[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 173 (Friday, September 6, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46946-46947]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-19270]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RD19-6-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725Z); 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-725Z (Mandatory Reliability Standards: IRO 
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 June 27, 2019, the 
Commission published a Notice in the Federal Register in Docket No. 
RD19-6-000 requesting public comments. The Commission received no 
public comments and is indicating that in the related submittal to OMB.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due October 7, 
2019.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by OMB Control No. 1902-
0276, 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. RD19-6-000, by either of the following methods:

[[Page 46947]]

     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-725Z (Mandatory Reliability Standards: IRO Reliability 
Standards).
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0276.
    Type of Request: Revisions to the information collection, as 
discussed in Docket No. RD19-6-000.
    Abstract: On July 11, 2019, the Commission issued a Delegated 
Letter Order, Docket No. RD19-6-000, approving proposed Reliability 
Standard IRO-002-6 (Reliability Coordination, Monitoring and Analysis), 
the associated violation risk factors and violation severity levels, 
and implementation plan. The Reliability Standard was submitted in a 
joint petition dated May 30, 2019, by the North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation (NERC) and Western Electricity Coordinating 
Council (WECC). NERC and WECC stated that the proposed Reliability 
Standard IRO-002-6 reflects the addition of a regional Variance 
containing additional requirements applicable to Reliability 
Coordinators providing service to entities in the Western 
Interconnection and none of the continent-wide requirements have been 
changed from currently effective Reliability Standard IRO-002-5.\1\ 
According to the approved implementation plan, the effective date for 
Reliability Standard IRO-002-6 is January 1, 2020.
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    \1\ The burden related to continent-wide Reliability Standard 
IRO-002-5 (Reliability Coordination, Monitoring and Analysis) is 
included in FERC-725Z (Mandatory Reliability Standards: IRO 
Reliability Standards, OMB Control No. 1902-0276).
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    Type of Respondents: Reliability coordinators (RC) providing 
service to entities in the Western Interconnection.
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \2\ The Commission estimates the changes 
in the annual public reporting burden and cost \3\ as follows.
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    \2\ 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.
    \3\ The hourly cost figures, for salary plus benefits, for the 
new standards are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 
information (at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm), as of 
May 2018, and benefits information for December 2018 (at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm). For salary plus benefits, 
for reporting requirements, an electrical engineer (code 17-2071) is 
$68.17/hour; for the recordkeeping requirements, an information and 
record clerk (code 43-4199) is $40.84/hour.

                                                     FERC-725Z--Changes Due to Docket No. RD19-6-000
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                                        Number of
                                      respondents &  Annual  number   Total number    Average burden hours & cost per      Total annual burden hours &
Information collection requirements  type of entity   of  responses   of responses              response ($)                  total annual cost ($)
                                           \4\       per respondent
                                                (1)             (2)     (1) * (2) =  (4)..............................  (3) * (4) = (5)
                                                                                (3)
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Reporting and Recordkeeping          ..............  ..............  ..............  no change........................  no change.
 Requirements (continuing in IRO-
 002-6 [formerly in IRO-002-5]) \5\.
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                                                Increases, due to the Regional Variance of IRO-002-6 \6\
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Reporting (R2 & R3), in Yr. 1......          2 (RC)               3               6  52 hrs.; $3,544.84...............  312 hrs.; $21,269.04.
Reporting (R2 & R3), in Yr. 2 &              2 (RC)               1               2  480 hrs.; $32,721.60.............  960 hrs.; $65,443.20.
 ongoing.
Total Increase to FERC-725Z in Year  ..............  ..............  ..............  .................................  312 hrs.; $21,269.04.
 1.
Total Increase to FERC-725Z in Year  ..............  ..............  ..............  .................................  960 hrs.; $65,443.20.
 2 and ongoing.
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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\ Our estimates are based on the joint petition which 
indicates at present, only one reliability coordinator, Peak 
Reliability, provides reliability coordinator services in the 
Western Interconnection. In July 2018, Peak Reliability announced 
that it would cease operations at the end of December 2019. Over the 
course of 2018 and 2019, several entities have indicated that they 
will seek certification to perform the reliability coordinator 
function for their respective footprints in the Western 
Interconnection. For the purposes of this information collection, 
the WECC RC certification status was used to estimate the number of 
entities within the United States making significant progress to 
become certified Western Interconnection reliability coordinators. 
The certification progress chart and schedule are posted at the 
following link: https://www.wecc.org/EventAnalysisSituationalAwareness/Pages/Certification.aspx.
    \5\ The reporting and recordkeeping requirements and the 
associated burden will continue in IRO-002-6 (burden formerly 
included in IRO-002-5). The corresponding estimated burden for the 
11 RCs continues to be 30 hours per response (or a total estimated 
burden of 330 hours).
    \6\ The estimated burden is for the development phase and the 
ongoing effort to administer/implement the variance requirements.

    Dated: August 30, 2019.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2019-19270 Filed 9-5-19; 8:45 am]
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