[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 67 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17726-17731]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-8553]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
18 CFR Parts 141 and 388

[Docket No. RM95-9-000]


Real-Time Information Networks; Notice of Technical Conference 
and Request for Comments

March 29, 1995
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of Technical Conference and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission), is 
issuing this notice to announce a technical conference to be scheduled 
at a later date, and, in preparation for that conference, to request 
comments on: whether real-time information networks (RINs) or some 
other option is the best method to ensure that potential purchasers of 
transmission services receive access to information to enable them to 
obtain open access transmission service on a non-discriminatory basis 
from public utilities that own and/or control facilities used for the 
transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce; and what 
[[Page 17727]] standards should be adopted if the Commission requires 
such public utilities to institute RINs systems.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 6, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to: Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 
20426.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gary D. Cohen (Legal Information), 
Electric Rates and Corporate Regulation, Office of the General Counsel, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, N.E., 
Washington, D.C. 20426, (202) 208-0321
Marvin Rosenberg (Technical Information), Office of Economic Policy, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, N.E., 
Washington, D.C. 20426, (202) 208-1283

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In addition to publishing the full text of 
this document in the Federal Register, the Commission also provides all 
interested persons an opportunity to inspect or copy the contents of 
this document during normal business hours in Room 3104 at 941 North 
Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426.
    The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS), an electronic 
bulletin board service, provides access to the text of formal documents 
issued by the Commission. CIPS is available at no charge to the user 
and may be accessed using a personal computer with a modem by dialing 
(202) 208-1397. To access CIPS, set your communications software to 
19200, 14400, 12000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, 1200, or 300 bps, full 
duplex, no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit. The full text of this 
document will be available on CIPS for 60 days from the date of 
issuance in ASCII and Wordperfect 5.1 format. After 60 days, the 
document will be archived, but still accessible. The complete text on 
diskette in WordPerfect format may also be purchased from the 
Commission's copy contractor, La Dorn Systems Corporation, also located 
in Room 3104, 941 North Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426.
Introduction

    The Commission is considering requiring each public utility (or its 
agent) that owns and/or controls facilities used for the transmission 
of electric energy in interstate commerce to create a real-time 
information network (RIN) to ensure that potential purchasers of 
transmission services have access to information to enable them to 
obtain open access transmission services on a non-discriminatory basis 
from the public utility. This initiative is being taken in conjunction 
with the Commission's proposed rules, 1 today being issued, that 
would require public utilities to provide open access non-
discriminatory transmission services (Open Access NOPR) and would 
permit the recovery of legitimate and verifiable stranded costs in 
certain circumstances.

    \1\See Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-
discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities & Recovery 
of Stranded Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities, 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Docket Nos. RM95-8-000 & RM94-7-001 
(1995).
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    The Commission's goal in this proceeding is to establish uniform 
requirements for a RIN or other communications device at the same time 
that the Commission adopts a rule requiring open access non-
discriminatory transmission services. To accomplish this objective, the 
Commission invites interested persons to file comments and to 
participate in a Technical Conference in which they can make 
presentations on their positions. Thereafter, the Commission expects to 
hold informal conferences, enlisting working groups to reach consensus 
on any remaining issues.
    We expect that input from the Technical Conference and informal 
conferences will be the basis for subsequent procedures. This notice 
sets a timetable to be followed so that requirements on RINS can be in 
place no later than the effective date of an open access rule.

Background

    In the Open Access NOPR, the Commission is inviting comments on a 
proposed rule that would require any public utility that owns and/or 
controls facilities used for the transmission of electric energy in 
interstate commerce to have on file an open access transmission tariff.
    To be effective, however, non-discriminatory open access 
transmission service requires transmission customers to be able to 
compete effectively with the public utility that owns or controls the 
transmission. Customers must have simultaneous access to the same 
information available to the transmission owner. Thus, in this 
proceeding, the Commission expects to require RINs or other options to 
ensure that potential and actual transmission service customers receive 
access to information so that they can obtain service comparable to 
that provided by transmission owners (or controllers) to themselves.

