[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 197 (Thursday, October 13, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62089-62091]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-22225]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket Nos. IC22-24-000 and RD22-2-000]


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), which will be submitted to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for review. No comments were received on 
the 60-day notice published on August 3, 2022 for IC22-24-000. This 
notice includes modifications of Reliability Standard IRO-008 (version 
update) included in FERC-725Z as published in Docket No. RD-22-2-000. 
The burden totals have been merged to include the new updated version 
of IRO-008-3.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due November 14, 
2022.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments on FERC-725Z to OMB through 
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission Desk Officer. Please identify the OMB Control Number (1902-
0276) in the subject line of your comments. Comments should be sent 
within 30 days of publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
    Please submit copies of your comments to the Commission. You may 
submit copies of your comments (identified by Docket No. IC22-24-000) 
by one of the following methods:
    Electronic filing through https://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, Secretary of the Commission, 12225 Wilkins 
Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852.
    Instructions: OMB submissions must be formatted and filed in 
accordance with submission guidelines at www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Using the search function under the ``Currently Under Review'' 
field, select Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; click ``submit,'' 
and select ``comment'' to the right of the subject collection.
    FERC submissions must be formatted and filed in accordance with 
submission guidelines at: https://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 https://www.ferc.gov/ferc-online/overview.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: FERC-725Z (Mandatory Reliability Standards: IRO Reliability 
Standards).
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0276.
    Type of Request: Extension for the currently approved information 
collection and approval of revisions made by Docket No. RD22-2 (IRO-
008-3 version update).
    Abstract: On August 8, 2005, The Electricity Modernization Act of 
2005, which is Title XII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), 
was enacted into law.\1\ Under section 215 of the Federal Power Act 
(FPA) implemented in 18 CFR 40, the Commission requires a Commission-
certified Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) to develop mandatory 
and enforceable

[[Page 62090]]

Reliability Standards,\2\ which are subject to Commission review and 
approval. In 2006, the Commission established a process to select and 
certify an ERO and, subsequently, certified the North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation (NERC) as the ERO.\3\
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    \1\ The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), Public Law No 109-58, 
Title XII, Subtitle A, 119 Stat. 594, 941 (2005), codified at 16 
U.S.C. 824o (2000).
    \2\ The Federal Power Act (as modified by the EPAct) states 
``[t]he terms ``reliability standard'' means a requirement, approved 
by the Commission under this section, to provide for reliable 
operation of the bulk-power system. The term includes requirements 
for the operation of existing bulk-power system facilities, 
including cybersecurity protection, and the design of planned 
additions or modifications to such facilities to the extent 
necessary to provide for reliable operation of the bulk-power 
system, but the term does not include any requirement to enlarge 
such facilities or to construct new transmission capacity or 
generation capacity.''
    \3\ North American Electric Reliability Corp., 116 FERC ] 
61,062, order on reh'g and compliance, 117 FERC ] 61,126 (2006), 
order on compliance, 118 FERC ] 61,190, order on reh'g, 119 FERC ] 
61,046 (2007), aff'd sub nom. Alcoa Inc. v. FERC, 564 F.3d 1342 
(D.C. Cir. 2009).
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    The ERO develops proposed Reliability Standards \4\ and, if 
approved by NERC, submits them to the Commission for review and 
approval. When the standards are approved by the Commission, the 
Reliability Standards become mandatory and must be enforced by the ERO, 
subject to Commission oversight.
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    \4\ The NERC Standard Processes Manual, Appendix 3A of the NERC 
Rules Of Procedure, (posted at https://www.nerc.com/FilingsOrders/us/RuleOfProcedureDL/SPM_Clean_Mar2019.pdf) describes the process 
for developing, modifying, withdrawing, or retiring a Reliability 
Standard.
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    The IRO Reliability Standards (IRO-001-4, IRO-002-7, IRO-008-2, 
IRO-009-2, IRO-010-2, IRO-014-3, IRO-017-1, and IRO-018-1) mentioned 
below are included in FERC-725Z:

IRO-001-4

    The purpose of IRO-001-4 is to establish the responsibility of 
Reliability Coordinators to act or direct other entities to act.

