGHTS
September 15, 2007
DATES TO REMEMBER
Renewable Energy Summit - Registration Still Open! -Over 125 leaders from across the West are attending the Increasing Renewable Energy in the Western Grid summit on Sept 27-28 in Ft. Collins, CO. Governor Ritter and Governor Freudenthal will lead the session "Public Policies and Business Strategies for Energy and Climate Security," engaging with Pat Vincent, Utilities President of Public Service Company of New Mexico; Paul Bonavia, President - Utilities Group, Xcel Energy; Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff, FERC; and Commissioner Marsha Smith, Idaho PUC. There is still time to register to attend-the summit website has the registration link and full meeting program.
NWCC CONFERENCE CALLS
Transmission Workgroup call
September 18, 2:00 pm ET
Steering Committee call
October 4, 1:00 pm ET
Transmission Update call
October 31, 1:00 pm ET
Working Groups
Western Transmission Leadership Group call
September 17, 3:00 pm ET
Probability of Impact call
September 17, 4:00 pm ET
South Dakota Transmission Workshop planning call
October 1, noon ET
GS3C call
October 29, 11:00 am ET
NWCC EVENTS
WGA / NWCC /GEA Increasing Renewable Energy in the Western Grid Summit
September 27-28, Ft. Collins, CO
NWCC Probability of Impact Workshop
November 13, Denver, CO
NWCC Wildlife Workgroup Fall Meeting
November 14, Denver, CO
NWCC Wind Energy & Transmission: The South Dakota Landscape meeting
November 29-30, Sioux Falls, SD
MAGIC MOMENTS
Updated Calendar of Events: click here
CONTACT NWCC STAFF
Katie Kalinowski
Outreach Coordinator
(202) 965-6383
kkalinowski@resolv.org
Taylor Kennedy
Program Associate
(202) 965-6392
tkennedy@resolv.org
NWCC WORKGROUP UPDATES
Recent Wildlife Workgroup subgroup activities include:
Grassland and Shrub Steppe Species Collaborative (GS3C) - The next KSU quarterly report to the GS3C will be submitted to them in October and a call has been scheduled for Oct 29th.
After a thorough technical edit, the finalized version of the Literature Review is expected soon; NWCC staff will circulate an announcement and post the document online when it is complete.
Probability of Impact - This subgroup continues to refine its plans for the November 13th workshop. Case studies illustrating various approaches for assessing probability of impact to wildlife from wind power development will be presented and discussed at the workshop. The subgroup is pulling together case studies and will continue workshop planning in consultation with the Wildlife Workgroup Core Group.
Research Meeting VII Planning Committee - The first call to begin planning for the 7th Wildlife Research Meeting is being scheduled. The research meeting is tentatively slated for Fall 2008.
Research Priorities Subgroup - The Wildlife Workgroup seeks volunteers with a technical background to consider and prioritize recently published research needs. Volunteers will take part in a one-day meeting to revise the research priorities white paper. The group will attempt to share a revised paper with the Core Group at the Fall Wildlife Workgroup meeting on Nov 14th. Please contact Taylor Kennedy at tkennedy@resolv.org if you would like to participate in this revision process.
RfP Oversight Subgroup - NREL will soon issue an announcement of intent to release the RfPs for updating the Methods & Metrics document and the Birds & Bats Factsheet. The RfPs are likely to be released in late Fall. The announcement will be circulated widely to all on the Wildlife Workgroup mailing list.
Wind/Wildlife Activities & Events Table - This table tracks wind power and wildlife-related studies and meetings and is available online. One update to note is that the California Energy Commission has released its Final Committee Report on guidelines for wind power development, available here: http://www.energy.ca.gov/2007publications/CEC-700-2007-008/CEC-700-2007-008-CTF.PDF. A hearing to adopt these guidelines is scheduled for September 26th.
For workshop planning purposes, a Wildlife Workgroup Core Group call will be scheduled for early October. Announcement of the call time will be made in the next update.
Midwest -The South Dakota transmission planning committee is beginning invitations to speakers. The workshop is scheduled for Nov 29-30 in Sioux Falls, SD. Workshop registration will open in October.
The meeting on wind energy and transmission in the Eastern Midwest, featuring Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, has been postponed until Spring 2008. Recruitment of planning committee members from these states and relevant sectors continues. If you would like to be involved in the planning process, please contact Katie Kalinowski at kkalinowski@resolv.org. The next planning call for this group will be scheduled for October.
SPP - Presentations from NWCC’s August 22nd workshop on wind energy and transmission in the Southwest Power Pool region are available online for free download through this link. Next steps and a meeting summary are under development. NWCC plans to reconvene the workshop planning committee to discuss implementation of next steps and future activities.
West - Wind, solar, and geothermal energy will be featured at the Increasing Renewable Energy in the Western Grid summit on Sept 27-28 in Ft. Collins, CO. The Western Governors’ Association, NWCC, and the Geothermal Energy Association are hosting the summit. See the speaker lineup and register to attend on the NWCC website here.
The third issue of NWCC’s Implementing Wind Energy & Transmission in the West quarterly newsletter will be out in September rather than August, complementing the summit on these topics in Ft. Collins. The first two newsletters volumes are available online. To join the newsletter mailing list, please contact Katie Kalinowski, kkalinowski@resolv.org.
Transmission Updates - The Transmission Update call on transmission authorities originally scheduled for September 17th has been rescheduled for Wednesday, October 31st at 1 pm ET. Please update your calendars.
The summary of the June 19th Transmission Update call, describing CAISO’s new transmission category for "locationally constrained resources" and the Texas PUC docket on implementing competitive renewable energy zones (CREZ) is complete and online at http://www.nationalwind.org/publications/transmission/updates/default.htm.
Workgroup Call - The next Transmission Workgroup call is scheduled for Tuesday, September 18th, 2:00 pm ET and the new Transmission Update call time is Wednesday, October 31st, 1:00 pm ET.