Discussion

A. Objectives

    As noted above, the Commission expects to undertake further 
procedures in this docket after the Technical Conference and informal 
conferences are held and input from those conferences is evaluated. 
Nevertheless, to help participants focus on the issues, the Commission 
here sets out its preliminary views. Any requirement we establish must 
have safeguards to ensure that public utilities owning and/or 
controlling transmission facilities use the same procedures and meet 
the same substantive requirements when they arrange transmission to 
support their wholesale sales and purchases as are required for third 
parties. Further, we expect that each public utility (or a control area 
operator acting as its agent) that provides transmission service must, 
at a minimum, give its customers electronic access in real time to 
information on transmission capacity availability, ancillary services, 
scheduling of power transfers, economic dispatch, current operating and 
economic conditions, system reliability, and responses to system 
conditions.
    This means that public utilities or their agents must give 
competitors and other users of the transmission system access to the 
same information available to the public utility personnel who trade 
(sell or purchase) power in the wholesale market, and at the same time. 
Moreover, this information cannot be declared privileged (and kept from 
competitors) if it is available to the company's own employees who 
trade wholesale power. Thus, if a utility wishes to keep this 
information confidential, it must assign control over this information 
to employees whose duties do not involve trading in wholesale power, 
and it must implement procedures to ensure that the traders do not get 
access to the information unless and until that information becomes 
public. The Commission invites parties to comment on the best way to 
implement these requirements in their comments and in their 
presentations at the Technical Conference and informal conferences.
    RINs should operate under industry-wide standards; otherwise, each 
RIN could contain different information, have different file formats, 
or use different means to transfer information between utilities and 
customers. We are concerned that some customers (those who need 
transmission service across utility boundaries) might be forced to 
obtain information in different and perhaps incompatible environments. 
Efficient wholesale power markets [[Page 17728]] require that 
information formats not impede the ability of parties to make trades in 
a timely manner within and across utility boundaries. Such impediments 
should be eliminated, or at a minimum, reduced to the maximum extent 
possible.
    In addition, we request comments on the following questions:

    Information availability: What information should be available 
on a RIN? Possibilities include transmission availability data, 
scheduling information, information on economic dispatch, system 
reliability conditions, service interruptions, and other information 
that parties might suggest. Would a RIN be appropriate, not only to 
report transactions, but to conduct the transactions themselves? If 
so, for what kinds of transactions would this be appropriate?
    RINs standards: What standard formats would be appropriate for 
transferring files containing specific information? What are 
appropriate communication protocols? How can a RIN be designed to 
accommodate not only today's needs, but also those in the future, 
such as an ability to trade power and have real-time price signals?

    Attached to this notice is a Staff Discussion Paper that gives 
Staff's preliminary views on some of the issues that need to be 
addressed in this proceeding. We have attached this document to help 
the parties focus on pertinent issues as early in the process as 
possible.

B. Timetable for Comments, Technical Conference, and Informal 
Conferences

    The Commission's experience with Order No. 6362 and electronic 
bulletin boards (EBBs) in the natural gas industry3 has taught us 
that when industry standards are needed, they should be established as 
early as possible. We wish to avoid systems being developed, and 
expenses being incurred, before consensus can be reached on the best 
way to proceed.

    \2\Pipeline Service Obligations and Revisions Governing Self-
Implementing Transportation; and Regulation of Natural Gas Pipelines 
After Partial Wellhead Decontrol, 57 Fed. Reg. 13,267 (April 16, 
1992), III FERC Stats. & Regs. Preambles para.30,939 (April 8, 
1992); order on reh'g, Order No. 636-A, 57 Fed. Reg. 36,128 (August 
12, 1992), III FERC Stats. & Regs. Preambles para.30,950 (August 3, 
1992).
    \3\See Standards For Electronic Bulletin Boards Required Under 
Part 284 of the Commission's Regulations, Order No. 563, 59 FR 516 
(Jan. 5, 1994); III FERC Stats. and Regs., Regulations Preambles 
para.30,988 (1993), order on reh'g, Order No. 563-A, 59 FR 23,624 
(May 9, 1994); III FERC Stats. and Regs., Regulations Preambles 
para.30,994, reh'g denied, Order No. 563-B, 68 FERC para.61,002, 
Order No. 563-C, order accepting modifications, Order No. 563-C, 68 
FERC para.61,362 (1994).
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    These same considerations also persuade us that a case-by-case 
approach to setting standards for electronic information transfer is 
inappropriate. Public utilities should not be required to invest 
extensive capital in a RIN or EBB that might be obsolete in the near 
future.4

