Notice2025-20702
Pine Valley Hydroelectric Power Company, LLC; Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission and Soliciting Additional Study Requests and Establishing Procedural Schedule for Relicensing and a Deadline for Submission of Final Amendments
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Published
November 24, 2025
Issuing agencies
Energy DepartmentFederal Energy Regulatory Commission
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 224 (Monday, November 24, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 224 (Monday, November 24, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52947-52948]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-20702]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Project No. 9282-040]
Pine Valley Hydroelectric Power Company, LLC; Notice of
Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission and Soliciting
Additional Study Requests and Establishing Procedural Schedule for
Relicensing and a Deadline for Submission of Final Amendments
Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.
a. Type of Application: Subsequent License for Minor Project.
b. Project No.: 9282-040.
c. Date Filed: September 29, 2025.
d. Applicant: Pine Valley Hydroelectric Power Company, LLC (Pine
Valley Hydro).
e. Name of Project: Pine Valley Hydroelectric Project (project).
f. Location: On the Souhegan River in Hillsborough County, New
Hampshire.
g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
h. Applicant Contact: Tony Zarella, Chief Operating Officer,
Relevate Power, LLC; 230 Park Ave., Suite 447; New York, NY 11017;
telephone at (315) 247-0253; email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f6828cb684939a93809782938699819384d895999b"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="3b4f417b495e575e4d5a4f5e4b544c5e4915585456">[email protected]</span></a>.
i. FERC Contact: Michael Watts, Project Coordinator, New England
Branch, Division of Hydropower Licensing; telephone at (202) 502-6123;
email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bfd2d6dcd7dedad391c8decbcbccffd9dacddc91d8d0c9"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="3a575359525b5f56144d5b4e4e497a5c5f4859145d554c">[email protected]</span></a>.
j. Cooperating agencies: Federal, state, local, and tribal agencies
with jurisdiction and/or special expertise with respect to
environmental issues that wish to cooperate in the preparation of the
environmental document should follow the instructions for filing such
requests described in item l below. Cooperating agencies should note
the Commission's policy that agencies that cooperate in the preparation
of the environmental document cannot also intervene. See 94 FERC ]
61,076 (2001).
k. Pursuant to section 4.32(b)(7) of 18 CFR of the Commission's
regulations, if any resource agency, Indian Tribe, or person believes
that an additional scientific study should be conducted in order to
form an adequate factual basis for a complete analysis of the
application on its merit, the resource agency, Indian Tribe, or person
must file a request for a study with the Commission not later than 60
days from the date of filing of the application, and serve a copy of
the request on the applicant.
l. Deadline for filing additional study requests and requests for
cooperating agency status: on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on
November 28, 2025.
The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file
additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status
using the Commission's eFiling system at <a href="https://ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx">https://ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx</a>. For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f1b7b4a3b2be9f9d989f94a28481819e8385b197948392df969e87"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="60262532232f0e0c090e05331510100f121420060512034e070f16">[email protected]</span></a>, (866) 208-3676 (toll free), or (202) 502-
8659 (TTY). In lieu of electronic filing, you may submit a paper copy.
Submissions
[[Page 52948]]
sent via the U.S. Postal Service must be addressed to: Debbie-Anne A.
Reese, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First
Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426. Submissions sent via any
other carrier must be addressed to: Debbie-Anne A. Reese, Secretary,
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville,
MD 20852. All filings must clearly identify the project name and docket
number on the first page: Pine Valley Hydroelectric Project (9282-040).
m. The application is not ready for environmental analysis at this
time.
n. Project Description: The Pine Valley Hydroelectric Project
includes a 200-foot-long, 23-foot-high stone-masonry gravity dam with a
128-foot-long spillway. The dam is equipped with two waste gates and
topped with 4-foot-high flashboards with a crest elevation of 323.6
feet National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD 29) at the top of
the flashboards. The dam creates an impoundment that has a surface area
of 7 acres at 323.6 feet NGVD 29.
