Notice2022-16590
Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725Z); 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
August 3, 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-725Z (Mandatory Reliability Standards: IRO Reliability Standards).
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 148 (Wednesday, August 3, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 3, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47414-47416]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-16590]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. IC22-24-000]
Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725Z); Comment
Request; Extension
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of information collection 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
[[Page 47415]]
approved information collection, FERC-725Z (Mandatory Reliability
Standards: IRO Reliability Standards).
DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due October 3,
2022.
ADDRESSES: You may submit your comments (identified by Docket No. IC22-
24-000) by one of the following methods:
Electronic filing through <a href="https://www.ferc.gov">https://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, Office of the Secretary, 12225 Wilkins Avenue,
Rockville, MD 20852.
Instructions: All submissions must be formatted and filed in
accordance with submission guidelines at: <a href="https://www.ferc.gov">https://www.ferc.gov</a>. For
user assistance, contact FERC Online Support by email at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e88e8d9a8b87868481868d9b9d9898879a9ca88e8d9a8bc68f879e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="88eeedfaebe7e6e4e1e6edfbfdf8f8e7fafcc8eeedfaeba6efe7fe">[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">https://www.ferc.gov</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1357726772507f767261727d707653555641503d747c65"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0145607560426d646073606f626441474453422f666e77">[email protected]</span></a>, telephone at (202) 502-8663.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: FERC-725Z (Mandatory Reliability Standards: IRO Reliability
Standards).
OMB Control No.: 1902-0276.
Type of Request: Extension to this currently approved information
collection.
Abstract: On August 8, 2005, The Electricity Modernization Act of
2005, which is Title XII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005),
was enacted into law.\1\ Under section 215 of the Federal Power Act
(FPA) implemented in 18 CFR 40, the Commission requires a Commission-
certified Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) to develop mandatory
and enforceable Reliability Standards \2\, which are subject to
Commission review and approval. In 2006, the Commission established a
process to select and certify an ERO and, subsequently, certified the
North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as the ERO.\3\
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\1\ The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), Public Law No 109-58,
Title XII, Subtitle A, 119 Stat. 594, 941 (2005), codified at 16
U.S.C. 824o (2000).
\2\ The Federal Power Act (as modified by the EPAct) states
``[t]he terms ``reliability standard'' means a requirement, approved
by the Commission under this section, to provide for reliable
operation of the bulk-power system. The term includes requirements
for the operation of existing bulk-power system facilities,
including cybersecurity protection, and the design of planned
additions or modifications to such facilities to the extent
necessary to provide for reliable operation of the bulk-power
system, but the term does not include any requirement to enlarge
such facilities or to construct new transmission capacity or
generation capacity.''
\3\ North American Electric Reliability Corp., 116 FERC ]
61,062, order on reh'g and compliance, 117 FERC ] 61,126 (2006),
order on compliance, 118 FERC ] 61,190, order on reh'g, 119 FERC ]
61,046 (2007), aff'd sub nom. Alcoa Inc. v. FERC, 564 F.3d 1342
(D.C. Cir. 2009).
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The ERO develops proposed Reliability Standards \4\ and, if
approved by NERC, submits them to the Commission for review and
approval. When the standards are approved by the Commission, the
Reliability Standards become mandatory and must be enforced by the ERO,
subject to Commission oversight.
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\4\ The NERC Standard Processes Manual, Appendix 3A of the NERC
Rules Of Procedure, (posted at <a href="https://www.nerc.com/FilingsOrders/us/RuleOfProcedureDL/SPM_Clean_Mar2019.pdf">https://www.nerc.com/FilingsOrders/us/RuleOfProcedureDL/SPM_Clean_Mar2019.pdf</a>) describes the process
for developing, modifying, withdrawing, or retiring a Reliability
Standard.
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NERC established the following IRO standards within FERC-725Z:
IRO-001-4 purpose is to establish the responsibility of Reliability
Coordinators to act or direct other entities to act.
In a joint petition dated May 30, 2019, the North American Electric
Reliability Corporation (``NERC'') and Western Electricity Coordinating
Council (``WECC'') requested Commission approval for Reliability
Standard IRO-002-6 (now IRO-002-7) (Reliability Coordination,
Monitoring and Analysis). NERC and WECC stated that the ``Reliability
Standard IRO-002-7 reflects the addition of a regional Variance
containing additional requirements applicable to Reliability
Coordinators providing service to entities in the Western
Interconnection.'' NERC maintains that the data exchange capability
requirement in Reliability Standard IRO-002-7, Requirement R1 is
covered by Reliability Standard IRO-008-2, Requirement R1, which
obligates the reliability coordinator to perform operational planning
analyses to assess whether the planned operations for the next-day will
exceed System Operating Limits and Interconnection Reliability
Operating Limits within its Wide Area. NERC asserts that ``to perform
the required operational planning analyses, the Reliability Coordinator
must have the data it deems necessary from those entities that possess
it.''
Currently effective IRO-009-2 applicable to reliability
coordinators and the purpose of the standard is to prevent instability,
uncontrolled separation, or cascading outages that adversely impact the
reliability of the interconnection by ensuring prompt action to prevent
or mitigate instances of exceeding Interconnection Reliability
Operating Limits (IROLs).
