[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 47 (Monday, March 11, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8712-8713]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-04319]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RD18-7-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (Ferc-725r); Comment 
Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.

ACTION: Notice of information collection and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or 
FERC) is soliciting public comment on the currently approved 
information collection FERC-725R (Mandatory Reliability Standards: BAL 
Reliability Standards) and submitting the information collection to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. Any interested person 
may file comments directly with OMB and should address a copy of those 
comments to the Commission as explained below. On October 9, 2018, the 
Commission published a Notice in the Federal Register in Docket No. 
RD18-7-000 requesting public comments. The Commission received no 
comments.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due April 10, 
2019.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by OMB Control No. 1902-
0268, should be sent via email to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs: [email protected]. Attention: Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission Desk Officer.
    A copy of the comments should also be sent to the Commission, in 
Docket No. RD18-7-000, 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-725R, Mandatory Reliability Standards: BAL Reliability 
Standards.
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0268.
    Type of Request: Revision to FERC-725R information collection 
requirements, as discussed in Docket No. RD18-7-000.
    Abstract: On August 17, 2018, the North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation (NERC) filed a petition seeking approval of 
proposed Reliability Standard BAL-002-3 (Disturbance Control Standard--
Contingency Reserve for Recovery from a Balancing Contingency Event) 
and the retirement of currently-effective Reliability Standard BAL-002-
2. NERC submitted proposed Reliability Standard BAL-002-3 in response 
to the Commission's directive in Order No. 835 to develop modifications 
to Reliability Standard BAL-002-2, Requirement R1 to require balancing 
authorities or reserve sharing groups: (1) To notify the reliability 
coordinator of the conditions set forth in Requirement R1, Part 1.3.1 
preventing it from complying with the 15-minute ACE recovery period; 
and (2) to provide the reliability coordinator with its ACE recovery 
plan, including a target recovery time.\1\ The NERC petition states 
``the proposed modifications to Reliability Standard BAL-002-3 also 
intend to clarify that communication with the reliability coordinator 
(RC) should proceed in accordance with Energy Emergency Alert 
procedures within the EOP Reliability Standards.\2\ This communication 
is performed under the currently-effective Reliability Standard BAL-
002-2 (as part of the operating procedures and processes). The 
communications (and related burden) are already covered under FERC-
725R, and the additional information is de minimis. Therefore the 
Commission is not modifying the burden estimate for each response and 
is submitting this to OMB as a non-material or non-substantive change 
to a currently approved collection.
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    \1\ Disturbance Control Standard--Contingency Reserve for 
Recovery from a Balancing Contigency Event Reliability Standard, 
Order No. 835, 158 FERC 61,030, at P 37 (2017).
    \2\ NERC Petition at 3.
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    The Office of Electric Reliability approved the NERC proposal in a 
Delegated Order on September 25, 2018.
    Type of Respondents: Balancing authorities and reserve sharing 
groups
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \3\ According to the NERC Compliance 
Registry as of 8/24/2018, there are 99 balancing authorities in the 
United States. The Commission bases individual burden estimates on the 
time needed for balancing authorities to develop tools needed to 
facilitate reporting that are required in the Reliability Standard. The 
communications (and related burden)

[[Page 8713]]

are already covered under FERC-725R, so the Commission is not modifying 
the burden estimate for each response. However, to reflect normal 
fluctuations in industry, we are adjusting the number of respondents 
(to 99, rather than 105) for Reliability Standard BAL-002-3, as shown 
below.
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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 information collection burden, refer to 5 
Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.

                              FERC-725R, Estimate for Reliability Standard BAL-002-3, as Approved in Docket No. RD18-7 4 5
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                                                 Annual number                                                Total annual burden hours
                                  Number of       of responses   Total number of    Average burden hours &     & total annual cost ($)       Cost per
                                 respondents     per respondent     responses        cost per response ($)            (rounded)           respondent ($)
                                           (1)              (2)  (1) * (2) = (3)  (4).......................  (3) * (4) = (5)..........        (5) / (1)
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BA/RSG: \6\ Develop and                     99                1               99  8 \7\ hrs.; $842.32.......  792 hrs.; $83,390........           842.32
 Maintain annually, Operating
 Process and Operating Plans.
BA/RSG\:\ Record Retention...               99                1               99  4 hrs.; $158.72...........  396 hrs.; $15,713........           158.72
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    Total....................  ...............  ...............              198  ..........................  1,188 hrs.; $99,103......
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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.
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    \4\ Reliability Standard BAL-002-3 applies to balancing 
authorities and reserve sharing groups. However, the burden 
associated with the balancing authorities complying with 
Requirements R1and R3 is not included in this table because that 
burden doesn't change and the Commission already accounted for it 
under Commission-approved Reliability Standard BAL-002-1.
    Other components of FERC-725R which are not affected by Docket 
No. RD18-7 are not addressed in the table.
    \5\ The estimated hourly cost (wages plus benefits) is based on 
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) information (available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm and, for benefits, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm).
    The hourly cost (wages plus benefits) for developing and 
maintaining operating process and plans is $105.29 and is an average 
for an electrical engineer (Occupation code 17-2071, $66.90/hour) 
and Legal (Occupation code 23-0000, $ $143.68).
    The hourly cost (wages plus benefits) for record retention is 
$39.68 for information and record clerks (Occupation code 43-4199).
    \6\ BA = Balancing Authority; RSG = Reserve Sharing Group.
    \7\ This figure of 8 hours/response is an average of the hourly 
burden per response for Years 1-3. Year 1 burden: 12 hours per 
response; Years 2-3, each: 6 hours/response. The average annual 
burden for Years 1-3 is 8 hours/response (or [12 hours + 6 hours + 6 
hours ] / 3).

    Dated: March 5, 2019.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2019-04319 Filed 3-8-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P