Notice2021-14715
Commission Information Collection Activities Ferc-917 and Ferc-918; Consolidated Comment Request; Extension
Primary source
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Published
July 12, 2021
Issuing agencies
Energy DepartmentFederal Energy Regulatory Commission
Abstract
In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is soliciting public comment on the currently approved information collections, FERC-917 (Electric Transmission Facilities) and FERC-918 (Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities), both under OMB Control No. 1902-0233, which will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a review of the information collection requirements.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 130 (Monday, July 12, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 130 (Monday, July 12, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36540-36543]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-14715]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. IC21-32-000]
Commission Information Collection Activities Ferc-917 and Ferc-
918; Consolidated Comment Request; Extension
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of information collections and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or
FERC) is soliciting public comment on the currently approved
information collections, FERC-917 (Electric Transmission Facilities)
and FERC-918 (Standards for Business Practices and Communication
Protocols for Public Utilities), both under OMB Control No. 1902-0233,
which will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
for a review of the information collection requirements.
DATES: Comments on the collections of information are due September 10,
2021.
ADDRESSES: You may submit copies of your comments (identified by Docket
No. IC21-32-000 and the specific FERC collection number (FERC-917 and/
or FERC-918) by one of the following methods:
Electronic filing through <a href="http://www.ferc.gov">http://www.ferc.gov</a>, is preferred.
<bullet> Electronic Filing: Documents must be filed in acceptable
native applications and print-to-PDF, but not in scanned or picture
format.
<bullet> For those unable to file electronically, comments may be
filed by USPS mail or by hand (including courier) delivery:
[cir] Mail via U.S. Postal Service Only: Addressed to: Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission, Secretary of the Commission, 888 First
Street NE, Washington, DC 20426.
[cir] Hand (Including Courier) Delivery: Deliver to: Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852.
Instructions: All submissions must be formatted and filed in
accordance with
[[Page 36541]]
submission guidelines at: <a href="http://www.ferc.gov">http://www.ferc.gov</a>. For user assistance,
contact FERC Online Support by email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#fa9c9f889995949693949f898f8a8a95888eba9c9f8899d49d958c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="34525146575b5a585d5a51474144445b464074525146571a535b42">[email protected]</span></a>, or
by phone at (866) 208-3676 (toll-free).
Docket: Users interested in receiving automatic notification of
activity in this docket or in viewing/downloading comments and
issuances in this docket may do so at <a href="http://www.ferc.gov">http://www.ferc.gov</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#682c091c092b040d091a09060b0d282e2d3a2b460f071e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c682a7b2a785aaa3a7b4a7a8a5a38680839485e8a1a9b0">[email protected]</span></a>, telephone at (202) 502-8663.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: FERC-917, Electric Transmission Facilities and FERC-918,
Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public
Utilities.
OMB Control No.: 1902-0233.
Type of Request: Three-year extension of the FERC-917 and FERC-918
information collection requirements with no changes to the reporting
requirements.
Type of Respondents: Public utilities transmission providers.
Abstract: On February 17, 2007, the Commission issued Order No. 890
to address and remedy opportunities for undue discrimination under the
pro forma Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) adopted in 1996 by
Order No. 888.\1\ Through Order No. 890, the Commission:
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\1\ Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-
discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities; Recovery
of Stranded Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities,
Order No. 888, 61 FR 21540 (May 10, 1996), FERC Stats. & Regs. ]
31,036 (1996), order on reh'g, Order No. 888-A, 62 FR 12274 (Mar.
14, 1997), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,048 (1997), order on reh'g,
Order No. 888-B, 81 FERC ] 61,248 (1997), order on reh'g, Order No.
888-C, 82 FERC ] 61,046 (1998), aff'd in relevant part sub nom.
Transmission Access Policy Study Group v. FERC, 225 F.3d 667 (D.C.
Cir. 2000), aff'd sub nom. New York v. FERC, 535 U.S. 1 (2002).
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1. Adopted pro forma OATT provisions necessary to keep imbalance
charges closely related to incremental costs.
2. Increased nondiscriminatory access to the grid by requiring
public utilities, working through the North American Electric
Reliability Corporation (NERC), to develop consistent methodologies for
available transfer capability (ATC) calculation and to publish those
methodologies to increase transparency.
3. Required an open, transparent, and coordinated transmission
planning process thereby increasing the ability of customers to access
new generating resources and promote efficient utilization of
transmission.
4. Gave the right to customers to request from transmission
providers, studies addressing congestion and/or integration of new
resource loads in areas of the transmission system where they have
encountered transmission problems due to congestion or where they
believe upgrades and other investments may be necessary to reduce
congestion and to integrate new resources.
5. Required both the transmission provider's merchant function and
network customers to include a statement with each application for
network service or to designate a new network resource that attests,
for each network resource identified, that the transmission customer
owns or has committed to purchase the designated network resource and
the designated network resource comports with the requirements for
designated network resources. The network customer includes this
attestation in the customer's comment section of the request when it
confirms the request on the Open Access Same-Time Information System
(OASIS).