    \4\We note that there is an extensive network already in place 
to conduct intercompany transactions reliably. To the maximum extent 
possible, we intend to build on the existing institutional 
arrangements and ongoing efforts to help better schedule, monitor, 
and model transactions involving multiple control areas.
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    We intend, therefore, to have requirements in place no later than 
the date when we issue any final rules on open access transmission. In 
this way, we hope to avoid unnecessary expenditures by public 
utilities.
    At the Technical Conference, the Commission will focus on 
determining exactly what information must be made available to 
transmission customers and what standards are needed as to the transfer 
of this information on a real-time basis from transmission operators to 
their customers, including the public utility itself for its wholesale 
transactions.
    The Technical Conference will be open to all interested persons. 
The exact date, time, and location of the Technical Conference will be 
announced in a subsequent notice.
    To better organize the Technical Conference, interested persons are 
invited to submit written comments. Comments must be received on or 
before [insert a date 60 days following the Federal Register 
publication date]. The comments should be no more than 25 pages in 
length, double spaced on 8\1/2\'' x 11'' paper, with standard margins. 
Parties must submit fourteen (14) written copies of their comments. In 
addition, commenters are requested to submit a copy of their comments 
on a 3\1/2\ inch diskette, formatted for MS-DOS based computers. In 
light of our ability to translate MS-DOS based materials, the text need 
only be submitted in the format and version in which it was generated 
(i.e., MS Word, Wordperfect, ASCII, etc.). It is not necessary to 
reformat word processor generated text to ASCII. For Macintosh users, 
it would be helpful to save the documents in Macintosh word processor 
format and then write them to files on a diskette formatted for MS-DOS 
machines. The comments must be submitted to the Office of the 
Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol 
Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426, and their caption should refer to 
Docket No. RM95-9-000.
    All written comments will be placed in the Commission's public 
files and will be available for inspection or copying in the 
Commission's Public Reference Room (Room 3104, 941 North Capitol 
Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426), during normal business hours. 
The Commission also will make all comments publicly available on its 
EBB.
    Following the Technical Conference, the Commission's Staff will 
promptly schedule a series of informal conferences using, as 
appropriate, working groups enlisting the participants at the Technical 
Conference.5 The informal conferences are intended to narrow or 
resolve issues and to help the Commission determine what information 
must be made available, and what standards are needed, for the delivery 
of pertinent information on a real-time basis from transmission 
operators to their customers, including the public utility itself.

    \5\The Commission made use of working groups in drafting the 
Commission's standards for EBBs. See, e.g., Standards For Electronic 
Bulletin Boards Required Under Part 284 of the Commission's 
Regulations, Final Rule, Order No. 563-A, 59 FR 23624 (May 9, 1994); 
III FERC Stats. & Regs., Regulations Preambles para.30,994 (1994).
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    Staff will designate what working groups are to be formed, when 
they will meet, and what topics they will consider. Staff will work 
with these working groups as needed.6 The working groups will be 
invited to reach consensus on the issues and report that consensus to 
the Commission. The working group reports should identify issues where 
no consensus is possible so that the Commission may take appropriate 
action to resolve all remaining technical issues.

    \6\To promote candor and productivity, Staff will set up and 
sponsor these meetings, but, where appropriate, will not attend the 
meetings while the parties discuss the issues. The parties are 
instructed, however, to brief Staff fully on their progress at any 
such meetings.

