[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 209 (Tuesday, October 29, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65973-65974]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-27458]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RM01-8-000]


Revised Public Utility Filing Requirements; Notice

October 21, 2002.
    1. In Order Issuing Instruction Manual for Public Utilities to Use 
to File Their Electric Quarterly Reports, issued on May 29, 2002, the 
Commission defined the specific filing instructions for complying with 
Order 2001, Revised Public Utility Filing Requirements, (67 FR 31043, 
FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,127, April 25, 2002). This notice is to 
provide guidance to aid public utilities preparing their Electric 
Quarterly Report filings and to clarify previous instructions.
    2. This guidance is divided into four parts: general information, 
filer information, contract information, and transaction information. 
In this document, ``Filer, Contract, and Transaction Templates'' refer 
to the three sheets of the Excel format (or the three sections of the 
CSV format) detailing the proper file structure of the Electric 
Quarterly Report. These are posted on FERC's web site at http://www.ferc.gov/electric/electric.htm. Filers are encouraged to read this 
guidance to ensure that they fill out their Electric Quarterly Reports 
correctly.

General Information

    3. Every utility with a tariff on file with the Commission pursuant 
to Part 35 of the Commission's regulations must file the Electric 
Quarterly Report, even if there are no contracts under any of a 
utility's tariffs or rate schedules, or no sales were made during the 
quarter. Respondents without sales should leave the transaction 
template blank.
    4. Utilities must inform the Commission promptly of any change in 
status that would reflect a departure from the characteristics the 
Commission has relied upon in approving market-based pricing. A newly 
authorized power marketer may elect to report such changes in 
conjunction with its updated market analysis or in a separate report 
filed under the docket number in which it received market-based rate 
authority. Such designations were previously filed with the first Power 
Marketer Quarterly Report.

For the October 31, 2002 Filing:

    5. When filling out the description information in the E-filing web 
page, list every regulated utility by name that is included in the 
filing as a seller. (In other words, if a parent company is filing for 
several subsidiaries, each of which has tariffs on file, each 
subsidiary should be listed separately in the description.) This will 
aid searches in FERRIS for the desired filing.
    6. If the EQR filing is over 10 Mb, break it up as described in the 
Commission's July 1, 2002 order.\1\ If multiple files are necessary, in 
addition to using the file naming convention described in the July 
order, please identify which file is being attached (i.e., Volume 1, 
Volume 2, etc.) in the description field on the e-filing page. There is 
no need to repeat the Filer or Contract Template data on each file.
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    \1\ Order Denying Requests for Rehearing, Requests for Stay and 
Request for Extension, and Providing Clarification, 100 FERC ] 61, 
074 (2002).
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    7. If the filing is 10 Mb. or less, please submit all of the data 
in one file rather than making multiple smaller filings.

Filer Information

    8. In most cases, the agent, respondent, and seller will be the 
same. Each should be identified. Contact information is required for at 
least the respondent.
    a. The agent is the party that physically makes the filing.
    b. The respondent is the company taking responsibility for making 
the filing. In many cases, the filing is on behalf of a single seller, 
and the respondent and seller are the same. Other possibilities include 
a parent company making the filing for subsidiary companies listed as 
sellers, a service company making a filing on behalf of affiliated 
sellers, or an RTO/ISO making a filing on behalf of its member 
utilities.
    c. Sellers are public utilities that have tariffs and/or rate 
schedules on file at FERC.

Contract Information

    9. Seller company name must be spelled exactly as listed on the 
Filer Template.
    10. Customer DUNS number is a required field, as stated in the 
final rule. Filings that are missing DUNS numbers are incomplete.
    11. FERC tariff reference should list the tariff and/or rate 
schedule approved by the Commission. For independent power marketers, 
this is likely ``Rate Schedule No. 1,'' the rate schedule authorizing 
sales at market based rates. Examples of other appropriate entries are 
listed on the example templates on the FERC's web site at http://www.ferc.gov/electric/EQR-Excel-Example.xls.
    12. Contract Service Agreement ID is a unique (company) name given 
to each service agreement. It may be the number assigned by FERC for 
those service agreements that have been filed and approved by the 
Commission, or it can be an internal numbering system. The filer must 
be able to readily identify and produce a contract based on the 
Contract Service Agreement ID.
    13. The first twelve fields on the Contract Template apply to the 
entire contract/service agreement. The last twenty fields in the 
template apply to each contract product. If a contract includes 
multiple products, each has to be listed separately.
    14. Dates: There are six date fields in the contract template. The 
first four are related to the contract itself, and the last two address 
the contract products. These are:
    a. Contract Execution Date is the date the contract was signed. If 
the parties signed on different dates, or there are different contract 
amendments, use the latest date signed as the contract execution date.
    b. Contract Commencement Date is the first date the contract was 
effective--frequently the first date of service under a contract.
    c. Contract Termination Date is the date specified (if any) in the 
contract that the contract will expire of its own terms.
    d. Actual Termination Date is the date the contract actually 
terminates. This could be the contract termination date, or any other 
date the parties agree to. This field will only be filled out after the 
contract has been terminated.
    e. Begin and End Dates apply to contract products, rather than the 
whole contract, and are to be used when there are multiple time frames 
addressed in the contract. If all products listed in the contract begin 
and end on the same dates as the contract does, there is no need to 
list dates in these Begin and End Date fields. Therefore, in most 
cases, these fields will be left blank. An example of when and how 
these fields should be used is this: in a five-year power sales 
contract with a different quantity and price specified for each

