[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 113 (Monday, June 13, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34217-34220]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-14508]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket Nos. IC11-520-001; IC11-561-001; and IC11-566-001]


Commission Information Collection Activities, Proposed 
Collections; Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of Section 3507 of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3507, the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission (Commission) has submitted the information 
collections described below to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review and an extension of the expiration date for these 
information collection requirements. Any interested person may file 
comments directly with OMB and should address a copy of those comments 
to the Commission as explained below. The Commission received one 
comment in response to an earlier Federal Register notice of March 4, 
2011 (76FR12091) and has made this notation in its submission to OMB.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due by July 13, 
2011.

ADDRESSES: Address comments on the collection of information to the 
Office of Management and Budget, Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Desk Officer. 
Comments to OMB should be filed electronically, c/o [email protected] and include the OMB Control Nos. as points of 
reference. For comments that pertain to only one or two of the 
collections, specify the appropriate collection(s) and OMB Control 
Number(s). The Desk Officer may be reached by telephone at 202-395-
4638.
    A copy of the comments should also be sent to the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission. Comments may be filed either electronically or 
in paper format. Those persons filing electronically do not need to 
make a paper filing. For paper filings, such comments should be 
submitted to the Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426 and should 
refer to Docket Nos. IC11-520-001; IC11-561-001; and IC11-566-001. (If 
comments apply to only one or two of the collections, indicate the 
corresponding docket and collection number(s).)
    Documents filed electronically via the Internet must be prepared in 
an acceptable filing format and in compliance with the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission's submission guidelines. Complete filing 
instructions and acceptable filing formats are available at http://www.ferc.gov/help/submission-guide/electronic-media.asp. To file the 
document electronically, access the Commission's Web site and click on 
Documents & Filing, E-Filing (http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp), and then follow the instructions for each screen. First 
time users will have to establish a user name and password. The 
Commission will send an automatic acknowledgement to the sender's e-
mail address upon receipt of comments.
    All comments may be viewed, printed or downloaded remotely via the 
Internet through FERC's homepage using the eLibrary link. For user 
assistance, contact [email protected] or toll-free at (866) 
208-3676 or for TTY, contact (202) 502-8659.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Description

    The supporting statement for the information collections submitted 
for

[[Page 34218]]

