Notice2022-01519
Commission Information Collection Activities (Ferc-549c) Comment Request; Extension
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
January 26, 2022
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 collection, FERC-549C, (Standards for Business Practices of Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines), which will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 17 (Wednesday, January 26, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 17 (Wednesday, January 26, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4012-4014]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-01519]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. IC22-2-000]
Commission Information Collection Activities (Ferc-549c) Comment
Request; Extension
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of information collection and request for comments.
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[[Page 4013]]
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 collection, FERC-549C, (Standards for Business Practices of
Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines), which will be submitted to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.
DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due February 25,
2022.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments on FERC-549C to OMB through
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission Desk Officer. Please identify the OMB Control Number (1902-
0174) in the subject line of your comments. Comments should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this notice to <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>.
Please submit copies of your comments to the Commission. You may
submit copies of your comments (identified by Docket No. IC22-2-000) 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: OMB submissions must be formatted and filed in
accordance with submission guidelines at <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. Using the search function under the ``Currently Under Review''
field, select Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; click ``submit,''
and select ``comment'' to the right of the subject collection.
FERC submissions must be formatted and filed in accordance with
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#22444750414d4c4e4b4c47515752524d505662444750410c454d54"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="83e5e6f1e0ecedefeaede6f0f6f3f3ecf1f7c3e5e6f1e0ade4ecf5">[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="https://www.ferc.gov/ferc-online/overview">https://www.ferc.gov/ferc-online/overview</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#cf8baebbae8ca3aaaebdaea1acaa8f898a9d8ce1a8a0b9"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="dd99bca9bc9eb1b8bcafbcb3beb89d9b988f9ef3bab2ab">[email protected]</span></a>, telephone at (202) 502-8663.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. FERC-549C
Title: FERC-549C, Standards for Business Practices of Interstate
Natural Gas Pipelines.
OMB Control No.: 1902-0174.
Type of Request: Three-year extension of the FERC-549C information
collection requirements with no changes to the current reporting
requirements. No comments were received on the 60 day notice published
on November 15, 2021 (86 FR 63010).
Abstract: The business practice standards under FERC-549C are
required to carry out the Commission's policies in accordance with the
general authority in sections 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 14, 16, and 20 of the
Natural Gas Act (NGA),\1\ and sections 311, 501, and 504 of the Natural
Gas Policy Act of 1978 (NGPA).\2\ The Commission adopted these business
practice standards in order to update and standardize the natural gas
industry's business practices and procedures in addition to improving
the efficiency of the gas market and the means by which the gas
industry conducts business across the interstate pipeline grid. In
various orders since 1996, the Commission has adopted regulations to
standardize the business practices and communication methodologies of
interstate natural gas pipelines proposed by the North American Energy
Standards Board (NAESB) in order to create a more integrated and
efficient pipeline industry.\3\ Generally, when and if NAESB-proposed
standards (e.g., consensus standards developed by the Wholesale Gas
Quadrant (WGQ) \4\) are approved by the Commission, the Commission
incorporates them by reference into its approval. The process of
standardizing business practices in the natural gas industry began with
a Commission initiative to standardize electronic communication of
capacity release transactions. The outgrowth of the initial Commission
standardization efforts produced working groups composed of all
segments of the natural gas industry. The Gas Industry Standards Board
(GISB) is a consensus organization open to all members of the gas
industry was created. GISB was succeeded by NAESB.
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\1\ 15 U.S.C. 717c-717w.
\2\ 15 U.S.C. 3301-3432.
\3\ This series of orders began with the Commission's issuance
of Standards for Business Practices of Interstate Natural Gas
Pipelines, Order No. 587, FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,038 (1996).
\4\ An accredited standards organization under the auspices of
the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
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NAESB is a voluntary non-profit organization comprised of members
from the retail and wholesale natural gas and electric industries.
NAESB's mission is to take the lead in developing standards across
these industries to simplify and expand electronic communication and to
streamline business practices. NAESB's core objective is to facilitate
a seamless North American marketplace for natural gas, as recognized by
its customers, the business community, industry participants, and
regulatory bodies.
NAESB has divided its efforts among four quadrants including two
retail quadrants, a wholesale electric quadrant, and the WGQ. The NAESB
WGQ standards are a product of this effort. Industry participants
seeking additional or amended standards (to include principles,
definitions, standards, data elements, process descriptions, and
technical implementation instructions) must submit a request to the
NAESB office, detailing the change, so that the appropriate process may
take place to amend the standards. Failure to collect the FERC-549C
data would prevent the Commission from monitoring and properly
evaluating pipeline transactions and/or meeting statutory obligations
under both the NGA and NGPA.