6. Required with regard to capacity reassignment that: (a) All
sales or assignments of capacity be conducted through or otherwise
posted on the transmission provider's OASIS on or before the date the
reassigned service commences; (b) assignees of transmission capacity
execute a service agreement prior to the date on which the reassigned
service commences; and (c) transmission providers aggregate and
summarize in an electric quarterly report the data contained in these
service agreements.
7. Adopted an operational penalties annual filing that provides
information regarding the penalty revenue the transmission provider has
received and distributed.
8. Required creditworthiness information to be included in a
transmission provider's OATT. Attachment L must specify the qualitative
and quantitative criteria that the transmission provider uses to
determine the level of secured and unsecured credit required.
The Commission required a NERC/NAESB \2\ team to draft and review
Order No. 890 reliability standards and business practices. The team
was to solicit comment from each utility on developed standards and
practices and utilities were to implement each, after Commission
approval. Public utilities, working through NERC, were to revise
reliability standards to require the exchange of data and coordination
among transmission providers and, working through NAESB, were to
develop complementary business practices. Required OASIS postings
included:
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\2\ NAESB is the North American Energy Standards Board.
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1. Explanations for changes in ATC values;
2. Capacity benefit margin (CBM) reevaluations and quarterly
postings;
3. OASIS metrics and accepted/denied requests;
4. Planning redispatch offers and reliability redispatch data;
5. Curtailment data;
6. Planning and system impact studies;
7. Metrics for system impact studies; and
8. All rules.
Incorporating the Order No. 890 standards into the Commission's
regulations benefits wholesale electric customers by streamlining
utility business practices, transactional processes, and OASIS
procedures, and by adopting a formal ongoing process for reviewing and
upgrading the Commission's OASIS standards and other electric industry
business practices. These practices and procedures benefit from the
implementation of generic industry standards.
The Commission's Order No. 890 regulations can be found in 18 CFR
35.28 (pro forma tariff requirements), and 37.6 and 37.7 (OASIS
requirements). 18 CFR 35.28(b) states: ``Audit data must remain
available for download on the OASIS for 90 days, except ATC/TTC
postings that must remain available for download on the OASIS for 20
days. The audit data are to be retained and made available upon request
for download for five years from the date when they are first posted in
the same electronic form as used when they originally were posted on
the OASIS.''
Estimate of Annual Burden: \3\ The Commission estimates the annual
public reporting burden for the information collections as follows.
Please note, the zeroes for respondents and responses are based on
having no filings of this type over the past four years. In addition,
we estimate no filings during the next three years. The requirements
remain in the regulations and are included as part of OMB Control
Number 1902-0233.
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\3\ Burden is defined as the total time, effort, or financial
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. For
further explanation of what is included in the information
collection burden, refer to 5 CFR part 1320.
[[Page 36542]]
FERC-917 (Electric Transmission Facilities) and FERC-918 (Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities)
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Average
Number of Annual number Annual number Average annual burden Total average annual annual cost
respondents of responses of responses hrs. & cost \4\ per burden hours & total perespondent
per respondent response ($) annual cost \5\ ($) ($)
(1) (2) (1) * (2) = (4)..................... (3) * (4) = (5)........ (5) / (1) =
(3) (6)
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18 CFR 35.28 (FERC-917)
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Conforming tariff changes (Reporting) 20 1 20 20 hrs.; $1,460......... 400 hrs.; $29,200...... $1,460
Revision of Imbalance Charges 21 1 21 25 hrs.; $1,825......... 525 hrs.; $38,325...... 1,825
(Reporting).
ATC revisions (Reporting)............ 11 1 11 20 hrs.; $1,460......... 220 hrs.; $16,060...... 1,460
Planning (Attachment K) (Reporting) 162 1 162 100 hrs., $7,300........ 16,200 hrs., $1,182,600 7,300.00
\6\.
Congestion studies (Reporting)....... 162 1 162 300 hrs., $21,900....... 48,600 hrs., $3,547,800 21,900.00
Attestation of network resource 162 1 162 1 hr., $73.............. 162 hrs., $11,826...... 73.00
commitment (Reporting).
Capacity reassignment (Reporting).... 162 1 162 100 hrs., $7,300........ 16,200 hrs., $1,182,600 7,300.00
Operational Penalty annual filing 162 1 162 10 hrs., $358.30........ 1,620 hrs., $58,044.60. 358.30
(Record Keeping) \7\.
Creditworthiness--include criteria in
the tariff (Reporting) \8\
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FERC-917, Sub-Total of Record .............. .............. .............. ........................ 1,620 hrs., $58,044.60 ..............
Keeping Requirements.
FERC-917, Sub-Total of Reporting .............. .............. .............. ........................ 132,527 hrs., ..............
