Notice2023-22551
Commission Information Collection Activity (FERC-717); 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
October 13, 2023
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 revision of the currently approved information collection, FERC-717 (Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities).
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 197 (Friday, October 13, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 197 (Friday, October 13, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70967-70969]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-22551]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. IC23-14-000]
Commission Information Collection Activity (FERC-717); Comment
Request; Extension
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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 revision of the currently
approved information collection, FERC-717 (Standards for Business
Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities).
DATES: Comments on the collections of information are due December 12,
2023.
ADDRESSES: You may submit your comments (identified by Docket No. IC23-
14-000) on FERC-717 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, 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#fb9d9e899894959792959e888e8b8b94898fbb9d9e8998d59c948d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="42242730212d2c2e2b2c27313732322d303602242730216c252d34">[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#783c190c193b141d190a19161b1d383e3d2a3b561f170e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="2165405540624d444053404f424461676473620f464e57">[email protected]</span></a>, or by telephone at (202) 502-8663.
Title: FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication
Protocols for Public Utilities.
[[Page 70968]]
OMB Control No.: 1902-0173.
Type of Request: Three-year approval of the FERC-717 information
collection requirements with deletion of one-time burdens previously
approved by the Office of Management and Budget.
Abstract: Section 205 of the Federal Power Act (FPA) (16 U.S.C.
824d) requires that all rates and charges for the transmission or sale
of electric energy and all rules and regulations affecting or
pertaining to such rates and charges be just and reasonable. Section
206 of the FPA (16 U.S.C. 824e) authorizes FERC to initiate a
proceeding to address any ``rate, charge or classification'' related to
the transmission or sale of electricity that the agency determines is
``unjust, unreasonable, unduly discriminatory or preferential.''
Commission regulations at 18 CFR 35.28 and 18 CFR part 37 are in
accordance with FPA Sections 205 and 206. The regulation at 18 CFR
35.28 applies to any public utility that owns, operates, or controls
interstate transmission facilities and any non-public utility seeking
voluntary compliance with jurisdictional transmission tariff
reciprocity conditions. These entities must offer transmission service
on an open and non-discriminatory basis pursuant to a pro forma Open
Access Transmission Tariff (OATT). Part 37 applies to any public
utility that owns, operates, or controls facilities used for the
transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce and to
transactions performed under the pro forma OATT established under 18
CFR 35.28. As stated at 18 CFR 37.2, the purpose of 18 CFR part 37 is
to ensure that potential customers of open access transmission service
receive access to information that will enable them to obtain
transmission service on a non-discriminatory basis from any
Transmission Provider.\1\ The regulations in 18 CFR part 37 provide
standards of conduct and require the Transmission Provider (or its
agent) to create and operate an Open Access Same-Time Information
System (OASIS) that gives all users of the open access transmission
system access to the same information.
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\1\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.3(a), a ``Transmission Provider'' is
any public utility that owns, operates, or controls facilities used
for the transmission of electricity in interstate commerce.
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The collection of information in accordance with FERC-717 is
necessary for the implementation of OASIS. The regulation at 18 CFR
37.6 lists the information that Transportation Providers or Responsible
Parties \2\ must calculate and post on OASIS. Paragraph (a) of section
37.6 provides that the information posted on OASIS must be in such
detail and the OASIS must have such capabilities as to allow
Transmission Customers \3\ to:
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\2\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.3(c), a ``Responsible Party'' is the
Transmission Provider or an agent to whom the Transmission Provider
has delegated the responsibility of meeting any of the requirements
of 18 CFR part 37.
\3\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.3(b), a ``Transmission Customer'' is
any eligible customer (or its designated agent) that can or does
execute a transmission service agreement or can or does receive
transmission service.
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(1) Make requests for transmission services offered by Transmission
Providers, Resellers \4\ and other providers of ancillary services,
request the designation of a network resource, and request the
termination of the designation of a network resource;
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\4\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.3(d), a ``Reseller'' is any
Transmission Customer who offers to sell transmission capacity it
has purchased.
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(2) View and download in standard formats, using standard
protocols,\5\ information regarding the transmission system necessary
to enable prudent business decision making;
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\5\ The standard protocols are included in the Standards for
Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities
adopted by the Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ) of the North
American Energy Standards Board (NAESB). The Commission adopted the
protocols by reference in 18 CFR 38.1(b)(2)(iv) in a final rule at
86 FR 29491 (June 2, 2021). The protocols remain effective at
present.
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(3) Post, view, upload and download information regarding available
products and desired services;
(4) Clearly identify the degree to which transmission service
requests or schedules were denied or interrupted;
(5) Obtain access, in electronic format, to information to support
available transmission capability calculations and historical
transmission service requests and schedules for various audit purposes;
and
(6) Make file transfers and automated computer-to-computer file
transfers and queries as defined by the Standards and Communications
Protocols Document.
Calculation Methods, Availability of Information, and Requests
The regulation at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(2) provides that information used
to calculate any posting of ATC and TTC \6\ must be dated and time-
stamped and all calculations shall be performed according to
consistently applied methodologies referenced in the Transmission
Provider's transmission tariff and shall be based on Commission-
approved Reliability Standards, business practice and electronic
communication standards, and related implementation documents, as well
as current industry practices, standards and criteria. Such
calculations shall be conducted in a manner that is transparent,
consistent with anticipated system conditions and outages for the
relevant timeframe, and not unduly discriminatory or preferential.
