[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 6, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5255-5257]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-02323]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket Nos. IC18-5-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities; (FERC-917 & FERC-
918) Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.

ACTION: Notice of information collections and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is soliciting 
public comment on the information collections, FERC-917 (Electric 
Transmission Facilities) and FERC-918 (Standards for Business Practices 
and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities, both under OMB 
Control No. 1902-0233.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due April 9, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments (identified by Docket No. IC18-5-
000) by either of the following methods:
     eFiling at Commission's website: 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], telephone at (202) 502-8663, and fax at (202) 
273-0873.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: FERC-917 (Electric Transmission Facilities) and FERC-918 
(Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for 
Public Utilities.
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0233.
    Type of Request: Three-year extension of the FERC-917 and FERC-918 
information collection requirements with no changes to the current 
reporting requirements.
    Abstract: On February 17, 2007, the Commission issued Order No. 890 
to address and remedy opportunities for undue discrimination under the 
pro forma Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) adopted in 1996 by 
Order No. 888.\1\ Through Order No. 890, the Commission:
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    \1\ Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-
discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities; Recovery 
of Stranded Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities, 
Order No. 888, 61 FR 21540 (May 10, 1996), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 
31,036 (1996), order on reh'g, Order No. 888-A, 62 FR 12274 (Mar. 
14, 1997), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,048 (1997), order on reh'g, 
Order No. 888-B, 81 FERC ] 61,248 (1997), order on reh'g, Order No. 
888-C, 82 FERC ] 61,046 (1998), aff'd in relevant part sub nom. 
Transmission Access Policy Study Group v. FERC, 225 F.3d 667 (DC 
Cir. 2000), aff'd sub nom. New York v. FERC, 535 U.S. 1 (2002).
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    (1) Adopted pro forma OATT provisions necessary to keep imbalance 
charges closely related to incremental costs;
    (2) Increased nondiscriminatory access to the grid by requiring 
public utilities, working through the North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation (NERC), to develop consistent methodologies for 
available transfer capability (ATC) calculation and to publish those 
methodologies to increase transparency.
    (3) Required an open, transparent, and coordinated transmission 
planning process thereby increasing the ability of customers to access 
new generating resources and promote efficient utilization of 
transmission.
    (4) Gave the right to customers to request from transmission 
providers, studies addressing congestion and/or integration of new 
resource loads in areas of the transmission system where they have 
encountered transmission problems due to congestion or where they 
believe upgrades and other investments may be necessary to reduce 
congestion and to integrate new resources.
    (5) Required both the transmission provider's merchant function and 
network customers to include a statement with each application for 
network service or to designate a new network resource that attests, 
for each network resource identified, that the transmission customer 
owns or has committed to purchase the designated network resource and 
the designated network resource comports with the requirements for 
designated network resources. The network customer includes this 
attestation in the customer's comment section of the request when it 
confirms the request on the Open Access Same-Time Information System 
(OASIS).
    (6) Required with regard to capacity reassignment that: (a) All 
sales or assignments of capacity be conducted through or otherwise 
posted on the transmission provider's OASIS on or before the date the 
reassigned service commences; (b) assignees of transmission capacity 
execute a service agreement prior to the date on which the reassigned 
service commences; and (c) transmission providers aggregate and 
summarize in an electric quarterly report the data contained in these 
service agreements.
    (7) Adopted an operational penalties annual filing that provides 
information regarding the penalty revenue the transmission provider has 
received and distributed.
    (8) Required creditworthiness information to be included in a 
transmission provider's OATT. Attachment L must specify the qualitative 
and quantitative criteria that the transmission provider uses to 
determine the level of secured and unsecured credit required.
    The Commission required a NERC/NAESB \2\ team to draft and review 
Order No. 890 reliability standards and business practices. The team 
was to solicit comment from each utility on developed standards and 
practices and utilities were to implement each, after Commission 
approval. Public utilities, working through NERC, were to revise 
reliability standards to require the exchange of data and coordination 
among transmission providers and, working through NAESB, were to 
develop complementary business practices.
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    \2\ NAESB is the North American Energy Standards Board.
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    Required OASIS postings included:
    (1) Explanations for changes in ATC values;
    (2) Capacity benefit margin (CBM) reevaluations and quarterly 
postings;
    (3) OASIS metrics and accepted/denied requests;

[[Page 5256]]

    (4) Planning redispatch offers and reliability redispatch data;
    (5) Curtailment data;
    (6) Planning and system impact studies;
    (7) Metrics for system impact studies;
    (8) All rules.
    Incorporating the Order No. 890 standards into the Commission's 
regulations benefits wholesale electric customers by streamlining 
utility business practices, transactional processes, and OASIS 
procedures, and by adopting a formal ongoing process for reviewing and 
upgrading the Commission's OASIS standards and other electric industry 
business practices. These practices and procedures benefit from the 
implementation of generic industry standards.
    The Commission's Order No. 890 regulations can be found in 18 CFR 
35.28 (pro forma tariff requirements), and 37.6 and 37.7 (OASIS 
requirements).
    Action: The Commission is requesting a three-year extension of the 
current FERC-917 and FERC-918 (Order No. 890) reporting requirements, 
with no change to the existing requirements.
    Burden Statement: The FERC-917 and FERC-918 information collections 
are both approved under the OMB Control Number 1902-0233. The estimated 
annual public reporting burdens for FERC-917 (requirements in 18 CFR 
35.28) and FERC-918 (requirements in 18 CFR 37.6 and 37.7) are reduced 
from the original estimates made three years ago. The reductions are 
due to the incorporation and completion of: (1) One-time pro forma 
tariff and standards changes by utilities in existence at that time, 
which would not be needed unless the tariff and/or standards are 
changed again; and (2) completed development and comment solicitation 
of the required NERC/NAESB reliability standards and business 
practices. The other activities are annual ongoing requirements. The 
estimated annual figures follow.
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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, refer to 5 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.

