[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 168 (Friday, August 28, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53354-53355]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-18914]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC20-24-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725A(1C); 
Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.

ACTION: Notice of extension 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 extension to the information 
collection, FERC-725A(1C) (Mandatory Reliability Standards for Bulk-
Power System: Reliability Standard TOP-001-4) which will be submitted 
to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a review of the 
information collection requirements.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due October 27, 
2020.

ADDRESSES: Please submit a copy of your comments to the Commission 
(identified by Docket No. IC20-24-000) by one of the following methods:
     eFiling at Commission's Website: http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp.
     U.S. Postal Service Mail: Persons unable to file 
electronically may mail similar pleadings to the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426.
     Effective 7/1/2020, delivery of filings other than by 
eFiling or the U.S. Postal Service should be delivered to Health and 
Human Services, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
    Instructions: All submissions must be formatted and filed in 
accordance with submission guidelines at: http://www.ferc.gov. 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.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: FERC-725A(1C) (Mandatory Reliability 
Standards for Bulk-Power System: Reliability Standard TOP-001-4)
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0298.
    Type of Request: Extension to the information collection, with no 
changes to the reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
    Abstract: In a petition dated March 6, 2017, the North American 
Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) requested Commission approval 
for proposed Reliability Standard TOP-001-4 (Transmission Operations). 
NERC stated that the proposed Reliability Standards address the 
Commission directives in Order No. 817 related to: (i) Transmission 
operator monitoring of non-bulk electric system (BES) facilities; (ii) 
redundancy and diverse routing of transmission operator, balancing 
authority, and reliability coordinator data exchange capabilities; and 
(iii) testing of alternative or less frequently used data exchange 
capabilities. In an order on April 17, 2017,\1\ the implementation of 
Reliability Standard TOP-001-4 and the retirement of Reliability 
Standard TOP-001-3 was approved.
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    \1\ The Delegated Letter Order is available in the Commission's 
eLibrary at https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/OpenNat.asp?fileID=14560616.
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    Type of Respondents: Transmission Operators (TOP) and Balancing 
Authorities (BA).
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \2\ The Commission estimates the annual 
public reporting burden and cost 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.

[[Page 53355]]



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                                  Number of                                      Average burden    Total annual
    Information collection      respondents &    Annual Number   Total Number     hours & cost    burden hours &
         requirements           type of entity   of responses    of responses     per response     total annual
                                     \3\        per respondent                        ($)            cost ($)
                               (1)............             (2)     (1) * (2) =  (4) \4\........  (3) * (4) = (5)
                                                                           (3)
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                                                  FERC-725A(1C)
                                                  TOP-001-4 \5\
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Reporting (R10, R20, & R21),   321 (TOP)......               1             321  3 hrs.; $210.57  963 hrs.;
 ongoing.                                                                                         $67,592.97.
Recordkeeping, ongoing.......  321 (TOP)......               1             321  2 hrs.; $82.06.  642 hrs.;
                                                                                                  $26,341.26.
                              ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    TOP Sub-Totals...........  ...............  ..............  ..............  5 hrs.; $292.63  1,605 hrs.;
                                                                                                  $93,934.23.
Reporting (R23 & R24),         97 (BA)........               1              97  2 hrs.; $140.38  194 hrs.;
 ongoing.                                                                                         $13,616.86.
Recordkeeping, ongoing.......  97 (BA)........               1              97  4 hrs.; $164.12  388 hrs.;
                                                                                                  $15,919.64.
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    BA Sub-Totals............  ...............  ..............  ..............  6hrs.; $304.50.  582 hrs.;
                                                                                                  $29,536.50.
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        FERC-725A(1C) ongoing  ...............  ..............  ..............  ...............  2,187 hrs.;
         total.                                                                                   $123,470.73.
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\3\ Our estimates are based on the NERC Compliance Registry of 7/17/2020, which indicates there are 321 entities
  registered as TOPs and 97 entities registered as BAs within the United States. One entity may be registered as
  having several roles.
\4\ The hourly cost figures, for salary plus benefits, for the reliability standards are based on Bureau of
  Labor Statistics (BLS) information (at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm), as of May 2019. For
  reporting requirements, an electrical engineer (code 17-2071) is $70.19/hour; for the recordkeeping
  requirements, an information and record clerk (code 43-4199) is $41.03/hour.
\5\ Requirement R21 (applicable to TOPs in ongoing yrs.) covers quarterly testing and associated reporting and
  recordkeeping requirements. Requirement R24 (applicable to BAs in ongoing yrs.) covers quarterly testing and
  associated engineering 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 estimates 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: August 24, 2020.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-18914 Filed 8-27-20; 8:45 am]
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