[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 25, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3752-3754]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-1472]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RD11-8-000]


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

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Comment request.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3507(a)(1)(D), the Federal Energy

[[Page 3753]]

Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is submitting the 
information collection FERC-725I, Mandatory Reliability Standards for 
the Northeast Power Coordinating Council, to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for review of the 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 solicited comments in an order published in the Federal 
Register (76 FR 66057, 10/25/2011) requesting public comments. FERC 
received no comments on the FERC-725I and is making this notation in 
its submission to OMB.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due by February 
24, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by collection FERC-725I, 
should be sent via email to the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs: [email protected]. Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission Desk Officer. The Desk Officer may also be reached via 
telephone at (202) 395-4718.
    A copy of the comments should also be sent to the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, identified by the Docket No. RD11-8-000, by 
either of the following methods:
     eFiling at Commission's Web Site: http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp.
     Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, Secretary of the Commission, 888 First Street NE., 
Washington, DC 20426.
    Instructions: All submissions must be formatted and filed in 
accordance with submission guidelines at: http://www.ferc.gov/help/submission-guide.asp. 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.
    Docket: Users interested in receiving automatic notification of 
activity in this docket or in viewing/downloading comments and 
issuances in this docket may do so at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/docs-filing.asp.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: FERC-725I, Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Northeast 
Power Coordinating Council.
    OMB Control No.: To be determined.
    Type of Request: Three-year approval of the FERC-725I information 
collection requirements.
    Abstract: This information collection relates to FERC-approved 
Reliability Standard, PRC-002-NPCC-01--Disturbance Monitoring. This 
Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) regional Reliability 
Standard requires respondents to provide recording capability necessary 
to monitor the response of the Bulk-Power System to system 
disturbances, including scheduled and unscheduled outages; requires 
each reliability coordinator to establish requirements for its area's 
dynamic disturbance recording needs; and establishes disturbance data 
reporting requirements.
    Reliability Standard PRC-002-NPCC-01 introduces several new 
mandatory and enforceable requirements for the applicable entities. 
However, NPCC presently has criteria \1\ and published guidance \2\ 
addressing similar requirements that the new Reliability Standard make 
mandatory. Thus, it is currently usual and customary for affected 
entities within NPCC to create, maintain and store some of the same or 
equivalent information identified in Reliability Standard PRC-002-NPCC-
01. Therefore, many of the requirements contained in PRC-002-NPCC-01 do 
not impose new burdens on the affected entities.\3\
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    \1\ Disturbance Monitoring Equipment Criteria (Aug. 2007), 
available at https://www.npcc.org/Standards/Criteria/A-15.pdf 
(Disturbance Monitoring Criteria).
    \2\ Guide for Application of Disturbance Recording Equipment 
(Sept. 2006), available at https://www.npcc.org/Standards/Guides/B-26.pdf (Application Guide).
    \3\ 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2) (2011).
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    Several requirements contained in regional Reliability Standard 
PRC-002-NPCC-01 do introduce entirely new responsibilities for the 
applicable entities and each of these is listed in the estimated annual 
burden section below.
    Type of Respondents: Transmission owners, generator owners and 
reliability coordinators within the NPCC region.\4\
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    \4\ These entity types are contained in the North American 
Electric Reliability Corporation's compliance registry. See http://
www.nerc.com/page.php?cid=3[verbar]25 for more information.
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    Estimate of Annual Burden: \5\
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    \5\ Burden is defined as the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. For 
further explanation of what is included in the information 
collection burden, reference 5 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.

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                                           Number of       Number of
            PRC-002-NPCC-01               respondents    responses per    Average  burden hours    Total annual
                                         annually \6\     respondent          per response             hours
                                                   (1)             (2)  (3).....................         (1x2x3)
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R13: GO \7\ and TO to document                       1               1  Record Retention--10....              10
 acquisition and installation of
 dynamic disturbance recorders. GO,
 TO, and RC to develop and employ
 implementation schedule.
R14.5: GO and TO maintenance and                   163              12  Record Retention--5.....           9,780
 testing program for stand-alone
 disturbance monitoring equipment
 includes monthly verification of
 active analog quantities.
R14.7: GO and TO requirement to return              33               1  Reporting (assessment                330
 failed units to service in 90 days.                                     and dist. of records)--
 Record kept of efforts if greater                                       10.
 than 90 days \8\.
                                                                       -----------------------------------------
                                                                        Record Retention--10....             330
R17: RC maintains data on equipment,                 5               1  Reporting (assessment                 25
 and provide to RE upon request.                                         and dist. of data)--5.
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                                                                        Record Retention--10....              50
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[[Page 3754]]

 
    Sub-total.........................  ..............  ..............  Reporting (assessment                355
                                                                         and dist).
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                                                                        Record Retention........          10,170
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        Total.........................  ..............  ..............  ........................          10,525
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    The total estimated annual cost resulting from this Reliability 
Standard is made up the hourly wage cost for record retention and 
reporting, and the compliance cost for new equipment. The total cost 
\9\ is $1,077,360 ($284,760 + $42,600 + $750,000). The individual 
components of this cost are:
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    \6\ The estimate below regarding the number of respondents is 
based on the NERC compliance registry as of August 29, 2011. After 
accounting for double counting, the net number of entities 
responding will be approximately 167 entities registered as a 
transmission owner, generation owner, or reliability coordinator.
    \7\ For purposes of this chart, generation owner is abbreviated 
to GO, transmission owner is abbreviated to TO, and reliability 
coordinator is abbreviated to RC.
    \8\ We estimate that an entity will experience a unit failure 
greater than 90 days once every five years. Therefore, 20 percent of 
NPCC's 163 generator owners and transmission owners will experience 
a unit failure of this duration each year.
    \9\ In the initial order there was a calculation error in the 
total cost and in the record retention cost. The difference is minor 
and has been corrected here.
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     Estimated annual record retention cost \10\ = 10,170 hours 
@ $28/hour = $284,360
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    \10\ The hourly reporting cost is based on the estimated cost of 
an engineer to implement the requirements of the rule. The record 
retention cost comes from Commission staff research on record 
retention requirements.
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     Estimated annual reporting cost = 355 hours @ $120/hour = 
$ 42,600
    Total estimated non-hourly annual compliance cost \11\ (acquisition 
and installation of dynamic disturbance recorders) = $750,000
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    \11\ We estimate that annually, approximately one entity within 
NPCC will have to procure dynamic disturbance recording capability 
and the total acquisition and installation cost will range between 
$150,000 and $750,000. We use the higher estimate here.
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    Comments: Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the 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 and 
cost of the collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility and clarity of the information collection; and (4) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are 
to respond, including the use of automated collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology.

    Dated: January 18, 2012.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2012-1472 Filed 1-24-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P