2012-21660. February 2011 Southwest Cold Weather Event Follow-up Technical Conference; Notice of Technical Conference

Take notice that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) will hold a Technical Conference on Thursday, September 27, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This conference will be led by Commission staff and will be held in the African American Performing Arts Center 310 San Pedro Drive Northeast, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108. The conference will be open for the public to attend.

The purpose of the conference is to discuss actions taken in response to the August 16, 2011 Report on Outages and Curtailments During the Southwest Cold Weather Event of February 1-5, 2011 that was prepared by the staffs of the Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. The conference will explore the progress made on the Report's recommendations and to determine if sufficient safeguards have been implemented to avert a repeat of the loss of approximately 700 megawatts of generation in WECC due to severe cold weather issues. This resulted in 1,000 megawatts of load shedding which affected over 250,000 customers in the WECC region. In addition, the conference will cover the disruption of natural gas supply to over 30,000 customers in New Mexico.

Those interested in attending a conference are encouraged to register by close of business, September 20, 2012. You may register at the following Web page: https://www.ferc.gov/​whats-new/​registration/​rt-09-27-12-form.asp.

The agenda for this conference will be issued at a later date. Information on this event will be posted on the Calendar of Events on the Commission's Web site, www.ferc.gov, prior to the event.

Commission conferences are accessible under section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. For accessibility accommodations, please send an email to [e-mail] or call toll free 1-866-208-3372 (voice) or 202-208-1659 (TTY), or send a FAX to 202-208-2106 with the required accommodations.

For more information about this conference, please contact: Mark Hershfield, Office of External Affairs, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, [phone], [e-mail].

Dated: August 27, 2012.

Kimberly D. Bose,

Secretary.