Additionally, regarding data exchange, NERC cites Reliability
Standard IRO-010-2 (Reliability Coordinator Data Specification and
Collection) and its stated purpose of preventing instability,
uncontrolled separation, or cascading outages ``by ensuring the
Reliability Coordinator has the data it needs to monitor and assess the
operation of its Reliability Coordinator Area.'' NERC states that under
Reliability Standard IRO-010-2, Requirements R1, R2 and R3, the
reliability coordinator must specify the data necessary for it to
perform its operational planning analyses and provide the
specifications to the entities from which it needs data who then must
comply with the data request using a mutually agreeable format and
security protocols.
IRO-014-3 purpose is to ensure that each Reliability Coordinator's
operations are coordinated such that they will not adversely impact
other Reliability Coordinator Areas and to preserve the reliability
benefits of interconnected operations.
IRO-017-1 (Outage Coordination) purpose is to ensure that outages
are properly coordinated in the Operations Planning time horizon and
Near-Term Transmission Planning Horizon. Reliability coordinators,
planning coordinators, balancing authorities, transmission owners and
transmission planners are applicable entities for IRO-017-1.
IRO-018-1 (Reliability Coordinator Real-time Reliability Monitoring
and Analysis Capabilities), submitted by North American Electric
Reliability Corporation (NERC). Requirement R3 requires reliability
coordinators to have an alarm process monitor that provides
notification to system operators when the failure of a real-time
monitoring alarm processor has occurred. In this order, the Reliability
Standards build on monitoring, real-time assessments and support
effective situational awareness. The Reliability Standards accomplish
this by requiring applicable entities to:
[[Page 47416]]
(1) provide notification to operators of real-time monitoring alarm
failures; (2) provide operators with indications of the quality of
information being provided by their monitoring and analysis
capabilities; and (3) address deficiencies in the quality of
information being provided by their monitoring and analysis
capabilities.
NERC observes that the performance of the requirements it cites is
premised on the existence of data exchange capabilities, regardless of
whether a separate requirement expressly requires the reliability
coordinator to have data exchange capabilities in place. In review the
725Z collection for the IRO Reliability Standards, the number of
entities/respondents was checked and broken down into the appliable
type of entity for each reliability standard. In the past combining
reliability standards caused the same reliability standard to be
accounted for multiple times, resulting in the previously recorded
6,686 responses. These numbers were revised and updated to be the new
calculated total of 953 responses. Staff looked at each reliability
standard as its own unique project and in doing so eliminated the
multiple entity count by making a more accurate representation of the
number of responses.
Type of Respondents: Reliability coordinators (RC), planning
coordinators (PC), balancing authorities (BA), transmission owners
(TO), transmission planners (TP), Transmission Operators (TOP) are
included entities for Estimate of Annual Burden: \5\ The Commission
estimates the changes in the annual public reporting burden and cost
\6\ as follows.
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\5\ 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 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.
\6\ The hourly cost figures, for salary plus benefits, for the
new standards are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
information (at <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm">http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm</a>), as of
May 2021, and benefits information for March 2021 (at <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm">https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm</a>). For salary plus benefits,
for reporting requirements, an electrical engineer (code 17-2071) is
$72.15/hour; for the recordkeeping requirements.
FERC-725Z--Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements for Reliability Standards IRO-001, IRO-002, IRO-008, IRO-009, IRO-010, IRO-014, IRO-017, and IRO-018
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Number of Annual number
Information collection respondents & of responses Total number Average burden hours & cost Total annual burden hours & Total annual
requirements type of entity per respondent of responses per response ($) total annual cost ($) burden cost
(1) (2) (1) * (2) = (4)........................ (3) * (4) = (5)............ (5)/(1)
(3)
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IRO-001-4..................... 12 (RC) 1 12 24 hrs. $1,731.6........... 288 hrs. $20,779.2......... $1,731.6
168 (TOP) 1 168 12 hrs. 865.8.............. 2,016 hrs. 145,454.4....... 865.8
IRO-002-7..................... 12 (RC) 1 12 24 hrs., 1,731.6........... 288 hrs., 20,779.2......... 1,731.6
IRO-008-2..................... 12 (RC) 1 12 160 hrs., 11,544........... 1,920 hrs., 138,528........ 11,544
IRO-009-2..................... 12 (RC) 1 12 12 hrs. 865.8.............. 144 hrs. 10,389.6.......... 865.8
IRO-010-3..................... 12 (RC) 1 12 24 hrs., 1,731.6........... 288 hrs., 20,779.2......... 1,731.6
IRO-014-3..................... 12 (RC) 1 12 12 hrs., 865.8............. 144 hrs., 10,389.6......... 865.8
IRO-017-1..................... 12 (RC) 1 12 1,200 hrs., 86,580......... 14,400 hrs., 1,038,960..... 86,580
63 (PC) 1 63 96 hrs., 6,926.4........... 6,048 hrs., 436,363.2...... 6,926.4
204 (TP) 1 204 96 hrs., 6,926.4........... 19,584 hrs., 1,412,985.6... 6,926.4
326 (TO) 1 326 8 hrs, 577.2............... 2,608 Hrs., 188,167.2...... 577.2
96 (BA) 1 96 8 hr., 577.2............... 758 hrs., 54,689.7......... 577.2
IRO-018-1..................... 12 (RC) 1 12 34 hrs., 2,453.1........... 288 hrs., 20,779.2......... $2,453.1
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Total for FERC-725Z....... .............. .............. 953 ........................... 48,774 hrs., 3,519,044.1... ..............
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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.
Dated: July 28, 2022.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022-16590 Filed 8-2-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
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