[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 130 (Monday, July 12, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36540-36543]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-14715]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC21-32-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities Ferc-917 and Ferc-
918; Consolidated Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of information collections 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 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, 
which will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
for a review of the information collection requirements.

DATES: Comments on the collections of information are due September 10, 
2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit copies of your comments (identified by Docket 
No. IC21-32-000 and the specific FERC collection number (FERC-917 and/
or FERC-918) by one of the following methods:
    Electronic filing through http://www.ferc.gov, is preferred.
     Electronic Filing: Documents must be filed in acceptable 
native applications and print-to-PDF, but not in scanned or picture 
format.
     For those unable to file electronically, comments may be 
filed by USPS mail or by hand (including courier) delivery:
    [cir] Mail via U.S. Postal Service Only: Addressed to: Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission, Secretary of the Commission, 888 First 
Street NE, Washington, DC 20426.
    [cir] Hand (Including Courier) Delivery: Deliver to: Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852.
    Instructions: All submissions must be formatted and filed in 
accordance with

[[Page 36541]]

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).
    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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at 
[email protected], telephone at (202) 502-8663.

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.
    Type of Respondents: Public utilities transmission providers.
    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 (D.C. 
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. Required OASIS postings 
included:
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    \2\ NAESB is the North American Energy Standards Board.
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    1. Explanations for changes in ATC values;
    2. Capacity benefit margin (CBM) reevaluations and quarterly 
postings;
    3. OASIS metrics and accepted/denied requests;
    4. Planning redispatch offers and reliability redispatch data;
    5. Curtailment data;
    6. Planning and system impact studies;
    7. Metrics for system impact studies; and
    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). 18 CFR 35.28(b) states: ``Audit data must remain 
available for download on the OASIS for 90 days, except ATC/TTC 
postings that must remain available for download on the OASIS for 20 
days. The audit data are to be retained and made available upon request 
for download for five years from the date when they are first posted in 
the same electronic form as used when they originally were posted on 
the OASIS.''
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \3\ The Commission estimates the annual 
public reporting burden for the information collections as follows. 
Please note, the zeroes for respondents and responses are based on 
having no filings of this type over the past four years. In addition, 
we estimate no filings during the next three years. The requirements 
remain in the regulations and are included as part of OMB Control 
Number 1902-0233.
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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 CFR part 1320.

[[Page 36542]]



      FERC-917 (Electric Transmission Facilities) and FERC-918 (Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities)
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                                                                                                                                              Average
                                          Number of     Annual number   Annual number    Average annual burden     Total average annual     annual cost
                                         respondents    of responses    of responses      hrs. & cost \4\ per      burden hours & total    perespondent
                                                       per respondent                        response ($)          annual cost \5\ ($)          ($)
                                                  (1)             (2)     (1) * (2) =  (4).....................  (3) * (4) = (5)........     (5) / (1) =
                                                                                  (3)                                                                (6)
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                                                                 18 CFR 35.28 (FERC-917)
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Conforming tariff changes (Reporting)              20               1              20  20 hrs.; $1,460.........  400 hrs.; $29,200......          $1,460
Revision of Imbalance Charges                      21               1              21  25 hrs.; $1,825.........  525 hrs.; $38,325......           1,825
 (Reporting).
ATC revisions (Reporting)............              11               1              11  20 hrs.; $1,460.........  220 hrs.; $16,060......           1,460
Planning (Attachment K) (Reporting)               162               1             162  100 hrs., $7,300........  16,200 hrs., $1,182,600        7,300.00
 \6\.
Congestion studies (Reporting).......             162               1             162  300 hrs., $21,900.......  48,600 hrs., $3,547,800       21,900.00
Attestation of network resource                   162               1             162  1 hr., $73..............  162 hrs., $11,826......           73.00
 commitment (Reporting).
Capacity reassignment (Reporting)....             162               1             162  100 hrs., $7,300........  16,200 hrs., $1,182,600        7,300.00
Operational Penalty annual filing                 162               1             162  10 hrs., $358.30........  1,620 hrs., $58,044.60.          358.30
 (Record Keeping) \7\.
Creditworthiness--include criteria in
 the tariff (Reporting) \8\
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    FERC-917, Sub-Total of Record      ..............  ..............  ..............  ........................  1,620 hrs., $58,044.60   ..............
     Keeping Requirements.
    FERC-917, Sub-Total of Reporting   ..............  ..............  ..............  ........................  132,527 hrs.,            ..............
     Requirements.                                                                                                $6,008,411
    FERC-917--Sub Total of Reporting   ..............  ..............  ..............  ........................  134,147 hrs.,            ..............
     and Recordkeeping Requirements.                                                                              $6,066,455.60
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                                                              18 CFR 37.6 & 37.7 (FERC-918)
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Implementation by each utility \9\
 (Reporting)
NERC/NAESB Team to develop
 (Reporting)
Review and comment by utility
 (Reporting)
Mandatory data exchanges (Reporting).             162               1             162  80 hrs., $5,840.........  12,960 hrs., $946,080..        5,840.00
Explanation of change of ATC values               162               1             162  100 hrs., $7,300.00.....  16,200 hrs., $1,182,600        7,300.00
 (Reporting).
Reevaluate CBM and post quarterly                 162               1             162  20 hrs., $716.60........  3,240 hrs., $116,089.20          716.60
 (Record Keeping).
Post OASIS metrics; requests accepted/            162               1             162  90 hrs., $6,570.........  14,580 hrs., $1,064,340        6,570.00
 denied (Reporting).
Post planning redispatch offers and               162               1             162  20 hrs., $716.60........  3,240 hrs., $116,089.20          716.60
 reliability redispatch data (Record
 Keeping).
Post curtailment data (Reporting)....             162               1             162  1 hr., $73.00...........  162 hrs., $11,826......           73.00
Post Planning and System Impact                   162               1             162  5 hrs., $365.00.........  810 hrs., $59,130......          365.00
 Studies (Reporting).
Posting of metrics for System Impact              162               1             162  100 hrs., $7,300.00.....  16,200 hrs., $1,182,600        7,300.00
 Studies (Reporting).
Post all rules to OASIS (Record                   162               1             162  5 hrs., $179.15.........  810 hrs., $29,022.30...          179.15
 Keeping).
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    FERC-918, Sub-Total of Record      ..............  ..............  ..............  ........................  7,290 hrs., $261,200.70  ..............
     Keeping Requirements.
    FERC-918 Sub-Total of Reporting    ..............  ..............  ..............  ........................  60,912 hrs., $4,446,576  ..............
     Requirements.
    FERC-918--Sub Total of Reporting   ..............  ..............  ..............  ........................  68,202 hrs.,             ..............
     and Recordkeeping Requirements.                                                                              $4,707,776.70
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        Total FERC-917 and FERC-918    ..............  ..............  ..............  ........................  202,349 hrs.,            ..............
         (Reporting and Recordkeeping                                                                             $10,774,232.30
         Requirements).
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    Comments: Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the collections of

