[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 103 (Friday, May 28, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30008-30010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-12853]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket Nos. IC10-917-000 and IC10-918-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; 
Extension

May 20, 2010.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of proposed information collections and request for 
comments.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of section 3506(c)(2)(A) 
of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A) (2006), 
(Pub. L. 104-13), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission 
or FERC) is soliciting public comment on the proposed information 
collections described below.

DATES: Comments in consideration of the collections of information are 
due July 27, 2010.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be filed either electronically (eFiled) or in 
paper format, and should refer to Docket Nos. IC10-917-000 and IC10-
918-000. For comments that only pertain to one of the collections, 
specify the appropriate collection and related docket number. Documents 
must be prepared in an acceptable filing format and in compliance with 
Commission submission guidelines at http://www.ferc.gov/help/submission-guide.asp. eFiling instructions are available at: http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp. First time users must follow 
eRegister instructions at: http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/eregistration.asp, to establish a user name and password before 
eFiling. The Commission will send an automatic acknowledgement to the 
sender's e-mail address upon receipt of eFiled comments. Commenters 
making an eFiling should not make a paper filing. Commenters that are 
not able to file electronically must send an original and two (2) paper 
copies of their comments to: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 
Secretary of the Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 
20426.
    Users interested in receiving automatic notification of activity in 
this docket may do so through eSubscription at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/esubscription.asp. In addition, all comments and FERC 
issuances may be viewed, printed or downloaded remotely through FERC's 
eLibrary at: http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/elibrary.asp, by searching 
on Docket Nos. IC10-917 and IC10-918. For user assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone, 
toll-free, at: (866) 208-3676, or (202) 502-8659 for TTY.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by e-mail 
at [email protected], telephone at (202) 502-8663, and fax at 
(202) 273-0873.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On February 17, 2007, the Commission issued 
Order No. 890 to address and remedy opportunities for undue 
discrimination under the pro forma Open Access Transmission Tariff 
(OATT) adopted in 1996 by Order No. 888.\1\ Through Order No. 890, the 
Commission:
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    \1\ Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-
discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities; Recovery 
of Stranded Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities, 
Order No. 888, 61 FR 21540 (May 10, 1996), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 
31,036 (1996), order on reh'g, Order No. 888-A, 62 FR 12274 (Mar. 
14, 1997), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,048 (1997), order on reh'g, 
Order No. 888-B, 81 FERC ] 61,248 (1997), order on reh'g, Order No. 
888-C, 82 FERC ] 61,046 (1998), aff'd in relevant part sub nom. 
Transmission Access Policy Study Group v. FERC, 225 F.3d 667 (DC 
Cir. 2000), aff'd sub nom. New York v. FERC, 535 U.S. 1 (2002).
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    (1) Adopted pro forma OATT provisions necessary to keep imbalance 
charges closely related to incremental costs;
    (2) Increased nondiscriminatory access to the grid by requiring 
public utilities, working through the North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation (NERC), to develop consistent methodologies for 
available transfer capability (ATC) calculation and to publish those 
methodologies to increase transparency.
    (3) Required an open, transparent, and coordinated transmission 
planning process thereby increasing the ability of customers to access 
new generating resources and promote efficient utilization of 
transmission.
    (4) Gave the right to customers to request from transmission 
providers, studies addressing congestion and/or integration of new 
resource loads in areas of the transmission system where they have 
encountered transmission problems due to congestion or where they 
believe upgrades and other investments may be necessary to reduce

[[Page 30009]]