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\6\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(1): (1) ATC is the transfer
capability remaining in the physical transmission network for
further commercial activity over and above already committed uses,
or such definition as contained in Commission-approved Reliability
Standards. (2) TTC is the amount of electric power that can be moved
or transferred reliably from one area to another area of the
interconnected transmission systems by way of all transmission lines
(or paths) between those areas under specified system conditions, or
such definition as contained in Commission-approved Reliability
Standards.
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On request, the Responsible Party must make all data used to
calculate ATC, TTC, Capacity Benefit Margin,\7\ and Transmission
Reliability Margin \8\ for any constrained posted paths publicly
available in electronic form within one week of the posting. The
information is required to be provided only in the electronic format in
which it was created, along with any necessary decoding instructions,
at a cost limited to the cost of reproducing the material. This
information is to be retained for six months after the applicable
posting period.
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\7\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(1)(vii), ``Capacity Benefit
Margin'' means the amount of TTC preserved by the Transmission
Provider for load-serving entities, whose loads are located on that
Transmission Provider's system, to enable access by the load-serving
entities to generation from interconnected systems to meet
generation reliability requirements, or such definition as contained
in Commission-approved Reliability Standards.
\8\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(1)(viii), ``Transmission
Reliability Margin'' is the amount of TTC necessary to provide
reasonable assurance that the interconnected transmission network
will be secure, or such definition as contained in Commission-
approved Reliability Standards.
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System planning studies, facilities studies, and specific network
impact studies performed for customers or the Transmission Provider's
own network resources are to be made publicly available in electronic
form on request and a list of such studies must be posted on the OASIS.
A study is required to be provided only in the electronic format in
which it was created, along with any necessary decoding instructions,
at a cost limited to the cost of reproducing the material. These
studies are to be retained for five years.
Posting Requirements
Paragraph (b)(3) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires Transmission Providers to
calculate and post the ATC, TTC, CBM, and TRM in megawatts for each
Posted Path.\9\ Paragraph (c) of 18 CFR 37.6
[[Page 70969]]
requires Transmission Providers to post prices and a summary of the
terms and conditions associated with all transmission products offered
to Transmission Customers. Paragraph (d) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires
Transmission Providers to post any ancillary service required to be
provided or offered under the pro forma OATT.
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\9\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(1)(i), ``Posted Path'' means
any control area to control area interconnection; any path for which
service is denied, curtailed, or interrupted for more than 24 hours
in the past 12 months; and any path for which a customer requests to
have ATC or TTC posted. For this last category, the posting must
continue for 180 days and thereafter until 180 days have elapsed
from the most recent request for service over the requested path.
For purposes of this definition, an hour includes any part of an
hour during which service was denied, curtailed, or interrupted.
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Standards of Conduct
The Commission established Standards of Conduct at 18 CFR 37.4
requiring that personnel engaged in transmission system operations
function independently from personnel engaged in marketing functions.
The Standards of Conduct were designed to prevent employees of a public
utility (or any of its affiliates) engaged in marketing functions from
preferential access to OASIS-related information or from engaging in
unduly discriminatory business practices. Companies were required to
separate their transmission operations/reliability functions from their
marketing/merchant functions and prevent system operators from
providing merchant employees and employees of affiliates with
transmission-related information not available to all customers at the
same time through public posting on the OASIS.
Type of Respondents: Transmission Providers.
Estimate of Annual Burden: \10\ The previous information collection
request (ICR Reference No. 202002-1902-006) in the year 2020 was
approved by OMB with a one-time burden that was expected to be
completed in Year One. As averaged over a three-year period, the annual
responses were estimated as 165 annually, 10 hours per response, and
total hours of 1,650 hours. These burdens are not included in this
information collection request because all respondents have complied
with that one-time burden. The removal of those burdens constitutes a
program change.
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\10\ 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 1320.3.
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The estimated annual number of responses for the ongoing
information collection activity are adjusted in this information
collection request from 162 to 216, an increase of 54 responses. Based
on a review of the information collection since our last submission, we
have determined this change in number of responses is due to changes in
the regulated industry.
The current burden estimates are shown in the following table.
Burden Estimates for FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities
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Annual number of
Information collection requirement Number of responses per Total number Average burden hours & cost per Total annual burden hours &
respondents respondent of responses response \11\ total annual cost
(1) (2) (1) * (2) = (4)............................ (3) * (4) = (5)
(3)
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Open Access Same-Time Information 216 1 216 30 hrs.; $2,880................ 6,480 hrs.; $622,080.
(OASIS).
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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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\11\ The Commission staff thinks that the average respondent for
this collection is similarly situated to the Commission, in terms of
salary plus benefits. Based upon FERC's FY 2022 annual average of
$199,867 (for salary plus benefits), and the average hourly cost is
$96/hour.
Dated: October 5, 2023.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023-22551 Filed 10-12-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
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