Session 1 - Trends in FERC Relicensing: What Does the Future Hold?

Over the next 11 years, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licenses affecting more than 420 hydro plants throughout the United States will expire and require new licenses for continued operation. Work is well underway throughout the industry to relicense these existing plants.

This facilitator-led Q&A discussion looks at significant trends emerging, and answers these questions:

• What new approaches are being used in environmental studies?
• How are the changes being made in license conditions expected to affect future operations?
• What roles are consultants and legal advisers playing today and how has that changed in years’ past?
• Innovative approaches to help resource agencies manage ‘bandwidth’ challenges?
• What impact is FERC’s early action credit having on project investment decisions leading into relicensing?
• When to not to file a new license application - how do you decide that a new license is not worth the effort?
• Innovative approaches to assessing the value of flexibility in relicensing