On August 17, 2020, NAESB filed a report informing the Commission
that it had adopted and ratified WGQ Version 3.2 of its business
practice standards applicable to interstate natural gas pipelines.
Version 3.2 of the WGQ includes business practice standards developed
and modified in response to industry requests and directives from the
NAESB Board of Directors. This version also includes the standards
developed in response to the recommendations of Sandia National
Laboratory (Sandia),\5\ which in 2019 issued a cybersecurity surety
assessment of the NAESB standards sponsored by DOE (Sandia Surety
Assessment),\6\ and
[[Page 4014]]
the standards developed to enable the use of distributed ledger
technologies when transacting the NAESB Base Contract for Sale and
Purchase of Natural Gas. The NAESB report identifies all the changes
made to the WGQ Version 3.1 Standards and summarizes the deliberations
that led to the changes being made. It also identifies changes to the
existing standards that were considered but not adopted due to a lack
of consensus or other reasons.
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\5\ Sandia is a multidisciplinary national laboratory and
federally funded research and development center for the U.S.
Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security
Administration that supports numerous federal, state, and local
government agencies, companies, and organizations.
\6\ In April 2017, NAESB announced that Sandia, through funding
provided by DOE, would be performing a surety assessment of the
NAESB standards. As determined by Sandia and DOE, the purpose of the
surety assessment was to analyze cybersecurity elements within the
standards, focusing on four areas: (1) The NAESB Certification
Program for Accredited Certification Authorities, including the
Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ)-012 Public Key Infrastructure
Business Practice Standards, the NAESB Accreditation Requirements
for Authorized Certificate Authorities, and the Authorized
Certification Authority Process; (2) the WEQ Open Access Same-Time
Information Systems suite of standards; (3) the WGQ and Retail
Markets Quadrant internet Electronic Transport (IET) and Quadrant
Electronic Delivery Mechanism (EDM) Related Standards Manual; and
(4) a high-level dependency analysis between the gas and electric
markets to evaluate the different security paradigms the markets
employ.
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Type of Respondents: Natural gas pipelines under the jurisdiction
of NGA and NGPA.
Estimate of Annual Burden.\7\ The Commission estimates the total
annual burden and cost for this information collection as follows: \8\
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\7\ ``Burden'' is 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 Title 5 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.
\8\ Commission staff estimates that the industry's skill set and
cost (for wages and benefits) for FERC-549C are approximately the
same as the Commission's average cost. The FERC 2021 average salary
plus benefits for one FERC full-time equivalent (FTE) is $180,703/
year (or $87.00/hour) posted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for
the Utilities sector (available at <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm">https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm</a>).
FERC-549C--Standards for Business Practices of Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines
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Average
Average burden and Total annual
Number of number of Total number cost per burden hours Cost per
respondents responses per of responses response \9\ and total respondent ($)
respondent (4) annual cost
(1) (2) (1) * (2) = (3) * (4) = (5) / (1)
(3) (5)
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Burden from Final Rule RM96-1-42 (NAESB Version 3.2). 59.33 1 59.33 100 hrs.; 5,933.33 hrs.; $9,407
$9,407 $558,148.35
Standards for Business Practices of Interstate 165 2.96 490 96 hrs.; 47,040 hrs.; $26,818.50
Natural Gas Pipelines............................... $9,030.72 $4,425,052.80
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Total for FERC-549C.............................. .............. .............. 549.33 .............. 52,973.33 .................
hrs.;
$4,983,201.15
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Comments: Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the collection of
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 collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality,
utility and clarity of the information collection; and (4) ways to
minimize the burden of the collection 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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\9\ The estimated hourly cost (salary plus benefits) provided in
this section is based on the salary figures for May 2021 posted by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Utilities sector (available
at <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm#13-0000">http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm#13-0000</a>) and scaled
to reflect benefits using the relative importance of employer costs
in employee compensation from June 2021 (available at <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm">https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm</a>). The hourly estimates for
salary plus benefits are:
Petroleum Engineer (Occupation Code: 17-2171), $74.20
Computer Systems Analysts (Occupation Code: 15-1120), $67.99
Legal (Occupation Code: 23-0000), $142.25
Economist (Occupation Code: 19-3011), $75.75
The average hourly cost (salary plus benefits) is calculated
weighting each of the aforementioned wage categories as follows:
$74.20 (0.3) + $142.25 (0.3) + $67.99 (0.15) + $75.75 (0.25) =
$94.07.
Dated: January 20, 2022.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022-01519 Filed 1-25-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
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