Notice2023-28130
Commission Information Collection Activities (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
December 21, 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 extension to the information collection, FERC-717 (Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities) (OMB Control No. 1902- 0173), which will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 244 (Thursday, December 21, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 244 (Thursday, December 21, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 88383-88386]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-28130]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. IC23-14-000]
Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-717); Comment
Request; Extension
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of extension 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 extension to the
information collection, FERC-717 (Standards for Business Practices and
Communication Protocols for Public Utilities) (OMB Control No. 1902-
0173), which will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) for review.
DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due [INSERT DATE
30 DAYS AFTER DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER].
ADDRESSES: Send written comments on the information collections 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 (1902-0173) 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>.
[[Page 88384]]
A copy of the comments should also be sent to the Commission, in
Docket No. IC23-14-000 by any of the following methods:
<bullet> eFiling at Commission's website: <a href="http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp">http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp</a>.
<bullet> U.S. Postal Service Mail: Persons unable to file
electronically may mail similar pleadings to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426.
<bullet> Effective July 1, 2020, delivery of filings other than by
eFiling or the U.S. Postal Service should be delivered to Health and
Human Services, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 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#b2d4d7c0d1dddcdedbdcd7c1c7c2c2ddc0c6f2d4d7c0d19cd5ddc4"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6c0a091e0f0302000502091f191c1c031e182c0a091e0f420b031a">[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: Jean Sonneman may be reached by email
at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#44002530250728212536252a272104020116076a232b32"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="2662475247654a43475447484543666063746508414950">[email protected]</span></a>, telephone at (202) 502-6362.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication
Protocols for Public Utilities.
OMB Control No.: 1902-0173.
Type of Request: Three-year approval of the FERC-717 information
collection requirements with no changes to the current reporting
requirements.
Abstract: This notice pertains to a requirement that Transmission
Providers \1\ provide certain information regarding their transmission
operations on an Open Access Same-Time Information System (OASIS). This
requirement was established because the Commission has determined that
Transmission Customers \2\ must have simultaneous access to the same
information available to the Transmission Provider in order to receive
nondiscriminatory transmission services in accordance with section 205
of the Federal Power Act.\3\
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\1\ Under 18 CFR 37.3(a), a ``Transmission Provider'' is any
public utility that owns, operates, or controls facilities used for
the transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce.
\2\ Under 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.
\3\ 16 U.S.C. 824d.
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Section 205 of the Federal Power Act (FPA) 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.\4\ 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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\4\ 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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Regulations at 18 CFR part 37 authorize Transmission Providers to
operate an OASIS either individually or jointly with other Transmission
Providers. These regulations also provide that a Transmission Provider
may delegate this responsibility to a Responsible Party \5\ such as
another Transmission Provider, an Independent System Operator, a
Regional Transmission Group, or a Regional Reliability Council.
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\5\ Under 18 CFR 37.3(c), a ``Responsible Party'' is a
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.
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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 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 \6\ to:
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\6\ 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 \7\ 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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\7\ 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,\8\ information regarding the transmission system necessary
to enable prudent business decision making;
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\8\ 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.
[[Page 88385]]
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 \9\ 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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\9\ 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,\10\ and Transmission
Reliability Margin \11\ 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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\10\ 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.
\11\ 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.\12\ Paragraph (c) of 18 CFR 37.6 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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\12\ 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.
The information that must be posted at OASIS sites is listed at 18
CFR 37.6. The required postings include business practices,
communication protocols, transfer capacity, transmission service
products, and prices. Some of the required business practices and
communication protocols are incorporated by reference at 18 CFR
38.1(b).
The 60-day notice was published on October 13, 2023 (88 FR 70967)
and no comments were received during the comment period.
Type of Respondents: Transmission Providers and Responsible
Parties.
Estimate of Annual Burden \13\: 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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\13\ 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.
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\14\ 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), the average hourly cost is $96/
hour.
[[Page 88386]]
Burden Estimates for FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities
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Annual number
Information collection requirement Number of of responses Total number of Average burden hours and cost Total annual burden hours and
respondents per respondent responses per response \14\ total annual cost
(1) (2) (1) * (2) = (3) (4)............................ (3) * (4) = (5)
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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.
Dated: December 15, 2023.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023-28130 Filed 12-20-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
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