congestion and to integrate new resources.
    (5) Required both the transmission provider's merchant function and 
network customers to include a statement with each application for 
network service or to designate a new network resource that attests, 
for each network resource identified, that the transmission customer 
owns or has committed to purchase the designated network resource and 
the designated network resource comports with the requirements for 
designated network resources. The network customer includes this 
attestation in the customer's comment section of the request when it 
confirms the request on the Open Access Same-Time Information System 
(OASIS).
    (6) Required with regard to capacity reassignment that: (a) All 
sales or assignments of capacity be conducted through or otherwise 
posted on the transmission provider's OASIS on or before the date the 
reassigned service commences; (b) assignees of transmission capacity 
execute a service agreement prior to the date on which the reassigned 
service commences; and (c) transmission providers aggregate and 
summarize in an electric quarterly report the data contained in these 
service agreements.
    (7) Adopted an operational penalties annual filing that provides 
information regarding the penalty revenue the transmission provider has 
received and distributed.
    (8) Required creditworthiness information to be included in a 
transmission provider's OATT. Attachment L must specify the qualitative 
and quantitative criteria that the transmission provider uses to 
determine the level of secured and unsecured credit required.
    The Commission required a NERC/NAESB \2\ team to draft and review 
Order No. 890 reliability standards and business practices. The team 
was to solicit comment from each utility on developed standards and 
practices and utilities were to implement each, after Commission 
approval. Public utilities, working through NERC, were to revise 
reliability standards to require the exchange of data and coordination 
among transmission providers and, working through NAESB, were to 
develop complementary business practices.
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    \2\ NAESB is the North American Energy Standards Board.
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    Required OASIS postings included:
    (1) Explanations for changes in ATC values;
    (2) Capacity benefit margin (CBM) reevaluations and quarterly 
postings;
    (3) OASIS metrics and accepted/denied requests;
    (4) Planning redispatch offers and reliability redispatch data;
    (5) Curtailment data;
    (6) Planning and system impact studies;
    (7) Metrics for system impact studies;
    (8) All rules.
    Incorporating the Order No. 890 standards into the Commission's 
regulations benefits wholesale electric customers by streamlining 
utility business practices, transactional processes, and OASIS 
procedures, and by adopting a formal ongoing process for reviewing and 
upgrading the Commission's OASIS standards and other electric industry 
business practices. These practices and procedures benefit from the 
implementation of generic industry standards.
    The Commission's Order No. 890 regulations can be found in 18 CFR 
35.28 (pro forma tariff requirements), and 37.6 and 37.7 (OASIS 
requirements).
    Action: The Commission is requesting a three-year extension of the 
current FERC-917 and FERC-918 (Order No. 890) reporting requirements, 
with no change to the existing requirements.
    Burden Statement: FERC-917 and FERC-918 are both included in OMB 
Control Number 1902-0233. The estimated annual public reporting burdens 
for FERC-917 (requirements in 18 CFR 35.28) and FERC-918 (requirements 
in 18 CFR 37.6 and 37.7) are reduced from the original estimates made 
three years ago. The reductions are due to the incorporation and 
completion of: (1) One-time pro forma tariff changes by utilities in 
existence at that time; (2) completed development and comment 
solicitation of the required NERC/NAESB reliability standards and 
business practices; and (3) the transfer of burden associated with the 
implementation of some of the NERC/NAESB business practices, in Order 
No. 729, issued November 11, 2009,\3\ to the Commission's FERC-725A 
information collection (OMB Control Number 1902-0244). The estimated 
annual figures follow.
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    \3\ Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Calculation of 
Available Transfer Capability, Capacity Benefit Margins, 
Transmission Reliability Margins, Total Transfer Capability, and 
Existing Transmission Commitments and Mandatory Reliability 
Standards for the Bulk-Power System, Order No. 729, 74 FR 64884 
(Dec. 3, 2009) 129 FERC ] 61,155.
     The FERC-725A requirements (Mandatory Reliability Standards for 
the Bulk-Power System, which now includes the utilities' 
implementation) are separate and are not a subject of this Notice in 
Docket Nos. IC10-917 and IC10-918. The FERC-725A reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements in Order 729 (Docket No. RM08-19, et. 
al.) were approved by OMB (in ICR Number 200912-1902-005) on 3/12/
2010.