[[Page 65974]]

year, the product (power) would be listed on five lines. Each listing 
would have a unique begin and end date and the price assigned for each 
year would be listed on the appropriate line. Another example is a 
transmission contract with several ancillary services. The transmission 
service and each of the ancillary services could have different begin 
and end dates.
    15. At least one of the four rate fields (rate, rate minimum, rate 
maximum, rate description) must be filled out. For example, most 
market-based rates should state ``Market-Based Rate'' in the Rate 
Description Field. If the service does not have a rate, NA should be 
entered in the rate description field.
    16. Other mandatory fields include: Customer name, Contract 
Affiliate, FERC Tariff Reference, Contract Service Agreement ID, 
Contract Execution Date and/or Contract Commencement Date.

Transaction Information

    17. Transaction data should be filed for all power sales pursuant 
to Part 35 tariffs on file with the Commission. This includes cost-
based and market-based rate sales.
    18. Seller company name must be exactly as listed on the Filer and 
Contract templates.
    19. Customer information must be exactly as listed on the Contract 
template.
    20. FERC Tariff Reference and Contract Service Agreement ID must be 
exactly as listed in the Contract Template.
    21. The system will allow negative numbers in the price and charge 
fields.
    22. Whether and how certain types of transactions should be 
reported are set forth below:
    23. ``Tolling'' and barter transactions: Tolling transactions are 
energy conversion services (i.e., converting gas/oil/coal into MW). 
Some contracts provide for barter payments (a portion of the fuel or 
output). These are reportable as a sale of electricity under a 
utility's MBR tariff. Barter transactions should be converted to a 
monetary basis in the same manner used by the utility in its SEC and 
IRS filings, and reported on the Electric Quarterly Report.
    24. Bundled service:
    a. If power is sold at a ``delivered price'' at a specified point 
(and transmission and ancillary services are not separately 
delineated), only the delivered price should be reported on the 
Electric Quarterly Report as the price of power.
    b. If the power is purchased at one location and, as part of the 
sale, it is transmitted to another location, the transmission and any 
other related charges should be reported separately for market-based 
prices. For grandfathered cost-based rates bundled with transmission, a 
product name will be added (``grandfathered bundled'') that identifies 
the transaction as a grandfathered rate. Grandfathered services are 
those that provided for bundled transmission, ancillary and energy 
prior to the effectiveness of Order No. 888's OATTs. For Grandfathered 
transactions, report the Commission-approved bundled rate without 
separating the rate into transmission and energy components.
    c. The Electric Quarterly Report has a column for the transmission 
component of energy sales. However, many different services in addition 
to transmission are associated with energy sales (ancillary services 
most common).The Commission needs to understand the derivation of the 
total commodity price. To the extent that there are services delineated 
in the contract that are part of the total sale, they should be listed 
on separate lines and priced separately (other than the exception 
detailed above for Grandfathered rates).
    25. Rate design: Many services do not have one-part commodity 
rates/prices for energy sales. Utilities should use different lines for 
listing the different components of the rate/price (such as reservation 
fee, commodity price, etc.) in the Contract and Transaction Templates.
    26. Capacity, RMR, and stand-by service should be reported with the 
commodity sales if they are in the market-based rate contract. The 
transactions, including these charges, should be sufficiently detailed 
to explain the derivation of the price.
    27. ``Border Agreement'' energy sales, exchanges as part of a Rate 
Schedule, emergency sales or other sales/exchanges under an 
Interconnection Agreement, line loss adjustments, and ISO day-ahead 
trades are reportable, just as any other trade or sale is.
    28. In general, QF energy transactions are not reportable, as they 
have ``exempt'' status. However, some utilities with a QF exemption 
have a Part 35 tariff on file with the Commission, in which case 
transactions under that tariff are reportable.
    29. Marketing fees (the fee a marketer charges the utility with a 
tariff for marketing the energy) should not be included in the Electric 
Quarterly Report if they are included in the price of the energy. 
However, if the marketing fee is assessed separately to the buyer in 
addition to the price of the energy, the fee should be broken out and 
shown on a separate line.
    30. Options that go to delivery should be reported at the strike 
price. Revenue from the sale of the option should not be reported.

Revisions to Electric Quarterly Reports

    31. A utility must file a revised Electric Quarterly Report if more 
complete information is obtained or errors are found in a utility's 
Electric Quarterly Report. Some structured markets do not give prices/
revenues to sellers until after 30 or more days, so the pricing data 
will not be available by the report date. Utilities should enter the 
transaction quantities and nothing for the unknown prices, and file 
revised reports when the information becomes available.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 02-27458 Filed 10-28-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P