    By direction of the Commission.
Lois D. Cashell,
Secretary.
Staff Discussion Paper Electronic Bulletin Boards and Real-Time 
Information Networks

Introduction

    The Commission has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 
proposing non-discriminatory open access transmission services. The 
NOPR proposes that public utilities provide all potential wholesale 
transmission users, including the wholesale power marketing department 
of the transmission owner, simultaneous access to transmission and 
ancillary services. Potential customers' access to information on 
transmission capacity and other matters pertaining to transmission 
services must be made comparable to the information access 
[[Page 17729]] available to the power marketing department of the 
transmission owner and its affiliates. Staff believes that electronic 
communication is critical to achieving comparable access to 
information, which in turn is a cornerstone of comparable access to 
transmission service. Comparable access by customers to information as 
it becomes available is the key to both a successful comparable access 
program and competitive power markets for electricity. Rapid transfer 
of information between a transmitting utility's computers and those of 
its potential wholesale competitors is necessary to achieve these 
goals.
    The technical conference begins the process of determining what 
information and procedures will be required to achieve comparable 
access to information. We request comments or concrete proposals that 
address the issues and questions raised in this paper. Areas that need 
to be addressed include:
     Information Needs. What specific information is required 
to ensure that all eligible parties (including the transmission owner) 
have comparable access to information needed to conduct wholesale power 
transactions over the transmission system?
     Type of Information System. What types of information 
systems are available to communicate transmission information, and 
which of these are most appropriate to achieve comparable access to 
information?
     Standards and Systems Development. What standard record 
formats should be developed to exchange information? What protocols are 
needed? Should regional systems, or a national system, be developed?
    This paper provides short discussions of Staff's understanding of 
the major issues and options in these areas. Each discussion is 
followed by a list of questions intended to guide comments.

Information Needed for Comparability

    Comparability requires that wholesale transmission customers be 
provided with the same information that the transmission owner or 
controller has about the availability and price of transmission 
services, and that the information be provided at the same time and 
cost. A customer, when making wholesale power transactions using 
transmission services, should have the same information the 
transmission owner has available to make wholesale power transactions. 
This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the following types 
of information:
     Availability of firm and non-firm transmission services 
(including ancillary services), rates for these services and the amount 
and terms of any available rate discounts. Information on the 
opportunity costs on constrained paths and the incremental cost of 
expansion, if known.
     Hourly transfer capacities with other interfacing control 
areas on a time interval corresponding to the interval that a 
transmission owner uses in committing its own units. For example, if 
the interval is weekly, hourly transfer capacities should be provided 
each week as the transmission owner commits its own units.
     Hourly amounts of firm and non-firm power scheduled over 
each of the owner's interfaces with other control areas. These 
quantities should be the amounts scheduled over the following hour. 
They should be provided at some short interval before the start of each 
hour (e.g., 15 minutes).
     Transmission outages, or planned and forced unit outages 
that may affect trans-mission availability, as they become known, as 
well as anticipated and actual interruptions of services.
     Load flow data that would allow customers to do their own 
preliminary review of incremental transfer capability to accommodate 
long-term transfers. Updates to load flow information should be made 
available to customers whenever the transmission owner updates its load 
flow information.
     Transaction specific information on all requests for 
transmission service (including requests by the transmission owner's 
wholesale power marketing personnel). This information should be 
sufficient to permit customers to evaluate the current state of 
transmission requests on the system and to monitor potential 
discrimination. This information should be provided when requests are 
received and updated when the status of a request changes.
     Transmission capacity available for resale by customers 
seeking to resell their rights to transmission service, and 
announcements by prospective buyers who are seeking to acquire rights 
to transmission service. These requests should be made available when 
received.
    Staff believes that transmission-owning utilities have such 
information available in the normal course of business under today's 
current industry practices. We also believe this information is 
important for any parties using transmission services to perform 
wholesale power transactions. Accordingly, comparability requires that 
such information be made available to prospective customers and to the 
transmission owner's wholesale power marketing department on the same 
basis. However, the list is provided only as an example of our current 
understanding of the information. We invite comment on additional 
information that is needed, but not included in the list, as well as 
information in the list that is not needed.
    Current industry practice should not be the sole standard for 
judging what information to consider for inclusion in information 
networks. Consideration should be given to likely future industry 
developments, and how these might affect information needs. In 
particular, the role of electronic information in the dispatch function 
may change significantly as power markets change. Future networks may 
need to provide for the electronic trading of power. The design of 
current systems should retain sufficient flexibility to accommodate 
these types of future developments. We invite comment on what 
developments might affect the design of a current information network, 
and how consideration of such developments might be considered in the 
design of today's systems.
Questions Regarding Information Needed for Comparability
    1. What information about capacity availability is needed? Is this 
information needed with respect to interfaces with other control areas 
and within a single control area?
    2. How often does information on available capacity need to be 
updated? What other information is necessary? In designing RINs 
requirements, what consideration should the Commission give to NERC's 
interest in improving and communicating the calculation of transfer 
capability in real-time.1

