Once a commercial hydrokinetic lease is issued, the 5-year site-assessment term begins. It is during this period that a developer should prepare and file its final license application with FERC. The lessee must submit its final license application to FERC at least six months before the end of the site assessment term.
Under FERC’s standard licensing procedures, applicants submit a Preliminary Application Document (PAD) prior to filing a license application. If a hydrokinetic lease is acquired noncompetitively, the developer may file its PAD with FERC at any point following BOEM Determination of No Competitive Interest. In a competitive lease process, the developer must wait to file its PAD until after the BOEM issues the lease, as FERC will not begin processing a license application until it is clear that an applicant has secured the lease award.
Because the information requirements for a PAD are very similar to those for a SAP, it may be possible for an applicant to file the PAD (with FERC) and the SAP (with BOEM) simultaneously. Submitting the PAD and SAP at the same time could enable FERC and BOEM to conduct joint public scoping, if appropriate. In addition, a developer could commence information gathering studies necessary for the final license application while BOEM conducts its environmental review of the SAP.
Initiating the lease and licensing processes simultaneously should allow for the overall processes to be completed more quickly and efficiently; however, this approach does put the developer at risk of incurring costs prior to knowing whether a lease or license will be issued.
With an expected timeframe of 2 – 3 years for BOEM to issue a hydrokinetic lease, and 3 – 4 years for FERC to issue a standard license, the overall timeframe for authorizing a hydrokinetic project on the OCS will likely to take at least 5 – 7 years. As with all authorizations, actual process times will vary from project to project. Developers are encouraged to communicate with BOEM and FERC about aligning the filing and review process as early as possible.