[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 68 (Monday, April 8, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15477-15479]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-8603]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
[Docket No. RM95-4-000]


Revisions to Uniform System of Accounts, Forms, Statements, and 
Reporting Requirements for Natural Gas Companies

Issued April 2, 1996.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.

ACTION: Order On Electronic and Paper Filing Specifications for Form 
No. 11.

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SUMMARY: The Commission is adopting final electronic filing 
specifications for the Form No. 11, entitled ``Instruction Manual for 
Electronic Filing of Form No. 11,'' and instructions for filing the 
Form No. 11 on paper.

DATES: Pipelines must implement the data sets for Form No. 11 on May 
15, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20426.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Richard A. White, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426, 
(202) 208-0491
Elizabeth A. Taylor, Office of Pipeline Regulation, 888 First Street, 
NE., Washington, DC 20426, (202) 208-0826

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 
the document during normal business hours in Room 2-A, 888 First 
Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS), an electronic 
bulletin board service, provides access to the texts 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 if dialing locally or 1-800-856-3920 if dialing 
long distance. 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 in ASCII and WordPerfect 5.1 format. 
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 2-A, 888 First Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission's bulletin board system can also be accessed through 
the FedWorld system directly by modem or through the Internet. To 
access the FedWorld system by modem:
     Dial (703) 321-3339 and logon to the FedWorld system.
     After logging on, type: /go FERC
    To access the FedWorld system, through the Internet:
     Telnet to: fedworld.gov
     Select the option: [1] FedWorld
     Logon to the FedWorld system
     Type: /go FERC
      or:
     Point your Web Browser to: http://www.fedworld.gov
     Scroll down the page to select FedWorld Telnet Site
     Select the option: [1] FedWorld
     Logon to the FedWorld system
     Type: /go FERC

Order on Electronic and Paper Filing Specifications for Form No. 11

    September 28, 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
(Commission) issued Order No. 581, amending its Uniform System of 
Accounts, its forms, and its reports and statements for natural gas 
companies.1 These changes necessitated that modifications be made 
to the Commission's electronic filing requirements. In this order, the 
Commission is adopting electronic and paper filing specifications for 
the Form No. 11, and authorizing the Commission staff to issue in the 
future, further electronic and paper filing specifications related to 
the forms that were modified by Order Nos. 581 and 582.2

    \1\ Revisions to Uniform System of Accounts, Forms, Statements, 
and Reporting Requirements for Natural Gas Companies, 60 FR 53,019 
(October 11, 1995), order on reh'g, Order No. 581, 74 FERC para. 
61,223 (1996).
    \2\ Filing Requirements for Interstate Natural Gas Company Rate 
Schedules and Tariffs, 60 FR 52,960 (October 11, 1995). Order No. 
582 is a companion order to Order No. 581, which revised the 
regulations governing the form and composition of interstate natural 
gas pipeline tariffs and filing requirements. Order No. 582 required 
that changes be made to the electronic specifications for filings 
under subpart D of Part 154. Work on these filing specifications 
will be completed by the working group established for that purpose.
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I. Background

    Order No. 581 contains several new and revised electronic filing 
requirements. Interstate pipelines transporting or storing gas under 
subparts B and G must now provide an electronic Index of Customers 
through a downloadable file that is updated quarterly.3 The 
discount rate report, previously filed only on paper, will now be filed 
both on paper and electronically.4 In addition, Order No.

[[Page 15478]]
581 required that the electronic filing requirements for Form Nos. 2, 
2-A, and 11 be modified to recognize changes made to these forms.

    \3\ See 18 CFR 284.106(c) and 284.223(b). II FERC Stats. & Regs. 
Paras. 24,866 and 24,943. No paper copies of the Index of Customers 
are required to be filed. The Notice Adopting Electronic Filing 
Specifications for the Index of Customers and Discount 
Transportation Rate Report was issued on February 29, 1996, in 
Docket No. RM95-4-000.
    \4\ See 18 CFR 284.7(c)(6). II FERC Stats. & Regs. para. 24,847. 
In its ``Order on Clarification and Granting Rehearing Solely for 
the Purpose of Further Consideration,'' 73 FERC para. 61,215 (1995), 
the Commission clarified that the discount rate reports should be 
filed solely on paper until the electronic filing specifications are 
issued. The Notice Adopting Electronic Filing Specifications for the 
Index of Customers and Discount Transportation Rate Report was 
issued on February 29, 1996, in Docket No. RM95-4-000.
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    Although Order No. 581 required that revisions to existing 
electronic filing requirements be made, it did not include the final 
electronic filing specifications. The Commission wanted to provide the 
industry the opportunity to participate in the formulation of the 
specifications and formats for the electronic filing requirements. To 
ensure the widest possible input, the Commission directed its staff to 
convene an informal technical conference. The first conference was 
convened on December 1, 1995. Subsequent conferences were held on 
December 12, 1995, and February 7, 1996. As a result of the discussions 
at those meetings, the staff has formulated the final electronic filing 
requirements for the Form No. 11.5 Staff has also made minor 
modifications to the paper version of the Form No. 11, and to the paper 
filing specifications included in the form, to ensure conformity 
between the electronic and paper versions of the form.