OMB review contains the following information.
    1. Collections of Information:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                         Information
    Information collection No.          OMB No.       collection title
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FERC-520..........................       1902-0083  Application to Hold
                                                     Interlocking
                                                     Directorate
                                                     Positions.
Form 561..........................       1902-0099  Annual Report of
                                                     Interlocking
                                                     Directorates.
FERC-566..........................       1902-0114  Annual Report of
                                                     Twenty Largest
                                                     Purchasers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    2. Sponsor: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
    3. Action: The Commission is requesting that OMB approve these 
information collections with a three-year extension of the expiration 
dates, with no changes to the existing collections. The information 
filed with the Commission is mandatory.
    4. Necessity of the Collections of Information: The Federal Power 
Act (FPA), as amended by the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 
1978 (PURPA), mandates federal oversight and approval of certain 
electric corporate activities to ensure that neither public nor private 
interests are adversely affected. Accordingly, the FPA prescribes 
related information filing requirements to achieve this goal. Such 
filing requirements are found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 
specifically in 18 CFR Parts 45, 46 and section 131.31 and serve as the 
basis for FERC-520, Form 561, and FERC-566. Most of the requirements 
are statutorily defined and cannot be changed. The Commission can 
initiate enforcement proceedings when violations and omissions of the 
Act's provisions occur.
    The FERC-520 is divided into two types of applications: Full and 
abbreviated. The full application, as specified in section 45.8, 
implements the FPA requirement that it is unlawful for any person to 
concurrently hold the positions of officer or director of more than one 
public utility; or a public utility and a bank or financial institution 
that underwrites or markets public utility securities; or a public 
utility and an electrical equipment supplier to that public utility 
unless the Commission has authorized the interlocks to be held. Before 
assuming an interlocked position, an applicant must demonstrate that 
neither public nor private interests will be adversely affected by the 
holding of the position. The full application provides Commission staff 
with a list of certain information required from the applicant 
concerning the interlocking positions for which he/she seeks 
authorization. Information provided includes, but is not limited to, a 
description of duties, estimated time devoted to the position, and any 
indebtedness to the public utility.
    The abbreviated application, as specified in 18 CFR 45.9 and 
otherwise known as an informational report, allows an applicant to 
receive automatic authorization for an interlock position upon receipt 
of filing with the FERC. The abbreviated application applies only to 
those individuals who seek authorization as an (1) Officer or director 
of two or more public utilities where the same holding company owns, 
directly or indirectly, wholly or in part, the other public utility; 
(2) an officer or director of two public utilities, if one utility is 
owned, wholly or in part, by the other; or (3) an officer or director 
of more than one public utility, if such person is already authorized 
under Part 45 to hold different positions where the interlock involves 
affiliated public utilities. Information required is on a much smaller 
scale than that which is required for the full application.
    Pursuant to 18 CFR 45.5, in the event that an applicant resigns or 
withdraws from all Commission-authorized interlocked positions within a 
corporate structure or is not re-elected or re-appointed to any 
interlocked positions within that corporate structure, FERC requires 
that the applicant submit a notice of change within 30 days from the 
date of change.
    The information the Commission collects with Form 561 (``Annual 
Report of Interlocking Positions'') responds to the FPA requirements 
for annual reporting of similar types of positions public utility 
officers and directors hold with financial institutions, insurance 
companies, utility equipment and fuel providers, and with any of an 
electric utility's twenty largest purchasers of electric energy. The 
FPA specifically defines most of the information elements in the Form 
561, including the information that must be filed, the required filers, 
the directive to make the information available to the public, and the 
filing deadline. The Commission determined administrative aspects of 
the Form 561 such as the filing format and instructions for filling out 
the form. The information collected by the Commission through the Form 
561 is used to implement the FPA requirement that those who are 
authorized to hold interlocked directorates annually disclose all the 
interlocked positions they held the prior year. The Form 561 data 
identifies persons holding interlocking positions between public 
utilities and other entities, allows the Commission to review these and 
permits identification of possible conflicts of interest.
    Finally, the FERC-566, ``Annual Report of a Utility's Twenty 
Largest Purchasers,'' implements FPA requirements that each public 
utility annually publish a list of the purchasers of the twenty largest 
annual amounts of electric energy sold by such public utility during 
any one of three previous calendar years. Similar to the statutory 
detail in the FPA for the Form 561, the FPA identifies who must file 
the FERC-566 report and sets the filing deadline. The FPA specifies 
that those entities required to report who have a holding company 
system can calculate their total volumes of energy sold by including 
the amounts sold by utilities within their holding company system. The 
FERC details in its regulations special rules about the information to 
be provided in the FERC-566 report. For example, FERC allows required 
filers to file estimates of volumes based on actual information 
available to them if actual volumes are not available by the statutory 
due date. However, the FERC also requires revisions of those filed 
estimates with final numbers by March 1st. The public disclosure of 
this information provides officers and directors with the information 
necessary to determine whether any of the entities with whom they are 
related are any of the largest twenty purchasers of the public utility 
with which they are affiliated.
    Together, these data collections provide views into complex 
electric corporate activities. They serve to safeguard public and 
private interests, as the FPA requires, by disclosing business 
relationships to both the public and the Commission for analyses. The 
public can file a complaint with the Commission if disclosures made 
under these data collections provide evidence of corporate behavior 
that violates Commission policy.
    The Commission can use its enforcement authority when violations 
and omissions of FPA requirements occur.

[[Page 34219]]

