[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 173 (Monday, September 8, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53176-53178]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-21207]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RD14-7-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (Ferc-725y); 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 Regulatory 
Commission (Commission or FERC) is submitting the information 
collection FERC-725Y, Mandatory Reliability Standard PER-005-2 
(Operations Personnel Training), 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 on the information collection 
associated with PER-005-2 in an order published in the Federal Register 
(79 FR 36305, 6/26/2014). FERC received no comments on the information 
collection and is making this notation in its submission to OMB.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due by October 8, 
2014.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by collection FERC-725Y, 
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. RD14-7-000, 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.

[[Page 53177]]

    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: 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-725Y,\1\ Mandatory Reliability Standard PER-005-2 
(Operations Personnel Training).
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    \1\ In the Order issued 6/19/2014, the proposed information 
collection was included in FERC-725A (Mandatory Reliability 
Standards for the Bulk-Power System) under OMB Control No. 1902-
0244. In this notice and the related Paperwork Reduction Act package 
to be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review 
and approval, the information collection will be included in a new 
FERC-725Y (rather than FERC-725A).
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    OMB Control No.: To Be Determined.
    Type of Request: Three-year approval of the FERC-725Y information 
collection requirements.
    Abstract: Reliability Standard PER-005-2 (Operations Personnel 
Training Standard) implements the Congressional mandate of the Energy 
Policy Act of 2005 to develop mandatory and enforceable Reliability 
Standards to better ensure the reliability of the nation's Bulk-Power 
System. Specifically, the purpose of PER-005-2 \2\ is to ensure that 
personnel performing or supporting real-time operations on the Bulk 
Electric System (BES) are trained using a systematic approach. The 
Reliability Standard requires entities to maintain records subject to 
review by the Commission and NERC to ensure compliance with the 
Reliability Standard.
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    \2\ Reliability Standard PER-005-2 expands the scope of the 
current Reliability Standard in order to address the Commission's 
directives in Order Nos. 693 and 742.
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    PER-005-2 contains six Requirements:
     R1 requiring reliability coordinators, balancing 
authorities, and transmission operators to develop and implement a 
training program for system operators
     R2 requiring transmission owners to develop and implement 
a training program for system operators
     R3 requiring reliability coordinators, balancing 
authorities, transmission operators and transmission owners to verify 
the capabilities of their identified personnel
     R4 requiring reliability coordinators, balancing 
authorities, transmission operators and transmission owners to provide 
those personnel with emergency operations training using simulation 
technology
     R5 requiring reliability coordinators, balancing 
authorities, and transmission operators to develop and implement 
training for their operations support personnel
     R6 requiring applicable generator operators to develop and 
implement training for certain of their dispatch personnel at a 
centrally located dispatch center.
    Type of Respondents: Reliability coordinators, balancing 
authorities, transmission operators, transmission owners, and generator 
owners.
    Estimate of Annual Burden \3\: Our estimate below regarding the 
number of respondents is based on the NERC compliance registry as of 
April 30, 2014. According to the NERC compliance registry, NERC has 
registered 15 reliability coordinators, 107 balancing authorities, 182 
transmission operators, 337 transmission owners and 848 generator 
operators. However, under NERC's compliance registration program, 
entities may be registered for multiple functions, so these numbers 
incorporate some double counting. The number of unique entities 
responding will be approximately 387 entities registered as a 
reliability coordinator, balancing authority, transmission operator, 
transmission owner, or generator operator.
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    \3\ 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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    The Commission estimates the additional annual reporting burden and 
cost as follows:
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    \4\ TO=Transmission Owner; RC=Reliability Coordinator; 
BA=Balancing Authority; TOP=Transmission Operator; GOP=Generator 
Operator.
    \5\ The estimated hourly costs (salary plus benefits) are based 
on Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) information (available at 
http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm#17-0000) for an 
electrical engineer ($59.62/hour for review and documentation), and 
for a file clerk ($28.95/hour for record retention).
    \6\ Not all transmission owners are expected to have personnel 
who will be subject to the revised personnel training requirements, 
but this estimate conservatively includes all registered TOs. The 
same approach is taken with respect to generator operators.
    \7\ Some transmission owners are also generator operators. To 
eliminate double counting some entities, this figure reflects the 
number of unique entities (1,050) within the group of TOs and GOPs. 
That approach is used throughout the table.

                                                     FERC-725Y, as Implemented in Docket No. RD14-7
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                                                                   Annual number                  Average burden and     Total annual
                                  Number and type of respondents   of responses    Total number    cost per response   burden hours and      Cost per
                                                \4\               per respondent   of responses           \5\          total annual cost    respondent
                                  (1)...........................             (2)                  (3)...............  (1) x (2) x (3)...
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(One-time) Development of a       TO (337) \6\..................               1             337  15 hrs. and $59.62/ 5,055 hours and            $894.30
 training program and materials,                                                                   hour.               $301,379.10.
 and task list [R2].
(One-time) Development of a       RC, BA, TOP (216).............               1             216  15 hrs. and $59.62/ 3,240 hours and             894.30
 training program [R5].                                                                            hour.               $193,168.80.
(One-time) Development of a       GOP (848).....................               1             848  15 hrs. and $59.62/ 12,720 hours and            894.30
 training program [R6].                                                                            hour.               $758,366.40.
(Ongoing) Annual Evaluation and   TO (337), GOP (848)...........               1       \7\ 1,050  6 hrs. and $59.62/  6,300 hours and             357.72
 update of training program and                                                                    hour.               $375,606.
 task list [R2 and R6].

[[Page 53178]]

 
(Ongoing) Retention of records    TO (337), GOP (848)...........               1           1,050  10 hrs. and $28.95/ 10,500 hrs. and             289.50
 [M2, M6, and C.1.3].                                                                              hour.               $303,975.
(Ongoing) Verification and        TO (337)......................               1             337  10 hrs. and $28.95/ 3,370 hrs. and              289.50
 retention of evidence of                                                                          hour.               $97,561.50.
 capabilities of personnel [R3,
 M3, C1.3], and creation and
 retention of records on
 simulation training [R4 and M4].
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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: August 29, 2014.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-21207 Filed 9-5-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P