    \5\ Work on Form Nos. 2 and 2-A will be completed by the working 
group established for that purpose. That working group, ``Forms,'' 
met again on March 20, 1996.
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    The final electronic filing specifications for the Form No. 11, 
entitled ``Instruction Manual for Electronic Filing of the Form No. 
11'' and the instructions for filing the Form No. 11 on paper, are 
attached to this order as Appendices A and B, respectively.6

    \6\ These Appendices are not being published in the Federal 
Register. These filing formats can be obtained by writing to the 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Public Reference and Files 
Maintenance Branch, Division of Information Services, Washington, DC 
20426, or in person in Room 2A, 888 First Street, N.E., Washington, 
DC.
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    The first electronic filing of the Form No. 11 under the new filing 
instructions will be May 15, 1996. May 15 is one of the four scheduled 
filing dates provided for in section 260.3 of the Commission's 
regulations. Details of the electronic filing specifications and the 
modifications to the instructions for filing on paper are described 
below.

II. Electronic Filing Specifications for Form No. 11

    Consistent with the convention adopted in the manuals for 
electronic filing of the Index of Customers and discount rate reports, 
a three-character code to identify the filing pipeline will be used. 
Previously, the electronic filing requirements for Form No. 11 
specified a six-digit company code available from the Energy 
Information Agency. In the future, the three-digit code assigned by the 
Commission as part of the docket number in all dockets with the prefix 
``TM,'' will be used to identify the filing pipeline. The new code's 
short length allows it to be used not only in the data, but as part of 
the filename. A complete list of the pipelines' three-digit codes is 
included in these filing specifications.
    The file naming convention adopted for the Index of Customers and 
discount rate reports is adapted for use with the Form No. 11. The 
filename contains a letter code of E to designate the file as 
containing Form No. 11 data. The name also contains the three-digit 
pipeline code so all parties will be able to identify the file as 
originating from a particular filing company. Finally, the name 
incorporates the last two digits of the year of the report period, and 
Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4 to designate the calendar quarter being reported.
    All lines of Part II of the form must be entered, even though some 
information may not apply to all filing companies. For example, if the 
filing company does not have any sales rate schedules, it must still 
enter a record for line 1, Total Sales. The record would consist of the 
record identifier, D, the line number 1, and the text, Total Sales, 
interspersed with tabs and followed by a hard return.
    In addition to the file specifications and definitions, the filing 
instructions contain aids to filing. One such aid is a presentation of 
a sample tab-delimited file, and a sample of what it would look like 
when displayed in a text editor. These samples are intended to help the 
pipeline accurately create the file. Also included is a section 
entitled ``File Creation Hints/ Do's and Don'ts, which contains helpful 
hints on creating a tab-delimited file in several popular software 
applications.

III. Paper Filing Specifications for Form No. 11

    In the process of developing the electronic filing specifications 
for Form No. 11, it became apparent that not all of the paper copy 
instructions were conducive to translation into electronic filing 
specifications. In order to accurately capture the data reported on the 
Form No. 11 electronically, certain modifications to the paper form are 
necessary.
    The Commission's regulations at section 385.2011(c)(5) require the 
respondent to state that the paper copies contain the same information 
as contained on the electronic media.7 Thus, minor modifications 
are being made to the instructions for filing Form No. 11 on paper to 
ensure conformity between the paper version of Form No. 11 and the 
electronic version. Making the two versions of the Form No. 11 agree 
also enables the respondent to use the electronic file to create the 
paper version of the form, reducing the chances of inadvertent 
inconsistencies between the two versions. The specific changes to Form 
No. 11 are listed below, and appear in the revised form attached at 
Appendix B.

    \7\ 18 CFR 385.2011(c)(5).
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    Under Item IV, ``What and Where to Submit,'' of the General 
Information section, a second paragraph is added noting that Form No. 
11 must be filed electronically as well as on paper. This paragraph is 
added to ensure that all respondents are aware that Form No. 11 must be 
filed both on paper and electronically.
    In the electronic instructions, all negative amounts must be 
designated using a ``-'' in front of the first nonzero digit. General 
Instruction II is modified to permit negative amounts to be reported by 
either placing a ``-'' in front of the number, or by enclosing the 
number in parentheses.
    The second sentence in General Instruction IV, requiring a 
footnoted item to be marked with an X, is removed. Footnote 
identification is conformed to the footnote identification in the 
electronic filing specifications discussed below.
    In the previously effective electronic filing requirements, items 
which were not applicable were designated with a ``.001.'' In the new 
electronic filing requirements, items not applicable are left blank. To 
conform the paper copy instructions to the electronic instructions, 
General Instruction VI is added. If a data item is not applicable (for 
example, a respondent has no storage rate schedules), its value must be 
omitted, that is, left blank. If a report item applies to the 
respondent (for example, the respondent has a sales rate schedule in 
its tariff, but there are no data to report during the month reported), 
its value is entered as ``0''.
    The specific instruction previously applicable to lines numbered 6-
7 and 10-11 now refers to lines numbered 2.001, 2.002 and 4.001, 4.002 
to recognize the line numbering adopted in the electronic filing 
specifications. On the paper version of the form, the number of lines 
necessary to report transportation and storage data varies by pipeline, 
since the number of transportation and storage rate

