[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 204 (Monday, October 22, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64495-64496]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-25817]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. AD12-8-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-922); Comment 
Request

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.

ACTION: Comment request.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, 44 USC 3507(a)(1)(D), the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission (Commission or FERC) is submitting the new information 
collection FERC-922, ``Performance Metrics in Regions Outside ISOs and 
RTOs,'' 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 issued a Notice in 
the Federal Register (77 FR 12832, 3/2/2012) requesting public 
comments. FERC received a comment from Edison Electric Institute (EEI) 
regarding the burden estimate as discussed further below. FERC also 
received comments on the specific metrics. These latter comments are 
summarized and addressed in the Commission Staff Report. The Commission 
Staff Report can be obtained via the Commission's eLibrary system (at 
http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/elibrary.asp) by searching under Docket 
No. AD12-8. The report will not be published in the Federal Register.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due by November 
21, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by FERC-922, 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. AD12-8-000, 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-922, Performance Metrics in Regions outside ISOs and 
RTOs.
    OMB Control No.: To be determined.
    Type of Request: Approval of a new information collection.
    Abstract: The collection of information requires those public 
utilities outside of ISOs and RTOs that choose to participate to 
provide information responding to the attached metrics on a periodic 
basis. This includes the submission of price data and information 
relating to reliability, transmission planning, requests for service, 
and system capacity. The information submitted by participating 
utilities would be used to help develop a common set of metrics for 
both ISO/RTO markets and non-ISO/RTO markets, and for evaluating market 
performance thereafter.
    The Chairman has reviewed the proposed metrics and has determined

[[Page 64496]]

that the metrics and data gathered thereunder are necessary. These 
requirements conform to the Commission's need for efficient information 
collection, communication, and management within the energy industry. 
The Chairman is assured, by means of internal review, that there is 
specific, objective support for the burden estimates associated with 
the information collection requirements.
    Type of Respondents: Participants in Non-ISO/RTO markets.
    Comment on Burden Estimate: In its solicitation for comments, 
Commission Staff estimated the public reporting burden for 
participating utilities to be approximately 140 hours per respondent 
for each report.

Comment

    EEI asserts that the response time could be as high as 300-400 
hours.

Response

    Commission Staff will adjust the burden estimate based on EEI's 
high estimate of 300-400 hours. Commission Staff considers EEI's 
estimate to reflect the most time that it would take an entity to 
respond to the metrics. While Commission Staff recognizes that this 
report requires additional metrics and narrative discussions, 
Commission Staff nevertheless continues to conclude that 140 hours 
still represents a reasonable estimate of the burden, since much of the 
data required should be readily available to the responding utilities. 
However, in recognition of the fact that the burden will vary from 
entity to entity, we will revise our estimate to 245 hours per 
respondent, which is the mid-point between these estimates.
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \1\ Commission Staff estimates the total 
Public Reporting Burden for this information collection as:
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    \1\ 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, see 5 CFR 1320.3 (2012).

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                                                 Number of        Number of      Average burden
            FERC-922 requirements               respondents     responses per      hours per       Total annual
                                                  annually        respondent        response       burden hours
                                                         (1)              (2)              (3)      (1)x(2)x(3)
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Metrics Data Collection.....................  ...............  ...............             140            1,540
Write Performance Analysis..................              11                1               85              935
Management Review...........................  ...............  ...............              20              220
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    Total...................................  ...............  ...............  ...............           2,695
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    Cost to Comply: Commission Staff has projected the cost of 
compliance to be $184,460.
    Technical Expertise = $168,300 (1,540 hours data collection + 935 
hours report completion @ $68 per hour).
    Management Review = $17,160 (220 hours report review @ $78 per 
hour).
    Cost per hour figures are calculated using Bureau of Labor 
Statistics (BLS) data.\2\ The technical expertise category factors in 
the median wage for an engineer, analyst, attorney and economist. The 
management category factors in the median wage for general and 
operations managers. Based on BLS data,\3\ both cost figures have been 
adjusted to include benefits (benefits represent 29.5% of the total 
hourly figure).
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    \2\ See http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm.
    \3\ See http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm.

    Dated: October 15, 2012.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2012-25817 Filed 10-19-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P