    5. Summary of Public Comment and Agency Response to Comment:
    In accordance with OMB regulations in 5 CFR 1320.8(d), the 
Commission's Notice to renew its OMB approval of FERC-520, Form 561 and 
FERC-566 information collections was published in the Federal Register 
on March 4, 2011. The Commission received one comment in response to 
this notice from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI). A summary of the 
comment and the Commission's response follow.
    EEI Comment. EEI suggests the Commission modify section 45.9 of its 
regulations to expand the scope of automatic authorizations issued for 
FERC-520 applications. EEI believes the Commission should permit 
automatic authorization of (i) all interlocks between affiliated 
companies within a holding company system that includes a public 
utility under section 305(b) of the Federal Power Act; (ii) all 
interlocks between public utilities that do not have captive customers 
or own or operate transmission facilities and unaffiliated companies; 
and (iii) all interlocks between franchised public utilities and 
unaffiliated companies that agree to adopt the Commission's 
restrictions on non-power goods and services transactions.
    In its comments, EEI refers to various sections of the preamble to 
Order No. 446 as support for its request that automatic authorizations 
of certain ``informational'' applications would not adversely affect 
the public interest. EEI believes automatic reauthorizations would 
reduce both the reporting burden of filers and the processing burden on 
FERC staff resources.
    In its comments, EEI also points out a calculation error in FERC's 
burden estimate. The FERC estimates the cost of preparing the FERC-566 
as $68 per respondent per year, based on an estimated 6 hours per 
response, 434 respondents filing once per year, and an average annual 
staff salary of $142,372. However, using the stated information, the 
average cost per response would be $411 (i.e., 6 hours per response/
2080 hours per year x $142,372 average salary). Further, EEI states 
that one of its members has noted that it takes them 8 hours per 
response and not 6 hours. EEI indicates this would raise this average 
cost per response to $548 (i.e. (8 hours/6 hours) x $411).
    FERC Response. FERC notes EEI comments and shares its interest in 
identifying and implementing burden reductions to the benefit of form 
filers as well as FERC staff. In fact, burden reduction has been the 
primary reason FERC has undertaken specific efforts over the last 
several years to make greater use of IT and electronic filing. 
Nevertheless, EEI's suggestions raise issues and implications that 
would require FERC to explore and address them more appropriately in a 
forum and process that is better suited to full public identification 
and deliberation of any possible proposed and planned changes to 
regulatory activities.
    As a separate matter, FERC has made the arithmetic correction to 
the burden calculation in the March 2011 notice. However, FERC will not 
change the number of hours per response based on the information EEI 
provides. The EEI comment clearly states that it was only one of its 
members who has noted its filing time is 2 hours longer than the 6 
hours FERC estimates it takes filers to comply with the requirements of 
FERC-566, on average. Because the estimate is an average, it is to be 
expected that some filers will have a higher reporting burden while 
others will have a lower one. Therefore, FERC does not see a reason to 
change the FERC-566 average completion time of 6 hours.
    6. Respondents, Estimated Burden and Estimated Cost Burden to 
Respondents: \1\
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    \1\ The figures may be rounded.
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    FERC estimates for the annual burden follow.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                      Number of
                                                     respondents      Number of       Average      Total annual
               FERC data collection                   annually      responses per   burden hours   burden hours
                                                      (average)      respondent     per response
                                                              (1)             (2)         (3)        (1) x (2) x
                                                                                                             (3)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FERC-520.........................................         \2\ 406  ..............  .............          12,680
                                                          (total)
[cir] Full.......................................              29               1          51.8            1,502
[cir] Informational..............................             377               1          29.5           11,122
[cir] Notice of Change...........................             222               1            .25              56
Form 561.........................................           2,431               1            .25             608
FERC-566.........................................             434               1           6              2,604
                                                  --------------------------------------------------------------
    Total........................................  ..............  ..............  .............          15,892
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Annual cost estimates for these collections follow.
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    \2\ This number of unique respondents corresponds to the number 
of filers of full applications plus the number of informational 
filers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                       Total annual cost
                                       Annual cost         burden to
       FERC data collection            burden  per      respondents \3\
                                        respondent            \4\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FERC-520..........................             $2,138           $867,922
FERC-561..........................                 17             41,616
FERC-566..........................                411            178,239
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    7. Reasons for Changes in Estimated Nos. of Annual Filings. A 
concern developed in 2004 that FERC-520 applications for authorizations 
to hold interlocked positions were not being filed before individuals 
assumed the interlocked positions, as required. In response, the 
Commission issued its June 2004 interlocking directorate

[[Page 34220]]

policy statement in Docket No. PL04-10-000 and Order No. 664 in 
September 2005. The burden estimate for the FERC-520 in this request is 
based on recent Commission experience and the actual number of FERC-520 
filings made between 2008 and 2010.
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    \3\ Estimated number of hours an employee works each year = 
2,080. Estimated average annual cost per employee (including 
overhead and benefits) = $142,372.
    \4\ The estimated total cost to respondents for these three 
information collections is $1,087,777. In 2008, the estimated total 
annual cost for these three collections was $1,605,745.
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    The number of informational applications has increased steadily 
from 87 in 2004 to 335 in 2010. The Commission began to separate the 
FERC-520 filings by type of application in its OMB clearance estimates 
in 2008 because the number of each type of application filed had been 
changing significantly. Breaking the data out by type of filing allows 
these changes to be easily seen. The last OMB clearance package divided 
the FERC-520 filings only into two categories: full and informational 
filings. Decreases in the number of full and informational applications 
has necessitated the separate tracking and reporting of three types of 
possible applications and the burden hours each imposes. Therefore, 
this OMB clearance package adds Notice of Change filings, further 
breaking down the categories of FERC-520 to capture, convey and begin 
to analyze all types of FERC-520s.
    The decrease in the number of FERC-520 applications may be due to 
directors retaining their positions longer because of the slow economy. 
The number of FERC-566 filings increased by 44% because in December 
2007 FERC sent out notices to those who were expected to file a FERC-
566 but did not during previous reporting years.
    There is a change in the annual cost estimates since the last 
submission in 2008 due mainly to a decrease in the number of FERC-520 
filers. However, the per-hour cost estimate for each collection has 
increased since 2008 because the Commission is using an updated salary 
estimate.
    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 a collection of information; (5) 
searching data sources; (6) completing and reviewing the collection 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.

    Dated: June 6, 2011.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2011-14508 Filed 6-10-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P