[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 79 (Thursday, April 24, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22809-22811]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-09341]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RD13-12-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725T); 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 U.S.C. 3507(a)(1)(D), the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission (Commission or FERC) is submitting the information 
collection FERC-725T, Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Texas 
Reliability Entity Region, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
for review of the information collection requirements. Any interested 
person may file comments directly with OMB

[[Page 22810]]

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 (79 FR 7657, 2/10/2014) requesting 
public comments. FERC received no comments on the FERC-725T and is 
making this notation in its submission to OMB.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due by May 27, 
2014.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by collection FERC-725T, 
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. RD13-12-000, 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-725T, Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Texas 
Reliability Entity Region.
    OMB Control No.: To be determined.
    Type of Request: Three-year approval of the FERC-725T information 
collection requirements.
    Abstract: This information collection relates to FERC-approved 
Reliability Standard, BAL-001-TRE-01--Primary Frequency Response in the 
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region. This Texas 
Reliability Entity (TRE) regional Reliability Standard requires prompt 
and sufficient frequency response from resources to stabilize frequency 
during changes in the system generation-demand balance.\1\ Regional 
Reliability Standard BAL-001-TRE-01 is more comprehensive than the 
existing continent-wide Reliability Standard addressing frequency 
response, BAL-003-0.1b, in that the regional standard includes 
additional requirements and applies to generator owners and generator 
operators as well as balancing authorities.\2\ The expanded 
applicability of the regional Reliability Standard, thus, increases the 
reporting burden for entities that operate within the ERCOT 
Interconnection.
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    \1\ Joint petition of the North American Electric Reliability 
Corporation (NERC) and Texas Reliability Entity, Inc. at 10.
    \2\ On January 16, 2014, the Commission issued a Final Rule 
approving Reliability Standard BAL-003-1 and NERC's request for the 
retirement of BAL-003-0.1b immediately prior to the effective date 
of BAL-003-1.
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    Type of Respondents: Generator owners, generator operators, and 
balancing authorities within the TRE region.\3\
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    \3\ These entity types represent functional categories contained 
in NERC's compliance registry. See http://www.nerc.com/page.php?cid=3 [bsol]25 for more information.
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    Estimate of Annual Burden: \4\ Our estimate below regarding the 
number of respondents is based on the NERC compliance registry as of 
October 2013. According to the registry, the ERCOT region includes 40 
generator owners, 14 generator operators, 75 generator owners that are 
also generator operators, and one balancing authority. Thus, we 
estimate that a total of 130 entities are potentially subject to the 
reporting requirements of BAL-001-TRE-01.
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    \4\ 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.
    \5\ BA = Balancing Authority, GO = Generator Owner, GOP = 
Generator Operator.
    \6\ The estimates for cost per hour (rounded to the nearest 
dollar) are derived as follows:
     $60/hour, the average salary plus benefits per engineer 
(from Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm)
     $82/hour, the salary plus benefits per manager (from 
Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm)
     $32/hour, the salary plus benefits per information and 
record clerks (from Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm)
    \7\ In the initial letter order issued on January 16, 2014 we 
indicated total annual burden hours as 920 instead of 912. This 
error led to discrepancies in the cost column and total row that 
have been resolved in this notice and in the supporting statement 
submitted to OMB.
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    The information collection requirements entail the setting or 
configuration of the Control System software, identification and 
recording of events, data retention and submitting a report as outlined 
in the table below.

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                                                  Number of    Average burden   Total annual
                                  Number of     responses per     hours per     burden hours   Total annual cost
          FERC-725T              respondents     respondent     response  (3)    (1) x (2) x          \6\
                                  \5\  (1)           (2)                             (3)
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Maintain and submit Event Log               1               1              16              16               $960
 Data........................              BA                                                          ($60/hr.)
Modification to Governor                  114               1               8             912            $74,784
 Controller Setting/                       GO                                                     One-time ($82/
 Configuration \7\...........                                                                               hr.)
Evidence Retention...........             130               1               2             260   $8,320 ($32/hr.)
                                    BA/GO/GOP
 
    Total....................  ..............  ..............  ..............           1,188            $84,064
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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;

[[Page 22811]]

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: April 18, 2014.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-09341 Filed 4-23-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P