[[Page 15479]]
schedules varies. The line number on the paper version, therefore, has 
no special connotation. Conversely, the line number in the electronic 
filing identifies the type of data being entered. For example line 
number 1 always refers to sales data and line 7, Gathering-Firm. Since 
the transportation and storage data may require any number of lines, 
associating that data with specific line numbers is not feasible. In 
the electronic filing, the headings at lines 2, Transportation of Gas 
for Others, and 4, Storage, are not reported, making some other means 
of identifying the rate schedules as either transportation or storage 
necessary. Adopting the sequential numbering 2.001, 2.002, 2.003, etc., 
identifies all items with the prefix 2 as related to transportation 
rate schedules. Similarly, all numbers in the sequence 4.001, 4.002, 
4.003, etc., identify these items as related to storage rate schedules. 
This method of line numbering permits any number of rows of 
transportation and storage data to be reported without disturbing the 
rest of the line numbering sequence.
    The line numbering on Part II of the paper version of Form No. 11 
is modified to be consistent with the line numbering in the electronic 
filing instructions. A sentence is added to the specific instruction 
explaining how the lines are to be numbered.
    A new specific instruction is added to explain how footnotes are 
identified on Parts I and II. The new instructions read as follows:

    ``In Part I, enter a footnote reference for each item footnoted. 
The reference shall be a concatenation of the letter of the item 
footnoted and the number of the footnote. Enter the footnote number 
together with the footnote text in Part III. Enter up to ten 
footnote references separated by /. Refer to the item footnoted in 
the first position of the footnote reference (e.g., e2 indicates 
footnote 2 applies to item e, the company's name. Use x if the 
footnote applies to the entire table, e.g., x3).''
    ``In Part II, the footnote reference shall be a concatenation of 
the column letter and the footnote number. Enter the footnote number 
together with the footnote text in Part III. Enter up to ten 
footnote references separated by /. Refer to the item footnoted in 
the first position of the footnote reference (e.g., c5 indicates 
footnote 5 applies to the number in column c, the quantity. Use x if 
the footnote applies to the entire table, e.g., x7).''

    Two additional instructions are added to clarify that the pipeline 
name must be the full legal name of the pipeline, and that the pipeline 
code is the three-digit FERC pipeline code. The Commission's ultimate 
goal is to discontinue paper filing. These two data elements will be 
crucial to identification of the data as coming from a particular 
respondent. To ensure consistent reporting between the paper version 
and electronic version of the form, the pipeline code is added to the 
identification information on the paper form.
    Subsequent to the turn of the century, many software programs will 
have difficulty processing dates which identify only the last two 
digits of the year. To avoid this potential difficulty, all dates 
reported in the form will contain all four digits of the year to be 
reported. Therefore, the Report Period is clarified to require begin 
and end dates in the format MM/DD/YYYY. Similarly, the submission date 
is formatted as MM/DD/YYYY.
    The components of the address of the filing company are no longer 
listed horizontally. They will now be entered vertically with the 
number and street of the address on one line and the city, state, and 
zip code on another line. This arrangement allows the information on 
Part I to be ordered as it appears in the electronic record.
    The numbers (1) and (2) appearing before the signature and phone 
number, respectively, are removed. These numbers do not appear in the 
electronic record.
    A space to enter a footnote designation is added to provide the 
filing company the opportunity to record a footnote on Part I if 
appropriate. For example, a company which recently changed its name may 
wish to enter a footnote to highlight the name change.
    Items reported on Part I are no longer designated by a number, but 
by a letter. This change conforms the paper copy to the electronic copy 
of the form.
    On Part II, Revenue Data, the heading Total Quantities and Revenues 
is changed to Total Quantities (1000s of Dth) and Revenues (1000s of $) 
to clarify the instructions for reporting these items. An instruction 
is added to indicate that the month reported must be in the format MM/
YYYY. The line numbering is changed to incorporate the new line 
numbering for transportation and storage rate schedules as explained 
above.
    Part III, Footnotes, is modified by replacing the columns entitled 
Line No. Reference and Column Reference with a single column entitled 
Footnote Number. As discussed above, this change conforms the method of 
incorporating footnotes on the paper copy of Form No. 11 to the method 
adopted in the electronic version of Form No. 11. Since the location of 
the footnote is no longer dependent on knowing the month reported, this 
item is eliminated.

The Commission Orders

    (A) The specifications for filing the Form No. 11 electronically 
and on paper are adopted.
    (B) The Commission staff is authorized to issue in the future, 
further electronic and paper filing specifications related to the forms 
that were modified by Order Nos. 581 and 582.

    By the Commission.
Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 96-8603 Filed 4-5-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P