1. Fred Heutte, Chair Environmental Data Working Group August 17, 2016
EDWG Update
Fred Heutte, Chair Environmental Data Working Group
August 17, 2016
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

2. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
July 22 EDWG Meeting
Key Topics
Golden Eagle/APLIC
Environmental Data updates
Cultural Data Viewer and Survey
Argonne National Labs - EZMT
California RETI 2.0
EDWG Outreach Plan – 2-page Fact Sheet adopted
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

3. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Golden Eagle / APLIC
Avian Power Line Interaction Committee
Mike Best, PG&E, APLIC chair
Sherry Liguori, Rocky Mountain Power, previous APLIC chair
APLIC formed 1989,
Short courses /workshops
Guidance documents
Provides research funding
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

4. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Golden Eagle / APLIC
Golden Eagle and transmission
Avian protection plans contribute directly to reliability
Electrocutions not generally an issue for transmission > 161 kV
Industry moving from nesting prevention (ineffective) to ‘bird safe’ construction, operation and protection
GIS data helpful for survey, ‘hot spots’ for maintenance, new corridor and line siting
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

5. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
EDWG Data Review
Annual review of EDWG Preferred Data Sets
108 active data sets
48 updated this year
Assistance on obtaining new Alberta data from Dean Chartier (AESO)
Exploring update of critical habitat data (CHAT, Nature Serve)
Continuing to work with SHPOs for state cultural data
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

6. EDWG Survey Activities
1 Data Viewer – user beta testing – no functionality issues
2 EDWG Stakeholder Survey
Interest in new data layers:
Existing energy infrastructure (e.g., pipelines, well pads)
Greater Sage-Grouse priority/general habitat and leks
Viewshed issues (sensitive viewsheds such as parks and scenic areas)
Population density data (not census data) / residential zones / growth boundary zones
Airports
Visual Resource Management data (BLM/US Forest Service)
Land ownership and land use
Archaeological sensitivity zones (Predictive Modeling)
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

7. EDWG Cultural Data Viewer
Ready to go live . . .
Cultural Data Viewer = EDWG Data Viewer + cultural data + simple login process (helps track usage)
Cultural data can be sensitive and requires masking and aggregation
Data access provided through data sharing agreements with State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs)
Available cultural data -- mostly from project survey work, typically < 5% of an area, often < 1%
Valuable in addressing cultural risks early in transmission project development
May add predictive data for cultural presence/absence in future
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

8. BLM Sec 368 Corridor Assessment
WECC is coordinating with BLM on Section 368 Energy Corridor assessment
Corridors for oil/gas/hydrogen pipelines and electric transmission/distribution (Sec. 368, Energy Policy Act of 2005)
Three year project cycle, 8 BLM subregions, Region 1 underway (western AZ, southwest NV, desert CA)
Jim Gazewood – BLM project manager and EDWG member
BLM ROW update: corridors, avoidance, exclusion
New sage grouse data – first areas by January
BLM Wind Mapper available September
WECC engaging in Sec 368 Region 1 study assessment (2016 Study Program)
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

9. BLM Sec 368 Corridor Assessment
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

10. ANL Energy Zones Mapping Tool
Developed for the Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council (EISPC) by:
Argonne National Laboratory (Project Lead)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratories (energy-water enhancements)
Demo by Jim Kuiper and Vladimir Koritarov, ANL
November 2015 decision to expand to full US – cooperation opportunity
Give it a test ride!
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

11. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
RETI 2.0
Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative 2.0 (California)
Managed by California Natural Resources Agency and other state energy and environmental agencies
Studying options for implementing California 50% RPS by 2030
Phase I (November 2016) California focus
Phase II (2017) Joint assessment with western states and provinces
Combined transmission, renewable resource, land use and habitat assessment
Databasin GIS/collaboration platform -- reti.databasin.org
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

12. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
RETI 2.0
Environment and Land Use Technical Group (July 22 EDWG presentation by Scott Flint, CEC and Jim Strickholt, Conservation Biology Institute/Databasin)
Transmission Technical Group
Agency leadership update Monday, August 15
Western Outreach Project – Tom Carr, WIEB
August 12, Portland
September 1, Las Vegas
Launch Phase 2 regionwide assessment early 2017
Using EDWG data in Databasin
Opportunity for collaboration (WECC 2017 Study Program)
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

13. EDWG 2-page fact sheet - adopted
Will be available on EDWG committee site and today’s SPSG meeting page
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

14. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
EDWG 2016
EDWG membership list with 2-year rotation submitted to SPSG Chair
EDWG vice-chair recommendation also submitted – Daly Edmunds, Audubon Rockies and SPSG
New EDWG member: Rod Fisher, Rocky Mountain Power
next meeting: October 7, Portland, Renewable Northwest office (if approved)
EDWG Contacts
Fred Heutte, EDWG chair NW Energy Coalition Jon Jensen, WECC staff
Western Electricity Coordinating Council