NWCC NATIONAL WIND COORDINATING COLLABORATIVE

HIGHLIGHTS

December 1, 2007

DATES TO REMEMBER

South Dakota Transmission Conference A Success - Nearly 300 people participated in the Wind Energy & Transmission: The South Dakota Landscape conference on Nov 29-30 in Sioux Falls, SD. Speakers and attendees explored how to overcome transmission constraints to facilitate greater wind development in the state and region, capped by a keynote address from Sen. John Thune. Conference presentations will be available shortly on the event website here.

NWCC CONFERENCE CALLS

Transmission Update call
December 18, 1:00 pm ET

Steering Committee call
December 20, 1:00 pm ET

Wildlife Workgroup call
January 9, 2:30 pm ET

Transmission Workgroup call
January 15, 2 pm ET

Working Groups

Western Transmission
Leadership Group call,
January 3, 1 pm ET

NWCC WORKGROUP UPDATES

Probability of Impact Workshop and Wildlife Workgroup Meeting A Next Steps Memo from the November 14th Wildlife Workgroup Meeting is currently under review by the Wildlife Workgroup Core Group. Once approved, it will be distributed to the Wildlife Workgroup. Summaries for both meetings are currently under development. Meeting presentations will be made available on the NWCC website in coming weeks.

Grassland and Shrub Steppe Species Collaborative (GS3C) - The NWCC staff is helping organize a conference call briefing for the GS3C to learn about sage grouse interaction with wind energy development and consider possible next steps for the GS3C.

Research Meeting VII Planning Committee - At its recent meeting, the Core Group provided input on planning for NWCC Wildlife Research Meeting VII. The planning committee will reconvene soon to continue organizing the meeting. The Research Meeting is anticipated for Fall 2008.

Key Research Topics Subgroup - The subgroup is working to incorporate comments from the Wildlife Workgroup Core Group into the Key Research Topics document. Once changes have been made, the document will be circulated to the Wildlife Workgroup Core Group for approval prior to publication.

Avian Protection Plans Briefing Summary Under Development - Presenters are currently reviewing a summary of the October 7th Avian Protection Plans briefing to the Wildlife Workgroup. NWCC staff will distribute the summary to the Wildlife Workgroup once it is approved and post it on the NWCC website.

U.S. Forest Service Briefing - The U.S. Forest Service recently announced a 60-day extension of the public comment deadline for its proposed Forest Service Wind Energy Directives, available here. A summary of the November 7th Forest Service briefing to the Wildlife Workgroup on these directives is under development and will be distributed to the Wildlife Workgroup upon completion.

Wind/Wildlife Activities & Events Table - The NWCC tracks wind power and wildlife-related studies and meetings and posts them online. Please send any updates to Taylor Kennedy at tkennedy@resolv.org for inclusion.

2008 Transmission Workgroup Blueprint - Transmission Workgroup members provided input on the draft blueprint for 2008 activities. The blueprint is being updated for consideration by the NWCC Steering Committee in December.

Midwest - next steps memo from the South Dakota transmission meeting will be available in early December and a conference summary is being written. The next NWCC Update will provide a link to the next steps.

The Eastern Midwest wind energy and transmission meeting, featuring Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, has been postponed until Spring 2008. Planning will resume in December.

SPP - NWCC staff members are working with SPP regional leaders to refine plans for 2008 NWCC activities, which will be incorporated into the workgroup blueprint. The summary of NWCC’s 2007 Southwest Power Pool transmission meeting is being finalized and will be on the NWCC website shortly.

West - The Western Transmission Leadership Group met in November to discuss 2008 activities, which have been added to the 2008 Transmission Workgroup blueprint.

The next issue of NWCC’s Implementing Wind Energy & Transmission in the West quarterly newsletter is due out in December. Past issues are available online.

Presentations and a next steps memo from the Sept 27-28 Increasing Renewable Energy in the Western Grid are available through this link and a meeting summary is under development.

Transmission Updates - The next Transmission Update call on December 18th at 1:00 pm ET. The brief from the previous call on state transmission authorities is being finalized with the presenters. To join the Transmission Update listserv, contact Katie Kalinowski, kkalinowski@resolv.org.

Workgroup Call - The next Transmission Workgroup call is November 20th at 2:00 pm ET and the next Transmission Update call is December 18th at 1:00 pm ET.