[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 177 (Friday, September 12, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54696-54698]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-21742]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RD14-4-000]


Proposed Agency Information Collection

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 in Docket No. RD14-4-000 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 (79 FR 36498, 6/
27/2014) requesting public comments. FERC received no comments in 
response to that notice and has made this notation in its submission to 
OMB.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due by October 14, 
2014.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by the docket number, 
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. RD14-4-000, by 
either of the following methods:
     eFiling at Commission's Web site: http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp.
     Mail/Hand Delivery: 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], telephone at (202) 502-8663, and fax at (202) 
273-0873.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The proposed information collection in 
Docket No. RD14-4-000 relates to a proposed revision to the Interchange 
Scheduling and Coordination (INT) group of Reliability Standards, 
developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation 
(NERC), and submitted to the Commission for

[[Page 54697]]

approval. The proposed revision modifies the Interchange Scheduling and 
Coordination Reliability Standards in response to Commission directives 
in Order No. 693,\1\ as well as some other clarifying revisions 
relating to the ten revised definitions and four new definitions to be 
added to the NERC Glossary of Terms Used in NERC Reliability Standards 
(NERC Glossary). One of the revised definitions leads some entities 
under Reliability Standard IRO-008-1 to perform additional paperwork 
tasks. The existing information collection requirements contained in 
the Interchange Scheduling and Coordination, and Interconnection 
Reliability Operations and Coordination groups of Reliability Standards 
are contained in FERC-725A (OMB Control Number 1902-0244). The 
Commission is submitting the new information collection requirements to 
OMB under new collections FERC-725W (for the new burden under INT-011-
1) and FERC-725Z (for the new burden under IRO-008-1).\2\
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    \1\ Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Bulk-Power System, 
Order No. 693, 72 FR 16416 (Apr. 4, 2007), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 
31,242, at PP 819, 821, 843, 848, 872, 875 & 887, order on reh'g, 
Order No. 693-A, 120 FERC ] 61,053 (2007).
    \2\ In the initial notice the Commission stated that the new 
information collection would be under FERC-725A. However, to 
increase administrative efficiency, the Commission will submit the 
new requirements to OMB under FERC-725W and FERC-725Z.
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    On March 16, 2007, the Commission issued Order No. 693, approving 
83 of the 107 Reliability Standards and associated definitions filed by 
NERC, including the Interchange Scheduling and Coordination group of 
Reliability Standards INT-001, INT-003, INT-004, INT-005, INT-006, INT-
007, INT-008, INT-009, and INT-010.\3\ In Order No. 693, the Commission 
directed NERC to make changes through the Reliability Standards 
development process to address certain directives. Specifically, the 
Commission directed NERC to: (1) Develop a modification to INT-001-2 
that includes a requirement that interchange information must be 
submitted for all point-to-point transfers entirely within a balancing 
authority area, including all grandfathered and ``non-Order No. 888'' 
transfers; and (2) to develop a modification to INT-006-1 through the 
Reliability Standards development process to make the standard 
applicable to reliability coordinators and transmission operators, and 
require reliability coordinators and transmission operators to review 
energy interchange transactions from the wide-area and local area 
reliability viewpoints respectively and, where their review indicates a 
potential detrimental reliability impact, communicate to the sink 
balancing authorities necessary transaction modifications.
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    \3\ Order No. 693, FERC Stats. & Regs. ]31,242 at PP 814-887.
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    In its February 27, 2014 petition, NERC seeks Commission approval 
of proposed revisions to the currently effective Reliability Standards, 
as well as one new Reliability Standard to address the Commission's 
directives. NERC asserts that, collectively, the five proposed 
Reliability Standards, consisting of fourteen requirements, consolidate 
the body of Interchange Scheduling and Coordination Reliability 
Standards. In its petition, NERC also seeks approval for the retirement 
of the currently effective Reliability Standards.\4\ NERC also seeks 
approval of ten revised definitions and four new definitions to be 
added to the NERC Glossary. NERC proposes to add the term 
``Interchange'' to the existing definition for ``Operational Planning 
Analysis.'' \5\ NERC States that ``by explicitly including 
`Interchange' in the definition of `Operational Planning Analysis,' the 
Reliability Coordinator must consider Interchange when performing the 
analysis required in Reliability Standard IRO-008-1.'' \6\ Therefore, 
the estimates for this information collection are based on the proposed 
modifications.
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    \4\ NERC Petition at 4.