From the impoundment, water flows into an intake structure located
a short distance upstream of the dam on the eastern shoreline of the
impoundment. The intake includes trashracks with 1.625-inch clear bar
spacing and a gatehouse with an 8-foot-wide hydraulically operated
headgate. From the intake, water flows through an 8-foot-diameter,
approximately 0.5-mile-long penstock, directly to a 525-kilowatt
horizontal Francis turbine-generator unit located on the lower level of
a former mill building. Water is discharged from the turbine-generator
unit to a 155-foot-long tailrace. The project creates an approximately
3,258-foot-long bypassed reach.
The project includes a downstream fish passage facility adjacent to
the intake structure that consists of a surface inlet weir, a bypass
inlet box, and a 24-inch diameter bypass pipe that discharges into the
bypassed reach. The downstream fish passage facility operates annually
from April 1 to June 1.
Electricity generated by the turbine-generator unit is transmitted
to the electric grid via a 200-foot-long, 4.16-kilovolt transmission
line. The minimum and maximum hydraulic capacities of the turbine-
generator unit are 24 and 240 cubic feet per second (cfs),
respectively. The average annual energy production of the project from
2019 through 2024, was 1,458 megawatt-hours.
The current license requires the project to operate in a run-of-
river mode such that project outflow approximates inflow to the
impoundment. Pine Valley Hydro maintains the normal maximum surface
elevation of the impoundment at 323.6 feet NGVD 29. The current license
also requires Pine Valley Hydro to release a minimum flow of 24 cfs or
inflow, whichever is less, from the project to the bypassed reach. The
minimum flow is released either through a sluice gate adjacent to the
spillway during project operation, over the spillway when not
operating, or through the downstream fish passage facility from April 1
to June 30.
Pine Valley Hydro proposes to: (1) continue operating the project
in a run-of-river mode; (2) increase the minimum flow from 24 cfs or
inflow, whichever is less, to 50 cfs or inflow, whichever is less; (3)
install a flow gage in the bypassed reach to monitor streamflow and
project discharge; (4) continue operating the downstream fish passage
facility from April 1 to June 1; (5) consult with resource agencies on
the scope and schedule of any future eel passage protection measures
that may be necessary; and (6) develop an operations compliance
monitoring plan.
o. In addition to publishing the full text of this notice in the
Federal Register, the Commission provides all interested persons an
opportunity to view and/or print the contents of this notice, as well
as other documents in the proceeding (e.g., license application) via
the internet through the Commission's Home Page (<a href="http://www.ferc.gov">http://www.ferc.gov</a>)
using the ``eLibrary'' link. Enter the docket number excluding the last
three digits in the docket number field to access the document (P-
9282). For assistance, contact FERC at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#86c0c3d4c5c9e8eaefe8e3d5f3f6f6e9f4f2c6e0e3f4e5a8e1e9f0"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="62242730212d0c0e0b0c07311712120d101622040710014c050d14">[email protected]</span></a>,
(866) 208-3676 (toll free), or (202) 502-8659 (TTY).
You may also register online at <a href="https://ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx">https://ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx</a> to be notified via email of new filings and issuances
related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC
Online Support.
p. The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports
meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission
proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners,
community organizations, Tribal members and others, access publicly
available information and navigate Commission processes. For public
inquiries and assistance with making filings such as interventions,
comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to
contact OPP at (202) 502-6595 or <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4b041b1b0b2d2e3928652c243d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c38c939383a5a6b1a0eda4acb5">[email protected]</span></a>.
q. Procedural Schedule: The application will be processed according
to the following preliminary schedule. Revisions to the schedule will
be made as appropriate.
Issue Deficiency Letter and Request Additional Information November
2025
Issue Acceptance Letter and Notice March 2026
Issue Scoping Notice March 2026
Scoping Comments due April 2026
Issue Ready for Environmental Analysis Notice June 2026
r. Final amendments to the application must be filed with the
Commission no later than 30 days from the issuance date of the notice
of ready for environmental analysis.
Dated: October 14, 2025.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2025-20702 Filed 11-21-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
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