Requirements. $6,008,411
FERC-917--Sub Total of Reporting .............. .............. .............. ........................ 134,147 hrs., ..............
and Recordkeeping Requirements. $6,066,455.60
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18 CFR 37.6 & 37.7 (FERC-918)
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Implementation by each utility \9\
(Reporting)
NERC/NAESB Team to develop
(Reporting)
Review and comment by utility
(Reporting)
Mandatory data exchanges (Reporting). 162 1 162 80 hrs., $5,840......... 12,960 hrs., $946,080.. 5,840.00
Explanation of change of ATC values 162 1 162 100 hrs., $7,300.00..... 16,200 hrs., $1,182,600 7,300.00
(Reporting).
Reevaluate CBM and post quarterly 162 1 162 20 hrs., $716.60........ 3,240 hrs., $116,089.20 716.60
(Record Keeping).
Post OASIS metrics; requests accepted/ 162 1 162 90 hrs., $6,570......... 14,580 hrs., $1,064,340 6,570.00
denied (Reporting).
Post planning redispatch offers and 162 1 162 20 hrs., $716.60........ 3,240 hrs., $116,089.20 716.60
reliability redispatch data (Record
Keeping).
Post curtailment data (Reporting).... 162 1 162 1 hr., $73.00........... 162 hrs., $11,826...... 73.00
Post Planning and System Impact 162 1 162 5 hrs., $365.00......... 810 hrs., $59,130...... 365.00
Studies (Reporting).
Posting of metrics for System Impact 162 1 162 100 hrs., $7,300.00..... 16,200 hrs., $1,182,600 7,300.00
Studies (Reporting).
Post all rules to OASIS (Record 162 1 162 5 hrs., $179.15......... 810 hrs., $29,022.30... 179.15
Keeping).
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FERC-918, Sub-Total of Record .............. .............. .............. ........................ 7,290 hrs., $261,200.70 ..............
Keeping Requirements.
FERC-918 Sub-Total of Reporting .............. .............. .............. ........................ 60,912 hrs., $4,446,576 ..............
Requirements.
FERC-918--Sub Total of Reporting .............. .............. .............. ........................ 68,202 hrs., ..............
and Recordkeeping Requirements. $4,707,776.70
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Total FERC-917 and FERC-918 .............. .............. .............. ........................ 202,349 hrs., ..............
(Reporting and Recordkeeping $10,774,232.30
Requirements).
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Comments: Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the collections of
[[Page 36543]]
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the Commission, including whether the information will have practical
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden and
cost of the collections of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality,
utility and clarity of the information collections; and (4) ways to
minimize the burden of the collections of information on those who are
to respond, including the use of automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
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\4\ The estimated hourly cost (salary plus benefits) provided in
this section is based on the salary figures for March 2021 posted by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Utilities sector and benefits
based on BLS report; issued June 17, 2021 Employer Costs for
Employee Compensation Summary (available at <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm">https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm</a>). The hourly rates are displayed below:
Legal (Occupation Code: 23-0000): $142.25.
Management Analyst (Occupation Code: 13-1111): $68.39.
Office and Administrative Support (Occupation Code: 43-000):
$44.47.
Electrical Engineer (Occupation Code: 17-2071): $72.15.
Information Security Analyst (Occupation Code: 15-1122): $73.57.
File Clerk (Occupation Code: 43-4071): $35.83.
The skill sets are assumed to contribute equally, so the hourly
cost is an average [($142.25 + $68.39 + $44.47 + $72.15 + $73.57 +
35.83) / 6 = $72.78]. The figure is rounded to $73.00 per hour.
\5\ In the last renewal of FERC-917/918 (ICR Ref. No. 201802-
1902-002), included a $7,400,000 cost for off-site storage facility
for record keeping. This cost was not related to burden hours,
rather an annual estimate of the fees related to offsite storage.
This cost has been removed as all recordkeeping is retained
electronically per 18 CFR 37.7(b) states: ``Audit data must remain
available for download on the OASIS for 90 days, except ATC/TTC
postings that must remain available for download on the OASIS for 20
days. The audit data are to be retained and made available upon
request for download for five years from the date when they are
first posted in the same electronic form as used when they
originally were posted on the OASIS.''
\6\ The increase in the number of responses 132 (from OMB's
currently approved inventory for FERC-917/918) to 162 is based on
the increased number of companies subject to compliance and changes
in the last few years as identified by the NERC registry.
\7\ While we are using the averaged hourly rate for the majority
of the calculations, all recordkeeping tasks are solely completed by
a file clerk at $35.83/hour.
\8\ As noted, above the table, the zeroes for respondents and
responses are based on having no filings of this type over the past
four years.
\9\ ATC-related standards include: Implementation by each
utility (Reporting), NERC/NAESB Team to develop (Reporting), and
Review and comment by utility (Reporting).
Dated: July 6, 2021.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2021-14715 Filed 7-9-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
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