    \1\See Report on Electric Utilities' Response to the Cold Wave 
of January 1994, Report by NERC Blue Ribbon Task Force at 10 (Apr. 
11, 1994).
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    3. What information about transmission constraints should be 
included? Is it possible to develop information about anticipated 
constraints and their associated opportunity cost? Could information on 
interruptions be conveyed after a constraint has occurred?
    4. Should the information include requests for transmission 
capacity, offers of transmission capacity (from utility and third party 
entitlement holders), rates and an index of entitlement holders? How 
often does information need to be updated? What other information is 
necessary to facilitate the development of a [[Page 17730]] secondary 
market for transmission capacity?
    5. Can requests for transmission service be submitted 
electronically, through an EBB or an information network, rather than 
by telephone or FAX? What specific information is needed for electronic 
submission of transmission requests?

Systems for Communicating Transmission Information

    Many kinds of information systems could support electronic exchange 
of transmission information between a transmission-owning public 
utility and its customers, potential customers, and the transmission 
owner's wholesale marketing department. But there is a tradeoff between 
the cost of a system and the capabilities it offers. We would like 
comment on the capabilities needed in a system to communicate 
transmission information and what type of system will best meet those 
needs. In order to provide technical background for this discussion, we 
offer the following three categories as general system types, from the 
simple to the more complex:
     Electronic Bulletin Board (EBB). One simple method of 
electronically communicating information is to use EBB displays. A user 
of this type of EBB simply connects to (logs onto) the EBB and sees the 
information displayed. We believe this simple type of EBB should also 
permit a user to post information, such as a transmission request, to 
the EBB.
    This type of information system may be adequate for small customers 
who are not very active in the transmission market and who have only an 
occasional need for small amounts of timely information. However, as 
information needs increase, the method of EBB displays may become 
inadequate. A major disadvantage is that displayed information cannot 
be processed directly by the receiving party's own computer. Thus, if 
the receiving party wants to use this information in its own computer 
displays or as part of an analysis, it must enter it again. Reentering 
information is slow, error-prone and costly, particularly for users who 
need large amounts of information from several different EBBs. For this 
reason, even the simplest form of EBB should provide a capability that 
permits users to capture the information presented in the display on 
their computer systems.
     EBBs with Standardized File Transfer. A second method of 
communicating information is to allow users to transfer files between 
the EBB and the user's computer system. Downloading (transferring the 
file from the EBB to the user's computer system) eliminates the need to 
reenter information into a user's computer system when it is already 
present on the EBB. Uploading (transferring a file from the user's 
system to the EBB) permits information already present in a file on a 
user's computer to be sent to the EBB without manual reentry. 
Therefore, the capability of transferring files containing relevant 
information between the EBB and its users solves the data reentry 
problem for large and more sophisticated users.
    File transfer capability also makes possible efficient processing 
of information from several different EBBs. Computer software can be 
programmed to dial each EBB automatically and to transfer files from 
(or to) each EBB. The user can then choose how to display the 
information, or process it directly in a computer program. Third 
parties can aggregate transmission information from multiple EBBs to 
provide an information service for customers who prefer to use a single 
EBB. Standard file formats and protocols for the transfer of 
information are essential for the efficient transfer of this 
information. Without standard formats and transfer protocols, a user 
must develop separate methods and programs for transferring files to 
and from each EBB.
     Real-time Information Network (RIN) Connection. This type 
of network permits a continuous information connection between the 
transmission-owning public utility and users of the transmission 
network. In contrast, displays and downloads are means of distributing 