    \5\ ``Interchange'' is defined in the NERC Glossary as ``Energy 
transfers that cross Balancing Authority Boundaries.
    \6\ NERC Petition at 32.
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    The Commission estimates a modest increase in information 
collection and reporting that would result from implementing NERC's 
proposed revision to the NERC Glossary definition of ``Operational 
Planning Analysis'' and new proposed Reliability Standard INT-011-1. 
The estimate reflects NERC's proposal to include a requirement that 
interchange information must be submitted for all point-to-point 
transfers entirely within a balancing authority area, including all 
grandfathered and ``non-Order No. 888'' transfers; and NERC's 
alternative proposal to address the Commission's concern regarding INT-
006-1, as described above.
    NERC explains that ``by explicitly including `Interchange' in the 
definition of `Operational Planning Analysis,' the Reliability 
Coordinator must consider Interchange when performing the analysis 
required in Reliability Standard IRO-008-1.'' \7\ These administrative 
burdens fall into three categories of ``Submit Interchange 
Information,'' ``Communicate Transaction Modification'' and ``Submit a 
Request for Interchange'' as described in NERC's petition.\8\ NERC's 
technical justification has shown that when the results of reliability 
coordinator studies indicate the need for action, the reliability 
coordinator is required to share the results per Requirement R3 of 
Reliability Standard IRO-008-1. NERC explains that because energy 
transfers within a balancing authority area that use point-to-point 
transmission service can impact transmission congestion, proposed 
Reliability Standard INT-011-1 ensures that these transfers are 
communicated and accounted for in congestion management procedures. If 
a transfer within a balancing authority area is submitted as a request 
for interchange or otherwise accounted for in congestion management 
procedures, it can be evaluated and processed comparable to a request 
for interchange that crosses balancing authority areas.\9\
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    \7\ NERC Petition at 32.
    \8\ NERC Petition, Exhibit E at 1-2.
    \9\ NERC Petition at 22.
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    Accordingly, we estimate an increase of one hour needed for 
``Submit Interchange Information'' for balancing authorities, 
``Communicate Transaction Modification'' for the reliability 
coordinators, and ``Submit a Request for Interchange'' for the load-
serving entities, respectively. With respect to the proposed revisions 
and retirement of the currently-effective Reliability Standards, the 
Commission estimates no material change in information collection 
because the consolidation of the standards does not impact the 
paperwork burden.
    Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this proposed 
collection is estimated as:
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    \10\ The estimates for cost per response are derived using the 
following formula: Average Burden Hours per Response * XX per Hour = 
Average Cost per Response. 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).

[[Page 54698]]



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                                                                        FERC-725A
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                                                                          Annual  number                      Average      Total annual
                                                 Number and type of        of  responses   Total number   burden &  cost   burden hours      Cost per
                                                     respondents                per        of responses    per  response      & total       respondent
                                                                            respondent                         \10\         annual cost         ($)
                                            (1).........................             (2)     (1)*(2)=(3)             (4)     (3)*(4)=(5)         (5)/(1)
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Submit Interchange Information............  114, Balancing authority                  52           5,928          1, $60          5,928,          $3,120
                                             (BA).                                                                              $355,680
Communicate Transaction Modification......  21, Reliability coordinator               12             252          1, $60    252, $15,120             720
                                             (RC).
Submit Request for Interchange, (INT-011-   502, Load-serving entity                  12           6,024          1, $60          6,024,             720
 1).                                         (LSE).                                                                             $361,440
Evidence Retention........................  637, BA/RC/LSE..............               1             637          1, $32    637, $20,384              32
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    Total.................................  ............................  ..............          12,841  ..............         12,841,
                                                                                                                                $752,624
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    Dated: September 5, 2014.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-21742 Filed 9-11-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P