NWCC NATIONAL WIND COORDINATING COMMITTEE

HIGHLIGHTS

January 7, 2005

DATES TO REMEMBER

Business Meeting #34: The next NWCC Business Meeting will be held in Tempe, Arizona on January 19, 2005. This meeting will be in coordination with Wind Power America’s Arizona State Wind Working Group meeting in Tempe on January 18, 2005. Please click here for the draft agenda, meeting logistics and to register online.

Western Transmission Workshop III: The NWCC is planning a workshop in Sacramento, CA, for February 1-2, 2005 at the Holiday Inn - Sacramento. The purpose of this meeting will be to review regional energy policy and transmission planning work, analyzing sub-regional transmission need assessments and comparing them with state and utility generation and transmission expansion plans. Based on this work the Transmission Working Group hopes to be able to inform decision-making among Western Governors and other public and private decision makers for consideration in policy, market and tariff changes. Please click here to access the draft agenda, logistics, and online registration.

New Website! The NWCC website has been redesigned for the new year to improve its usability and appearance. The look is new, but the address is still the same: http://www.nationalwind.org.

NWCC CONFERENCE CALLS

Transmission Workgroup Call
January 11 @ 2 pm ET

Wildlife Workgroup Call
January 13 @ 2 pm ET

Siting Workgroup Conference Call January 21 @ 2:30 pm ET

NWCC Steering Committee Call
January 27 @ 1 PM ET

NWCC MEETINGS

Business Meeting 34
January 19, 2005
Tempe, AZ

Western Transmission Workshop
February 1-2, 2005
Sacramento, CA

MAGIC MOMENTS

Updated Calendar of 2005 Events: click here

NWCC STAFF CONTACTS

Miles Keogh
Outreach Coordinator
(202) 965-6209
MKeogh@RESolv.org

Rachel Permut
Outreach Associate  
(202) 965-6383
rpermut@resolv.org

NWCC WORK GROUP UPDATES

The Bat / Wind Energy Collaborative has released the and interim progress report on research conducted on Avian / Bat interaction with Wind Turbines. It is available at Bat Conservation International’s website at http://www.batcon.org/wind/2004progressreport.pdf 

The Wildlife Workgroup is moving forward with five projects coming out of the Wildlife Research Meeting held in November. The projects include: risk assessment for wind power, research on prairie birds, a mitigation toolbox, following the Bat Wind Energy Collaborative progress, and developing a methods and metrics publication for nocturnal bats and birds. To find out the status of each project and other wildlife related activities, please join us on January 12th at 2:00 pm ET for the bi-monthly workgroup call. Call in information and agenda will be emailed to the workgroup prior to the call.

Susan Savitt-Schwartz is finalizing the proceedings for Wildlife Research Meeting V held in November 2004. A draft will be sent to attendees for review before being published.

BBC Research has completed the NWCC Siting Case Studies: Community Response and the document is currently under review by the subgroup. It will be sent to the full workgroup after the subgroup’s comments have been incorporated. The case studies will be a topic of discussion both at the Business Meeting and on the next siting workgroup bi-monthly conference call, scheduled for 2:30 pm ET on January 21st. The call agenda and call in information will be emailed to the workgroup.

It’s not too late to register for the Western Wind & Transmission Workshop in Sacramento on February 1 & 2. Online registration is available with conference info at www.nationalwind.org and a new feature has been added, attendees can pay by credit card.

The transmission workgroup is also preparing for a workshops in the Summer of 2005 in the Midwest to discuss activities in the MISO region that affect wind energy. More information will be made available in the coming weeks.

In addition, the workgroup is finalizing the direction for the Bi-Monthly Transmission Briefings (formerly RTO Briefings), which will resume in February.

Finally, four transmission siting case studies are being written and reviewed. The studies examine lessons learned from transmission system expansions that benefited wind in Colorado, Minnesota, California, and Texas.