WHAT'S NEW:

No recent state activity has been identified.

AIR EMISSIONS REGULATIONS:

Air Quality Status	There are 5 areas that are in moderate nonattainment for the 8-hour ozone standard EPA's Nonattainment Areas
Major Source Threshold	PTE 250 tons (100 of listed sources) of any criteria pollutant in attainment areas. 50 tons of NOx or VOCs in nonattainment areas
Minor Source Permitting Exemption	Size based. See below
Minor Source Treatment	Emissions limits: Opacity, SO2 and PM
Emergency Generating Limits	Exempt with operating conditions

DE MINIMIS EXEMPTIONS

Sources that have a potential to emit less than 5 tons per year of each criteria pollutant are exempt from permitting. These sources are not required to notify the state, but it is recommended.

MINOR SOURCE PERMITTING

Sources with a potential to emit more than 5 tons per year of any criteria pollutant must obtain a minor source permit. The state will require stack testing if the unit has a potential to emit 40 tons or more of NOx in an attainment area and any amount of NOx in a nonattainment area. There is a 20% opacity limit and PM emissions must be less than 0.6 lb/MMBtu. There is also a 2,000 ppm fuel sulfur limit. In nonattainment areas RACT may apply.

There is a 30 day public comment period for sources with a potential to emit greater than 100 tons per year of a criteria pollutant. The entire permitting process takes about 180 days, but there is no upper time limit.

New NO x emissions limits have been established for 9 parishes geared mostly toward retrofitting old equipment because most new equipment should meet these standards anyway. These are summarized below:

Boilers:

Coal Fired	0.21 lbs/MMBtu
#6 Fuel	0.18 lbs/MMBtu
Fuel Oil Fired	0.10 lbs/MMBtu

Turbines :

Fuel oil fired, peaking	0.30 lbs/MMBtu
gas fired, peaking	0.20 lbs/MMBtu
All others	0.16 lbs/MMBtu

ICE:

Lean Burn	4 g/hph
Rich Burn	2 g/hph

 

Exemptions: boilers with max capacity less than 80 MMBtu/hr; stationary gas turbines less than 10 MW; ICE rich-burn less than 300 hp; ICE lean-burn less than 320 hp in Baton Rouge and less than 1500 in regions of influence; Gas turbines & ICE used for testing, research or performance verification; and Any source used solely to power a startup point source that fires biomass fuel which acounts for greater than 50% of the heat input monthly.

MAJOR NSR/PSD PERMITTING

A potential to emit 250 tons (100 tons of listed sources) per year of a criteria pollutant triggers PSD in attainment areas. 50 tons of NOx or VOCs triggers NSR in nonattainment areas.

TREATMENT OF EMERGENCY ENGINES

Emergency units are exempt from permitting, but can only operate during power outages and for maintenance. No state notification is required and there is no hourly operating limit.

SITING REQUIREMENTS FOR NON-UTILITY GENERATORS:

Distributed generation applications with installed capacity greater than 10 MW must register with the Public Service Commission.

BUILDING, ZONING AND FIRE CODES:

Building Codes: Louisiana has adopted the 2006 IBC with exclusions as a mandatory minimum building code, called the State Uniform Building Code.

• Fire Marshal: Codes, Rules, and Laws

Energy Codes: For commercial buildings, Louisiana enforces ASHRAE 90.1-2004[1] .

Fire Codes: Louisiana has adopted the 2003 NFPA 101: Life Safety code [1].

• Louisiana State Fire Marshal

Zoning: Zoning and planning happens at the city or parish level. Check with each jurisdiction regarding their zoning codes.

Resources (information may not be as current as provided above)

A general overview of each state’s enacted codes can be found HERE.

The International Code Council Adoption page gives state-by-state adoption status of specific ICC codes, as well as information about code adoption by some municipal governments within that state.

Information about energy codes can be found at the DOE’s Building Codes for Energy Efficiency page or at the Building Codes Assistance Project

INTERCONNECTION REQUIREMENTS:

Louisiana ’s statewide interconnection standards apply only to net-metered systems. The Louisiana Public Service Commission’s (PSC) rules for net-metering and interconnection of net-metered systems are based on the rules in Arkansas. The rules only apply to net-metered systems. Publicly-owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives are required to offer net metering to customers with systems that use solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal or biomass resources. Fuel cells and micro-turbines that generate electricity entirely derived from renewable resources are eligible. Residential systems up to 25 kW and commercial systems up to 100 kW are allowed to interconnect.

Customers must pay for the interconnection costs, and the PSC may also authorize a utility to charge “a greater fee or customer charge, of any type, if the electric utility's direct costs of interconnection and administration of net metering outweigh the distribution system, environmental and public-policy benefits of allocating the costs among the electric utility's entire customer base."

For more information contact the PSC.

Louisiana Public Service Commission
Galvez Building, 12th Floor
602 North Fifth Street
Post Office Box 91154
Baton Rouge, LA 70821-9154
Phone: (225) 342-4404
Fax: (225) 342-2831

EXIT FEES:

No information on exit fees has been identified. Contact the Louisiana Public Service Commission for more information.

UTILITY STANDBY RATES:

Louisiana does not have a statewide policy on standby rates.

Entergy Louisiana Inc - Schedule QFSS-13: Standby service is provided only to qualifying facilities (QF). The standby rate is primarily demand based. Billing demand is based on the higher of the average of 3 maximum 15 minute demand periods or 70% of the maximum demand in the previous 11 months. Rate information is available at: http://www.entergy-louisiana.com/your_business/ELI_Tariffs.aspx .

Entergy Gulf States Inc - Schedule SMQ: Standby service is provided only to QFs. The standby rate has a very high demand component. Billing demand is based on the maximum 30 minute demand of the month with a 12 month ratchet. Rate information is available at: http://www.entergy-louisiana.com/your_business/EGSI_Tariffs.aspx