[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 211 (Friday, October 31, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64758-64759]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-25901]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RD14-11-000]


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. RD14-11-000 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 46781, 8/
11/2014) 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 December 1, 
2014.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, regarding FERC-725A (OMB Control 
Number 1902-0244) and FERC-725X (OMB Control Number TBD), 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. RD14-11-000, 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: The proposed information collection changes 
in Docket No. RD14-11-000 relate to the proposed Reliability Standards 
VAR-001-4 (Voltage and Reactive Control) and VAR-002-3 (Generator 
Operation for Maintaining Network Voltage Schedules), developed by the 
North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and submitted 
to the Commission for approval. The Commission received NERC's petition 
to approve the proposed Reliability Standards on June 9, 2014.
    NERC summarizes the VAR group of standards as follows:

    The Voltage and Reactive (``VAR'') group of Reliability 
Standards, which consists of two continent-wide Reliability 
Standards, VAR-001-3 and VAR-002-2b, is designed to maintain voltage 
stability on the Bulk-Power System, protect transmission, 
generation, distribution, and customer equipment, and support the 
reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System.\1\
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    \1\ NERC Petition at 3.

    In its petition, NERC also summarizes the proposed Reliability 
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Standards' applicability and requirements:

    In general, proposed Reliability Standard VAR-001-4 sets forth 
the requirements applicable to Transmission Operators for 
scheduling, monitoring, and controlling Reactive Power resources in 
the Real-time Operations, Same-day Operations, and Operational 
Planning time horizons to regulate voltage and Reactive Power flows 
for the reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System. Proposed 
Reliability Standard VAR-002-3 sets forth the requirements 
applicable to Generator Operators and Generator Owners for providing 
the necessary reactive support and voltage control necessary to 
maintain reliable operations. Generators are the largest and most 
reliable Reactive Power resource and play an integral role in 
maintaining voltage stability on the Bulk-Power System. 
Collectively, the proposed Reliability Standards are designed to 
prevent voltage instability and voltage collapse on the Bulk-Power 
System.\2\
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    \2\ Id. at 4.

    Finally, NERC also states that the proposed Reliability Standards 
improve reliability, clarify requirement language and eliminate 
redundant or unnecessary requirements.\3\
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    \3\ Id. at 15.

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[[Page 64759]]

    Burden Statement: Commission staff analyzed the proposed and 
currently enforced standards and has concluded that while information 
collection requirements have been deleted, added, and/or changed, the 
overall paperwork burden and applicable respondent universe remains 
unchanged. To improve accounting of the burden, the Commission 
recognizes that in the transition from VAR-001-3 to VAR-001-4 
(requirement R1) there is a decrease in documentation related to 
policies and procedures. However, the transmission operators are now 
required to have documentation related to system voltage and reactive 
power schedules as well as documentation related to coordination with 
adjacent transmission operators and applicable reliability 
coordinators. The Commission estimates that this transition leads to a 
decrease of 160 hours as well as an increase of 160 hours, for a net 
change of zero. The Commission seeks comment on whether this estimate 
is accurate.
    For the transition from VAR-002-2b to VAR-002-3, the Commission 
estimates that changes in requirement R1 lead to an increase of 80 
hours for recordkeeping and changes in requirement R2 lead to an 
increase in 120 hours for documentation. However, the Commission 
estimates a decrease of the same magnitude (200 hours) related to the 
changes in requirements R3 and R4. The remaining information collection 
requirements in the two standards remain essentially unchanged.
    Based on the above estimates, the Commission intends to submit a 
total reduction of 204,240 hours from FERC-725A and a total increase of 
204,240 hours into FERC-725X, a new collection FERC is using to account 
for burden related to VAR reliability standards. The following table 
summarizes the burden changes:
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    \4\ TOP = Transmission Operator, GOP = Generator Operator.
    \5\ The estimate for cost per hour (rounded to the nearest 
dollar) is derived as follows:
     $61/hour, the average salary plus benefits 
(representing 30.1% of the total compensation) per engineer (from 
Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm. and http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm.

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                                     Number of       Number of        Average
             Changes                respondents    responses per   burden hours    Total annual    Total annual
                                        \4\         respondent     per response    burden hours      cost \5\
                                             (1)             (2)             (3)     (1)x(2)x(3)  ..............
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VAR-001-4 Requirement R1               184 (TOP)               1             160          29,440      $1,766,400
 Increase (FERC-725X)...........
VAR-001-4 Requirement R1               184 (TOP)               1            -160         -29,440      -1,766,400
 Decrease (FERC-725A)...........
VAR-002-3 Requirement R1               874 (GOP)               1              80          69,920       4,195,200
 Increase (FERC-725X)...........
VAR-002-3 Requirement R2               874 (GOP)               1             120         104,880       6,292,800
 Increase (FERC-725X)...........
VAR-002-3 Requirements R3 and R4       874 (GOP)               1            -200        -174,800     -10,488,000
 Decrease (FERC-725A)...........
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    Total.......................  ..............  ..............  ..............               0               0
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    Dated: October 23, 2014.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-25901 Filed 10-30-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P