[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 210 (Monday, October 31, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67158-67160]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-28087]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC12-1-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725F); Comment 
Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of proposed information collection 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. No. 104-13), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
(Commission or FERC) is soliciting public comment on the proposed 
information collection described below.

DATES: Comments in consideration of the collection of information are 
due December 30, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be filed either electronically (eFiled) or in 
paper format, and should refer to Docket No. IC12-1-000. 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 email 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 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. 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 
No. IC12-1. For user assistance, contact FERC Online Support by email 
at [email protected], or by phone at: (866) 208-3676 (toll-
free), or (202) 502-8659 for TTY.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The information collected by the FERC-725F, 
``Mandatory Reliability Standard for Nuclear Plant Interface 
Coordination'' (OMB Control No. 1902-0249), is required to implement 
the statutory provisions of section 215 of the Federal Power Act (FPA) 
(16 U.S.C. 824o). On August 8, 2005, the Electricity Modernization Act 
of 2005, which is Title XII, Subtitle A, of the Energy Policy Act of 
2005 (EPAct 2005), was enacted into law.\1\ EPAct 2005 added a new 
section 215 to the FPA, which required a Commission-certified Electric 
Reliability Organization (ERO) to develop mandatory and enforceable 
Reliability Standards, which are subject to Commission review and 
approval. Once approved, the Reliability Standards may be enforced by 
the ERO subject to Commission oversight, or the

[[Page 67159]]

Commission can independently enforce Reliability Standards.\2\
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    \1\ Energy Policy Act of 2005, Public Law 109-58, Title XII, 
Subtitle A, 119 Stat. 594, 941 (2005), 16 U.S.C. 824o.
    \2\ 16 U.S.C. 824o(e)(3).
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    On February 3, 2006, the Commission issued Order No. 672, 
implementing section 215 of the FPA.\3\ Pursuant to Order No. 672, the 
Commission certified one organization, North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation (NERC), as the ERO. The Reliability Standards 
developed by the ERO and approved by the Commission apply to users, 
owners and operators of the Bulk-Power System, as set forth in each 
Reliability Standard.
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    \3\ Rules Concerning Certification of the Electric Reliability 
Organization; and Procedures for the Establishment, Approval, and 
Enforcement of Electric Reliability Standards, Order No. 672, FERC 
Stats. & Regs. ] 31,204, order on reh'g, Order No. 672-A, FERC 
Stats. & Regs. ] 31,212 (2006).
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    On November 19, 2007, NERC filed its petition for FERC approval of 
the Nuclear Plant Interface Coordination Reliability Standard, 
designated NUC-001-1. In Order No. 716, issued October 16, 2008, the 
Commission approved the standard while also directing certain 
revisions.\4\ Revised Reliability Standard, NUC-001-2, was filed with 
the Commission by NERC in August 2009 and subsequently approved by the 
Commission January 21, 2010.\5\
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    \4\ Mandatory Reliability Standard for Nuclear Plant Interface 
Coordination, Order No. 716, 125 FERC ] 61,065, at P 189 & n.90 
(2008), order on reh'g, Order No. 716-A, 126 FERC ] 61,122 (2009).
    \5\ North American Electric Reliability Corporation, 130 FERC ] 
61,051 (2010). When the revised Reliability Standard was approved 
the Commission did not go to OMB for approval. It is assumed that 
the changes made did not substantively affect the information 
collection and therefore a formal submission to OMB was not needed.
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    The purpose of Reliability Standard NUC-001-2 is to require 
``coordination between nuclear plant generator operators and 
transmission entities for the purpose of ensuring nuclear plant safe 
operation and shutdown.'' \6\ The Nuclear Reliability Standard applies 
to nuclear plant generator operators (generally nuclear power plant 
owners and operators, including licensees) and ``transmission 
entities,'' defined in the Reliability Standard as including a nuclear 
plant's suppliers of off-site power and related transmission and 
distribution services. To account for the variations in nuclear plant 
design and grid interconnection characteristics, the Reliability 
Standard defines transmission entities as ``all entities that are 
responsible for providing services related to Nuclear Plant Interface 
Requirements (NPIRs),'' and lists eleven types of functional entities 
(heretofore described as ``transmission entities'') that could provide 
services related to NPIRs.\7\
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    \6\ See Reliability Standard NUC-001-2 at http://www.nerc.com/files/NUC-001-2.pdf.
    \7\ The list of functional entities consists of transmission 
operators, transmission owners, transmission planners, transmission 
service providers, balancing authorities, reliability coordinators, 
planning authorities, distribution providers, load-serving entities, 
generator owners and generator operators.
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    Reliability Standard NUC-001-2 requires a nuclear power plant 
operator and its suppliers of back-up power and related transmission 
and distribution services to coordinate concerning nuclear licensing 
requirements for safe nuclear plant operation and shutdown and system 
operating limits. Information collection requirements include 
establishing and maintaining interface agreements, including record 
retention requirements.
    ACTION: The Commission is requesting a three-year extension of the 
FERC-725F reporting requirements, with no changes to the requirements.