IRO-002-7

    In a joint petition dated May 30, 2019, the North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation (``NERC'') and Western Electricity Coordinating 
Council (``WECC'') requested Commission approval for Reliability 
Standard IRO-002-6 (now IRO-002-7) (Reliability Coordination, 
Monitoring and Analysis). NERC and WECC stated that the ``Reliability 
Standard IRO-002-7 reflects the addition of a regional Variance 
containing additional requirements applicable to Reliability 
Coordinators providing service to entities in the Western 
Interconnection.'' NERC maintains that the data exchange capability 
requirement in Reliability Standard IRO-002-7, Requirement R1 is 
covered by Reliability Standard IRO-008-2.

IRO-008-3 as Approved in Docket No. RD22-2 (Formerly IRO-008-2)

    Requirement R1 obligates the reliability coordinator (RC) to 
perform operational planning analyses to assess whether the planned 
operations for the next-day will exceed System Operating Limits and 
Interconnection Reliability Operating Limits within its wide area. NERC 
asserts that ``to perform the required operational planning analyses, 
the Reliability Coordinator must have the data it deems necessary from 
those entities that possess it.'' The revisions in IRO-008-3 apply to 
the RC and requires RCs to perform analyses and assessments to prevent 
instability, uncontrolled separation, or cascading. NERC added a new 
requirement requiring an RC to use its SOL methodology when determining 
SOL exceedances for its analyses and assessments and further revised a 
requirement requiring the RC to use its SOL risk-based notification 
framework when communicating SOL or IROL exceedances.

IRO-009-2

    Currently effective IRO-009-2, applicable to reliability 
coordinators, is to prevent instability, uncontrolled separation, or 
cascading outages that adversely impact the reliability of the 
interconnection by ensuring prompt action to prevent or mitigate 
instances of exceeding Interconnection Reliability Operating Limits 
(IROLs).

IRO-010-2

    Additionally, regarding data exchange, NERC cites Reliability 
Standard IRO-010-2 (Reliability Coordinator Data Specification and 
Collection) and its stated purpose of preventing instability, 
uncontrolled separation, or cascading outages ``by ensuring the 
Reliability Coordinator has the data it needs to monitor and assess the 
operation of its Reliability Coordinator Area.'' NERC states that under 
Reliability Standard IRO-010-2, Requirements R1, R2, and R3, the 
reliability coordinator must specify the data necessary for it to 
perform its operational planning analyses and provide the 
specifications to the entities from which it needs data who then must 
comply with the data request using a mutually agreeable format and 
security protocols.

IRO-014-3

    The purpose of Reliability Standard IRO-014-3 is to ensure that 
each Reliability Coordinator's operations are coordinated such that 
they will not adversely impact other Reliability Coordinator Areas and 
to preserve the reliability benefits of interconnected operations.

IRO-017-1

    The purpose of IRO-017-1 (Outage Coordination) is to ensure that 
outages are properly coordinated in the Operations Planning time 
horizon and Near-Term Transmission Planning Horizon. Reliability 
coordinators, planning coordinators, balancing authorities, 
transmission owners, and transmission planners are applicable entities 
for IRO-017-1.

IRO-018-1

    IRO-018-1 (Reliability Coordinator Real-time Reliability Monitoring 
and Analysis Capabilities), requirement R3, requires reliability 
coordinators to have an alarm process monitor that provides 
notification to system operators when the failure of a real-time 
monitoring alarm processor has occurred.
    All IRO Standards build on monitoring real-time assessments and 
supporting effective situational awareness. The Reliability Standards 
accomplish this by requiring applicable entities to: (1) provide 
notification to operators of real-time monitoring alarm failures; (2) 
provide operators with indications of the quality of information being 
provided by their monitoring and analysis capabilities; and (3) address 
deficiencies in the quality of information being provided by their 
monitoring and analysis capabilities.
    NERC observes that the performance of the requirements it cites is 
premised on the existence of data exchange capabilities, regardless of 
whether a separate requirement expressly requires the reliability 
coordinator to have data exchange capabilities in place.
    Type of Respondents: Reliability coordinators (RC), planning 
coordinators (PC), balancing authorities (BA), transmission owners 
(TO), transmission planners (TP), Transmission Operators (TOP) are 
included entities for FERC-725Z.
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \5\ The Commission presents the 
estimates in the annual public reporting burden and cost \6\ as 
follows.
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    \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.
    \6\ The hourly cost figures, for salary plus benefits, for the 
standards are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) information 
(at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm), as of May 2021, 
and benefits information for March 2021 (at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm). For salary plus benefits, for reporting 
requirements, an electrical engineer (code 17-2071) is $72.15/hour 
(wages plus benefits) for the information collection requirements.