[[Page 36543]]

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 collections of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility and clarity of the information collections; and (4) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collections 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\ The estimated hourly cost (salary plus benefits) provided in 
this section is based on the salary figures for March 2021 posted by 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Utilities sector and benefits 
based on BLS report; issued June 17, 2021 Employer Costs for 
Employee Compensation Summary (available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm). The hourly rates are displayed below:
    Legal (Occupation Code: 23-0000): $142.25.
    Management Analyst (Occupation Code: 13-1111): $68.39.
    Office and Administrative Support (Occupation Code: 43-000): 
$44.47.
    Electrical Engineer (Occupation Code: 17-2071): $72.15.
    Information Security Analyst (Occupation Code: 15-1122): $73.57.
    File Clerk (Occupation Code: 43-4071): $35.83.
    The skill sets are assumed to contribute equally, so the hourly 
cost is an average [($142.25 + $68.39 + $44.47 + $72.15 + $73.57 + 
35.83) / 6 = $72.78]. The figure is rounded to $73.00 per hour.
    \5\ In the last renewal of FERC-917/918 (ICR Ref. No. 201802-
1902-002), included a $7,400,000 cost for off-site storage facility 
for record keeping. This cost was not related to burden hours, 
rather an annual estimate of the fees related to offsite storage. 
This cost has been removed as all recordkeeping is retained 
electronically per 18 CFR 37.7(b) states: ``Audit data must remain 
available for download on the OASIS for 90 days, except ATC/TTC 
postings that must remain available for download on the OASIS for 20 
days. The audit data are to be retained and made available upon 
request for download for five years from the date when they are 
first posted in the same electronic form as used when they 
originally were posted on the OASIS.''
    \6\ The increase in the number of responses 132 (from OMB's 
currently approved inventory for FERC-917/918) to 162 is based on 
the increased number of companies subject to compliance and changes 
in the last few years as identified by the NERC registry.
    \7\ While we are using the averaged hourly rate for the majority 
of the calculations, all recordkeeping tasks are solely completed by 
a file clerk at $35.83/hour.
    \8\ As noted, above the table, the zeroes for respondents and 
responses are based on having no filings of this type over the past 
four years.
    \9\ ATC-related standards include: Implementation by each 
utility (Reporting), NERC/NAESB Team to develop (Reporting), and 
Review and comment by utility (Reporting).

    Dated: July 6, 2021.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2021-14715 Filed 7-9-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P