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                                                                      Average         Average
                                                  Annual  Number     Number of      burden \3\     Total annual
          FERC information  collection                  of         reponses per      hours per     burden hours
                                                    respondents     respondent       response
                                                             (1)             (2)             (3)     (1) x (2) x
                                                                                                             (3)
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                                             18 CFR 35.28 (FERC-917)
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Conforming tariff changes.......................               0               0               0               0
Revision of Imbalance Charges...................               0               0               0               0
ATC revisions...................................               0               0               0               0
Planning (Attachment K).........................             134               1             100          13,400
Congestion studies..............................             134               1             300          40,200
Attestation of network resource commitment......             134               1               1             134
Capacity reassignment...........................             134               1             100          13,400
Operational Penalty annual filing...............             134               1              10           1,340
Creditworthiness--include criteria in the tariff               0               0               0               0
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    FERC-917--Sub Total Part 35.................  ..............  ..............  ..............          68,474
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                                          18 CFR 37.6 & 37.7 (FERC-918)
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ATC-related standards:
    NERC/NAESB Team to develop..................               0               0               0               0
    Review and comment by utility...............               0               0               0               0
    Implementation by each utility..............               0               0               0               0
Mandatory data exchanges........................             134               1              80          10,720
Explanation of change of ATC values.............             134               1             100          13,400
Reevaluate CBM and post quarterly...............             134               1              20           2,680
Post OASIS metrics; requests accepted/denied....             134               1              90          12,060
Post planning redispatch offers and reliability              134               1              20           2,680
 redispatch data................................
Post curtailment data...........................             134               1              10           1,340
Post Planning and System Impact Studies.........             134               1               5             670
Posting of metrics for System Impact Studies....             134               1             100          13,400
Post all rules to OASIS.........................             134               1               5             670
FERC-918--Recordkeeping Requirements............             134               1              40           5,360
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    FERC-918 -Sub Total of Part 37 Reporting      ..............  ..............  ..............          57,620
     Requirements...............................
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        FERC-918--Sub Total of Reporting and      ..............  ..............  ..............          62,980
         Recordkeeping Requirements.............
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    Total FERC-917 and FERC-918 (Part 35 + Part   ..............  ..............  ..............         131,454
     37, Reporting and Recordkeeping
     Requirements)..............................
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    Total combined annual burden for FERC-917 and FERC-918 is 131,454 
hours (126,094 reporting hours + 5,360 recordkeeping hours). This is a 
reduction of 28,300 hours from the combined FERC-917 and FERC-918 
burden OMB previously approved.

[[Page 5257]]

    Total combined estimated annual cost for FERC-917 and FERC-918 is 
$131,454 \4\. This includes:
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    \4\ The Commission staff thinks that the average respondent for 
this collection is similarly situated to the Commission, in terms of 
salary plus benefits. Based upon FERC's 2017 annual average of 
$158,754 (for salary plus benefits), the average hourly cost is 
$76.50/hour.

    (1) Reporting costs of $10,339,708; \5\ (126,094 hours @$82.00 
an hour (average cost of attorney ($143.68 per hour), consulting 
($89.00), management Analyst ($63.49), and administrative support 
($40.89)) and
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    \6\ This wage figure uses the weighted hourly average wage (plus 
benefits) for Legal (Occupation Code: 23-0000), management, 
scientific, and consulting (Occupation Code: 11-0000), management 
analyst (Occupation Code: 13-1111), Administrative Support (43-0000) 
and File Clerk (Occupation Code: 43-4071) obtained from the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics. Uses the hourly average wage (plus benefits) 
for file clerks obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: 
$32.74/hour (BLS Occupation Code: 43-4071).
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    (2) Recordkeeping (labor and storage) costs of $7,575,486.40; 
(labor = $175,486.40; 5,360 hours x $32.74/hour \7\ (file/record 
clerk @$32.74 an hour) and off-site storage costs = $7,400,000; 
(8,000 sq. ft. x $925/sq. ft.).

    The reporting burden includes the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended to generate, maintain, retain, disclose, or provide 
the information including: (1) Reviewing instructions; (2) developing, 
acquiring, installing, and utilizing technology and systems for the 
purposes of collecting, validating, verifying, processing, maintaining, 
disclosing, and providing information; (3) adjusting the existing ways 
to comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; 
(4) training personnel to respond to the collections of information; 
(5) searching data sources; (6) completing and reviewing the 
collections of information; and (7) transmitting or otherwise 
disclosing the information.
    The estimate of cost for respondents is based upon salaries for 
professional and clerical support, as well as direct and indirect 
overhead costs. Direct costs include all costs directly attributable to 
providing this information, such as administrative costs and the cost 
for information technology. Indirect or overhead costs are costs 
incurred by an organization in support of its mission. These costs 
apply to activities which benefit the whole organization rather than 
any one particular function or activity.
    Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the proposed collections of 
information are 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 of the proposed collections of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance 
the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected; 
and (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collections of information 
on those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submission of responses.

    Dated: January 31, 2018.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-02323 Filed 2-5-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P