[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 90 (Wednesday, May 9, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21288-21290]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-09859]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC18-5-000]


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

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Comment request.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or 
FERC) is submitting its information collection FERC-917 (Electric 
Transmission Facilities) and FERC-918 (Standards for Business Practices 
and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities 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 previously published a Notice in the 
Federal Register 2/6/2018 requesting public comments. The Commission 
received no comments on the FERC-917 nor the FERC-918 and is making 
this notation in its submittal to OMB.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due by June 8, 
2018.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by the OMB Control No. 
1902-0233 (for both the FERC-917 and FERC-918), 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 202-395-8528.
    A copy of the comments should also be sent to the Commission, in 
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], by telephone at (202) 502-8663, and by 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 reporting 
requirements.
    Abstract: On February 17, 2007, the Commission issued Order No. 890 
\1\ to address and remedy opportunities for undue discrimination under 
the pro forma Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) adopted in 1996 by 
Order No. 888.\2\ Through Order No. 890, the Commission:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ Final Rule in Docket Nos. RM05-17-000 and RM05-25-000, 
issued 2/16/2007.
    \2\ 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 (D.C. 
Cir. 2000), aff'd sub nom. New York v. FERC, 535 U.S. 1 (2002).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Adopted pro forma OATT provisions necessary to keep 
imbalance charges closely related to incremental costs;
     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;
     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;
     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;
     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);
     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;
     Adopted an operational penalties annual filing that 
provides information regarding the penalty revenue the transmission 
provider has received and distributed; and
     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

[[Page 21289]]

determine the level of secured and unsecured credit required.
    The Commission required a NERC/NAESB \3\ 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ NAESB is the North American Energy Standards Board.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Required OASIS postings included:

     Explanations for changes in ATC values;
     Capacity benefit margin (CBM) reevaluations and quarterly 
postings;
     OASIS metrics and accepted/denied requests;
     Planning redispatch offers and reliability redispatch 
data;
     Curtailment data;
     Planning and system impact studies;
     Metrics for system impact studies; and
     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).
    Type of Respondents: Provide information on any types of entities 
who respond to the information collection.
    Estimate of Annual Burden \4\: 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:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ The Commission defines burden 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     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
     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:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \5\ 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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                  Average number  Average burden
           FERC information collection             Annual number    of reponses    \5\ hours per   Total annual
                                                  of respondents  per respondent     response      burden hours
                                                             (1)             (2)             (3)     (1)x(2)x(3)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             18 CFR 35.28 (FERC-917)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                          18 CFR 37.6 & 37.7 (FERC-918)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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...........................
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------

[[Page 21290]]

 
        FERC-918--Sub Total of Reporting and      ..............  ..............  ..............          62,980
         Recordkeeping Requirements.............
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
        Total FERC-917 and FERC-918 (Part 35 +    ..............  ..............  ..............         131,454
         Part 37, Reporting and Recordkeeping
         Requirements)..........................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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: May 3, 2018.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-09859 Filed 5-8-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P