Burden Statement \8\
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    \8\ The burden estimates for this renewal have been generated 
based on actual FERC staff experience in developing and modifying 
agreements pursuant to NUC-001-2. The Commission considers this 
burden estimate more accurate than was previously approved by OMB.
    \9\ This figure of 130 transmission entities is based on the 
assumption that each agreement will be between 1 nuclear plant and 2 
transmission entities (65 times 2 = 130). However, there is some 
double counting in this figure because some transmission entities 
may be party to multiple agreements with multiple nuclear plants. 
The double counting does not affect the burden estimate and the 
correct number of unique respondents will be reported to OMB.
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    The Commission estimates that the total universe of respondents for 
this collection is 143 unique entities. This includes 26 unique owners 
of nuclear facilities and 117 transmission entities that provide 
services related to NPIRs. FERC also estimated that there are 65 unique 
nuclear plant sites involved in this collection. In order to estimate 
the burden the Commission considered two categories: Establishing new 
agreements; and making modifications to existing agreements.
    The Commission assumes there may be as many as 10 new agreements 
established each year. Because applicable entities should already be in 
compliance with NUC-001-2 (meaning that all nuclear sites should 
already have agreements in place), new agreements would only come about 
due to company mergers or new interconnections between nuclear plant 
sites and other entities. FERC further assumes that each agreement 
involves one nuclear plant site and an average of two transmission 
entities.
    For modifications to existing agreements the Commission assumes 
that each nuclear plant site will be required to make up to two 
modifications a year to existing agreements. Because the Commission 
assumes that each agreement involves an average of two transmission 
entities, the burden for this category also includes two transmission 
entities per nuclear plant site (or 130 in total). FERC estimates that 
some of these transmission entities are involved in multiple agreements 
(as stated above, the number of unique transmission entities is 
estimated at 117).
    The burden information is summarized in the following table.

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                                       Number of           Number of        Average burden       Total annual
         Data collection              respondents          responses      hours per response  burden hours (1) x
                                     annually (1)       (documents) (2)           (3)              (2) x (3)
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FERC-725F:
    New agreements..............  10 nuclear          1.................  Reporting: 1,080..  Reporting: 32,400.
                                   operators + 20                         Recordkeeping: 108  Recordkeeping:
                                   transmission                                                3,240.
                                   entities.
    Modifications to agreements.  65 nuclear plants   2.................  Reporting: 67       Reporting: 26,000.
                                   + 130                                   (rounded).         Recordkeeping:
                                   transmission                           Recordkeeping: 7     2,600.
                                   entities.\9\                            (rounded).
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        Total...................  Not applicable      Not applicable....  Not applicable....  64,240.
                                   (see text for
                                   discussion).
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    The average annualized cost is estimated to be the total annual 
hours

[[Page 67160]]

(Reporting) \10\--58,400 hours times $120/hour = $7,008,000, plus the 
total annual hours (Recordkeeping) \11\--5,840 times $28/hour = 
$163,520, plus the record storage cost \12\--143 entities times $15.25 
per year per entity = $2,181 (rounded), which is $7,173,701.
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    \10\ The $120/hour figure is a combined average of legal, 
technical and administrative staff.
    \11\ The $28/hour figure is based on a FERC staff study that 
included estimating public utility recordkeeping costs.
    \12\ This is based on the estimated cost to service and store 1 
GB of data (based on the aggregated cost of an IBM advanced data 
protection server).
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    The Commission believes that this estimate is conservative because 
multiple plants are located on certain sites, and one entity may 
operate multiple plants, providing for potential economies in updating, 
drafting and executing the interface agreements.
    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.
    Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is 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 collection 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 collection 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: October 25, 2011.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2011-28087 Filed 10-28-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P