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[[Page 62091]]

    Due to the version update of IRO-008-2 (now IRO-008-3) in Docket 
No. RD22-2, the burden increased to 977 annual responses and 53,142 
annual burden hours.

FERC-725Z--Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements for Reliability Standards IRO-001, IRO-002, IRO-008, IRO-009, IRO-010, IRO-014, IRO-017, and IRO-018
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                                   Number of     Annual  number
    Information collection       respondents &    of  responses   Total number     Average burden hours &    Total annual burden hours &   Total annual
         requirements            type of entity  per respondent   of responses     cost per response  ($)      total annual cost  ($)       burden cost
                                (1)............             (2)     (1) * (2) =  (4)......................  (3) * (4) = (5).............         (5)/(1)
                                                                            (3)
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IRO-001-4.....................  12 (RC)........               1              12  24 hrs. $1,731.60........  288 hrs. $20,779.20.........       $1,731.60
                                168 (TOP)......               1             168  12 hrs. $865.80..........  2,016 hrs. $145,454.40......          865.80
IRO-002-7.....................  12 (RC)........               1              12  24 hrs., $1,731.60.......  288 hrs., $20,779.20........        1,731.60
IRO-008-2 (now IRO-008-3) See   12 (RC)........               1              12  160 hrs., $11,544........  1,920 hrs., $138,528........          11,544
 table below.
IRO-009-2.....................  12 (RC)........               1              12  12 hrs. $865.80..........  144 hrs. $10,389.60.........          865.80
IRO-010-3.....................  12 (RC)........               1              12  24 hrs., $1,731.60.......  288 hrs., $20,779.20........        1,731.60
IRO-014-3.....................  12 (RC)........               1              12  12 hrs., $865.80.........  144 hrs., $10,389.60........          865.80
IRO-017-1.....................  12 (RC)........               1              12  1,200 hrs., $86,580......  14,400 hrs., $1,038,960.....          86,580
                                63 (PC)........               1              63  96 hrs., $6,926.40.......  6,048 hrs., $436,363.20.....        6,926.40
                                204 (TP).......               1             204  96 hrs., $6,926.40.......  19,584 hrs., $1,412,985.60..        6,926.40
                                326 (TO).......               1             326  8 hrs., $577.20..........  2,608 Hrs., $188,167.20.....          577.20
                                96 (BA)........               1              96  8 hr., $577.20...........  758 hrs., $54,689.70........          577.20
IRO-018-1.....................  12 (RC)........               1              12  34 hrs., $2,453.10.......  288 hrs., $20,779.20........        2,453.10
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    Total for FERC-725Z.......  ...............  ..............             953  .........................  48,774 hrs., $3,519,044.10..  ..............
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    In reviewing FERC-725Z for the IRO Reliability Standards, the 
number of entities/respondents was checked and broken down into type of 
entity for each reliability standard. In the past, combining 
reliability standards caused the same reliability standard to be 
inadvertently accounted for multiple times, resulting in the previously 
recorded 6,686 responses. These numbers were revised and updated to 
provide the new calculated total of 953 responses. Staff looked at each 
reliability standard as its own unique project and in doing so 
eliminated the multiple entity count by making a more accurate 
representation of the number of responses.\7\
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    \7\ According to the NERC Registry list of May 6, 2022.

                                                       FERC-725Z (Modifications Due to RD22-2) \8\
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Ongoing Estimate Year 3 Ongoing
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IRO-008-3..........................         RC (12)               1              12  32 hrs., $2784.................  384 hrs. $33,408.
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One-Time Estimate Years 1 and 2
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IRO-008-3..........................         RC (12)               1              12  16 hrs., $1,392................  144 hrs. $16,704.
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    Sub-Total for FERC-725Z (as      ..............  ..............              24  ...............................  528 hrs. $50,112.
     modified in RD22-2).
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    Sub-Total for IRO-008-3 One-     ..............  ..............              12  ...............................  2,304 hrs., $200,448.
     time.
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    Sub-Total for IRO-008-3 Ongoing  ..............  ..............              12  ...............................  2,064 hrs., $179,568.
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        Total for FERC-725 Z.......  ..............  ..............             977  ...............................  53,142 hrs., $3,834,195.3.
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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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    \8\ FERC staff estimates that industry costs for salary plus 
benefits are similar to Commission costs. The FERC 2021 average 
salary plus benefits for one FERC full-time equivalent (FTE) is 
$180,703/year (or $87.00/hour) posted by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics for the Utilities sector (available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm).

    Dated: October 6, 2022.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022-22225 Filed 10-12-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P