On August 30, 2024, the EPA published a final rule for “National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP): Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines and New Source Performance Standards (NSPS): Internal Combustion Engines; Electronic Reporting.”
This amendment added electronic reporting provisions and made a small number of clarifications and corrections to these rules, as well as “corrected inadvertent and other minor errors in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), particularly related to tables,” the rule states.
The addition of electronic reporting provisions is expected to provide simplified reporting for sources and enhance availability of data on sources to the EPA and the public.
The final rule was effective immediately upon its publication date.
“The Final Rule does not revise the numerical emissions standards or act on EPA’s proposal to modify the emergency engine requirements that allow 50 hours per year of operation to mitigate disruptions to electricity supply,” says the American Public Power Association (APPA), an electric power organization.
Three regulations were revised. Two were revisions to Clean Air Act (CAA) NSPS Section 111 provisions, and the third revision set the maximum achievable control technology (MAT) standard for hazardous air pollutants under CAA Section 112 for reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICEs).
“Power generators often use these smaller engines to complement normal operations, such as during peaking times, to support pumps and startup operations, and as emergency generators,” the APPA adds. “Internal combustion engines complement renewable generation due to their fast start/stop capabilities to follow load.
“Both the NESHAP and NSPSs have emergency engine requirements that permit less stringent requirements when compared with non-emergency engines, and they have allowable hours of operation limits for emergency engines to operate in non-emergency situations.”
Electronic reporting
The final rule requires all entities subject to any one of the three regulations (NSPS Subpart IIII or JJJJ or NESHAP Subpart ZZZZ) to submit certain compliance reports electronically through the EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX) using the Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface.
Those compliance reports include:
- Certain initial notifications of compliance
- Performance test reports
- Notification of compliance status
- Annual compliance reports
- Semiannual compliance reports
The EPA published a memorandum titled “Electronic Reporting Requirements for NSPS and NESHAP Rules” that explains the electronic reporting requirement.
Two circumstances are defined under the final rule in which the EPA can grant an electronic reporting extension:
- Outages of the CDX or the Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface.
- Force majeure events, defined as events that will be or have been caused by circumstances beyond the control of the affected facility preventing the owner or operator from complying with the electronic reporting requirements. Examples include acts of nature, acts of war or terrorism, or equipment failure or safety hazards beyond the facility’s control.
Security exemption
“The Final Rule also provides that if the combustion engine is owned or operated by or for a federal agency responsible for national defense, and if disclosure of the combustion engine’s exact location would be a threat to national security, then the filer may claim a national security exemption to allow the latitude and longitude fields in the reporting template to be left blank,” the APPA continues. “EPA determined that it was unnecessary to establish criteria for access to precise geolocation of sources because facility address data is still required to be reported.”
‘50-hour provisions’
When the rule was initially proposed, the EPA solicited comments about the “50-hour provisions,” which allow “emergency engines to operate for up to 50 hours per year to mitigate local transmission and/or distribution limitations to avert potential voltage collapse or line overloads, leading to the interruption of power supply to a local area or region,” the APPA adds.
However, the EPA didn’t include any updates to this rule to allow emergency engines to operate up to 50 hours per year.
“APPA has been tracking and monitoring potential changes to the 50-hour provision and filed extensive comments advocating for EPA to retain it. The provision is important to public power utilities because it provides benefits for local reliability and resource adequacy, supporting a safe and reliable grid.”