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                                                                  Average No. of  Average burden
           FERC Information collection             Annual No. of   reponses per      hours per     Total annual
                                                    respondents     respondent       response      burden hours
                                                             (1)             (2)             (3)     (1) x (2) x
                                                                                                             (3)
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                                             18 CFR 35.28 (FERC-917)
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Conforming tariff changes.......................               6               1              25             150
Revision of Imbalance Charges...................               6               1               5              30
ATC revisions...................................               6               1              40             240
Planning (Attachment K).........................             134               1             100          13,400
Congestion studies..............................             134               1             300          40,200
Attestation of network resource commitment......             134               1               1             134
Capacity reassignment...........................             134               1             100          13,400
Operational Penalty annual filing...............             134               1              10           1,340
Creditworthiness--include criteria in the tariff               6               1              40             240
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    FERC-917--Sub Total Part 35.................  ..............  ..............  ..............          69,134
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[[Page 30010]]

 
                                          18 CFR 37.6 & 37.7 (FERC-918)
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ATC-related standards:
    NERC/NAESB Team to develop..................               0               0               0               0
    Review and comment by utility...............               0               0               0               0
    Implementation by each utility \3\..........               0               0               0           \3\ 0
    Mandatory data exchanges....................             134               1              80          10,720
Explanation of change of ATC values.............             134               1             100          13,400
Reevaluate CBM and post quarterly...............             134               1              20           2,680
Post OASIS metrics; requests accepted/denied....             134               1              90          12,060
Post planning redispatch offers and reliability              134               1              20           2,680
 redispatch data................................
Post curtailment data...........................             134               1              10           1,340
Post Planning and System Impact Studies.........             134               1               5             670
Posting of metrics for System Impact Studies....             134               1             100          13,400
Post all rules to OASIS.........................             134               1               5             670
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    FERC-918--Sub Total of Part 37 Reporting      ..............  ..............  ..............          57,620
     Requirements...............................
    FERC-918--Recordkeeping Requirements........             134               1              40           5,360
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    FERC-918--Sub Total of Reporting and          ..............  ..............  ..............          62,980
     Recordkeeping Requirements.................
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        Total FERC-917 and FERC-918 (Part 35 +    ..............  ..............  ..............         132,114
         Part 37, Reporting and Recordkeeping
         Requirements)..........................
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     Total combined annual burden for FERC-917 and FERC-918 is 132,114 
hours (126,754 reporting hours + 5,360 recordkeeping hours). This is a 
reduction of 24,922 hours from the combined FERC-917 and FERC-918 
burden OMB previously approved.
    Total combined estimated annual cost for FERC-917 and FERC-918 is 
$21,941,076.\4\ This includes:
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    \4\ Using the hourly rate figures of the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, occupational series and market rates as applicable, the 
hourly rate is a composite of the respondents who will be 
responsible for implementing and responding to the collection of 
information (support staff, engineering, and legal).
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    (1) Reporting costs of $14,449,956; (126,754 hours @ $114 an hour 
(average cost of attorney ($200 per hour), consultant ($150), technical 
($80), and administrative support ($25)) and
    (2) Recordkeeping (labor and storage) costs of $7,491,120; (labor = 
$91,120; 5,360 hours x $17/hour (file/record clerk @ $17 an hour) and 
off-site storage costs = $7,400,000; (8,000 sq. ft. x $925/sq. ft.).
    The reporting burden includes the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended to generate, maintain, retain, disclose, or provide 
the information including: (1) Reviewing instructions; (2) developing, 
acquiring, installing, and utilizing technology and systems for the 
purposes of collecting, validating, verifying, processing, maintaining, 
disclosing, and providing information; (3) adjusting the existing ways 
to comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; 
(4) training personnel to respond to the collections of information; 
(5) searching data sources; (6) completing and reviewing the 
collections of information; and (7) transmitting or otherwise 
disclosing the information.
    The estimate of cost for respondents is based upon salaries for 
professional and clerical support, as well as direct and indirect 
overhead costs. Direct costs include all costs directly attributable to 
providing this information, such as administrative costs and the cost 
for information technology. Indirect or overhead costs are costs 
incurred by an organization in support of its mission. These costs 
apply to activities which benefit the whole organization rather than 
any one particular function or activity.
    Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the proposed collections of 
information are 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 of the proposed collections of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance 
the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected; 
and (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collections of information 
on those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submission of responses.

Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2010-12853 Filed 5-27-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P