information to users who connect intermittently to an EBB specifically 
to request information. Continuous connection permits a user to have 
all new information as soon as it becomes available, without needing to 
make specific requests. A user can directly monitor all new 
information, or use a computer program to monitor new information 
selectively as it becomes available. The computer program can then 
identify time critical information as soon as it is available and alert 
key company staff of the need to take action.
    To a customer, a RIN means the immediate receipt of information 
when it becomes available. Only some customers may need information 
immediately, and even these customers will not need all information 
immediately. We believe, however, that some customers will need this 
type of information connection, and that the number of these customers 
will increase over time as markets develop and expand.
    RINs would need standardized formats for information and protocols 
for its transfer. Such standards may be different, and more complex, 
than standards for file downloads and uploads. However, the development 
of a RIN could eliminate the need to develop separate file transfer 
capabilities through EBB uploads and downloads. Such networks could be 
designed to support both continuous connection and intermittent access 
using the same formats and transfer protocols.
Questions Regarding the Means of Communicating Information
    6. What information is sufficiently time sensitive to require real-
time transmission and receipt? What information is sufficiently 
unchanging and time insensitive to permit efficient transmission by 
request? Should the amount and timing of real-time information provided 
be a user option?
    7. Is an EBB requirement necessary at all if transmission-owning 
public utilities are required to provide information to, and receive 
information and requests from, an information network? Would EBBs be 
developed voluntarily, either by utilities or third parties, if data 
were available through an information network?
    8. What is the minimum acceptable transfer time for the network? 
Should it be measured in milli-seconds, seconds or minutes? Should the 
transfer time be a function of the information transferred?
    9. Should EBBs and/or RINs be developed in several phases? If so, 
what phases and timing are appropriate?
    10. How can the development of EBBs and RINs be made flexible 
enough to accommodate future information needs?
    11. Should the network be developed using lines leased or can it 
use existing Value Added Networks (VANs)?

Standards and System Development

    Standardization of information, record formats, and protocols for 
the exchange of information are crucial to computer-to-computer 
transfer of information. Without standards, each utility could develop 
its own file formats and protocols to govern the transfer of 
information. As experience with the development of EBBs in the gas 
industry has shown, different formats and communication methods impose 
significant costs on using information and provide barriers to trade 
across multiple companies. Moreover, once companies design their own 
information systems, they understandably tend to resist the imposition 
of generic standards. It is therefore especially important to reach 
consensus on what [[Page 17731]] standards should govern the operation 
of electronic information systems and how information systems should be 
developed in accordance with those standards. We would also like 
comment on how the cost of system development and use should be 
recovered.
Questions Regarding Standards and System Development
    12. What standard information should be included in the datasets to 
be exchanged electronically? What standard definitions and units should 
be used for this information?
    13. What standard record formats and identification codes are 
needed to exchange the information associated with comparable access?
    14. What standard codes should be used to identify facilities, 
interconnection points, and other locations?
    15. What standard protocol(s) should be developed to download and 
upload files, or to exchange information across the information 
network?
    16. Should a regional or national information system be developed?
    17. If some regional development of information systems is 
desirable, what regional entities should develop and maintain the 
system? Do these entities currently exist? If they do not exist, how 
should they be developed?
    18. What system development and usage costs should be borne by all 
transmission users, and what costs should be paid for only by users of 
the information system?

[FR Doc. 95-8553 Filed 4-6-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P