[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 223 (Monday, November 21, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70793-70795]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-25287]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

U.S. Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Extension

AGENCY: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Department of 
Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: EIA submitted an information collection request for extension 
as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The information 
collection requests a three-year extension with changes to the Electric 
Power & Renewable Electricity Surveys (EPRES), OMB Control Number; 
1905-0129. EPRES consists of nine surveys, including annual, monthly 
and one daily survey. These surveys collect data from entities involved 
in the production, transmission, delivery, and sale of electricity, and 
in maintaining the reliable operation of the power system. The data 
collected are the primary source of information on the nation's 
electric power system. The renewable energy survey collects information 
on the manufacture, shipment, import, and export of photovoltaic cells 
and modules, and is the primary national source of information on these 
topics.

DATES: Comments on this information collection must be received no 
later than December 21, 2022. Written comments and recommendations for 
the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of 
publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find 
this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently under 
30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul McArdle, (202) 586-4445 email: 
[email protected]. The forms and instructions are available on 
EIA's website at https://www.eia.gov/survey/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request 
contains:
    (1) OMB No.: 1905-0129;
    (2) Information Collection Request Title: Electric Power & 
Renewable Electricity Surveys;
    (3) Type of Request: Three-year extension with changes;
    (4) Purpose: EIA's EPRES consists of the following nine surveys:
    Form EIA-63B Photovoltaic Module Shipments Report tracks 
photovoltaic module manufacturing, shipments, technology types, 
revenue, and related information.
    Form EIA-860 Annual Electric Generator Report collects data on 
existing and planned electric generation plants, and associated 
equipment including generators, boilers, cooling systems, and 
environmental control systems. Data are collected from all existing 
units and from planned units scheduled for initial commercial operation 
within ten years of the specified reporting period (depending on the 
type of power plant).
    Form EIA-860M Monthly Update to the Annual Electric Generator 
Report collects data on the status of proposed new generators scheduled 
to begin commercial operation within the future 12-month period; and 
existing generators that have proposed modifications that are scheduled 
for completion within one month. The information is needed to ensure a 
complete and accurate inventory of the nation's generating fleet, for 
such purposes as reliability and environmental analysis.
    Form EIA-861 Annual Electric Power Industry Report collects annual 
information on the retail sale, distribution, transmission, and 
generation of electric energy in the United States and its territories. 
The data include related activities such as energy efficiency and 
demand response programs. In combination with Form EIA-861S short form 
and the monthly Form EIA-861M, this annual survey provides coverage of 
sales to ultimate customers of electric power and related activities.

[[Page 70794]]

    Form EIA-861S Annual Electric Power Industry Report (Short Form) 
collects a limited set of information annually from small companies 
involved in the retail sale of electricity. A complete set of annual 
data are collected from large companies on Form EIA-861. The small 
utilities that currently report on Form EIA-861S are required to 
complete Form EIA-861 once every eight years to provide updated 
information for the statistical estimation of uncollected data.
    Form EIA-861M Monthly Electric Power Industry Report collects 
monthly information from a sample of electric utilities, energy service 
providers, and distribution companies that sell or deliver electric 
power to end users. Data included on this form includes sales and 
revenue for end-use sectors--residential, commercial, industrial, and 
transportation. Additionally, capacity data on net metering and non 
net-metered distributed generators is collected by technology type and 
used for the monthly small scale solar generation estimate. This survey 
is the monthly complement to the annual data collection from the 
universe of respondents that report on Form EIA-861 and Form EIA-861S.
    Form EIA-923 Power Plant Operations Report collects information 
from electric power plants in the United States on electric power 
generation, energy source consumption, end of reporting period fossil 
fuel stocks, as well as the quality and cost of fossil fuel receipts.
    Form EIA-930 Balancing Authority Operations Report collects a 
comprehensive set of the current day's system demand data on an hourly 
basis and the prior day's basic hourly electric system operating data 
on a daily basis. The data provide a basic measure of the current 
status of electric systems in the United States and can be used to 
compare actual system demand with the day-ahead forecast thereby 
providing a measure of the accuracy of the forecasting used to commit 
resources. In addition, the data can be used to address smart grid 
related issues such as integrating wind and solar generation, improving 
the coordination of natural gas and electric short-term operations and 
expanding the use of demand response, storage, and electric vehicles in 
electric systems operations.
    Form EIA-930A Balancing Authority Generator Inventory Report is a 
new survey proposed under this clearance to collect an inventory of 
electric generating units from the 63 Balancing Authorities (BAs) in 
the contiguous United States on an annual basis.
    (4a) Proposed Changes to Information Collection:

Form EIA-860 Annual Electric Generator Report

    EIA proposes to add battery storage questions for proposed 
applications, including planned design attributes, energy storage 
capacity, and use case. For energy storage applications that are 
operationally connected to renewable technologies, EIA proposes to add 
a question that identifies the related plants and generators.
    EIA also proposes to add `bifacial' as a solar photovoltaic 
technology option.

Form EIA-861 Annual Electric Power Industry Report

    EIA proposes to expand questions about battery storage on the net 
metering and non net-metered distributed generators schedules. EIA is 
dropping two questions on net metering `storage' and adding six 
questions pertaining to batteries.
    For non net-metered EIA is dropping one `storage' question and 
adding two questions about batteries. EIA is proposing to add one 
question about Photovoltaic generators.

Form EIA-861M Monthly Electric Power Industry Report

    EIA proposes to expand questions about battery storage on the net 
metering and non net-metered distributed generators schedules. EIA is 
dropping two questions on net metering `storage' and adding six 
questions pertaining to batteries.
    For non net-metered EIA is dropping one `storage' question and 
adding two questions about batteries. EIA is proposing to add one 
question about Photovoltaic generators.

Form EIA-923 Power Plant Operations Report

    EIA proposes to collect 12 months of operational data for annual 
respondents of renewable and energy storage power plants when 
respondents report their annual EIA-923 survey form. EIA also proposes 
to collect the cost, quality, and storage statistics for plants that 
utilize hydrogen as a fuel source for electricity generation.

Form EIA-930 Balancing Authority Operations Report

    EIA proposes several improvements to the EIA-930 designed to 
enhance the submission process and EIA-930 data quality. First, EIA 
proposes that respondents provide a description of their submission 
method on an annual basis in order to ensure compliance with the 
Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA). Second, 
EIA proposes that BAs report all data as hourly integrated integer 
values in order to standardize data format across all respondents. 
Third, EIA proposes that respondents report hourly net generation 
separately for pumped hydro, geothermal, battery storage, integrated 
solar and battery units, integrated wind and battery units, and other 
energy storage technologies to obtain a better understanding of the 
charging/discharging patterns of these rapidly evolving generation 
sources. Fourth, EIA proposes that if a respondent cannot report 
accurate data within the required timeline, then they should submit 
their best estimate to meet the required timeline and correct the data 
with a scheduled resubmission as soon as accurate data are available. 
And, finally, EIA proposes in cases where respondents have been unable 
to remove the adjustments from dynamic transfer arrangements (either 
pseudo-ties or dynamic schedules), per the revised instructions, it is 
the responsibility of the impacted balancing authorities to reach an 
agreement with their counterparts on a consistent reporting of 
generation, demand, and interchange.

Form EIA-930A Annual Balancing Authority Generator Inventory Report

    EIA proposes to improve the ability to reconcile Form EIA-930 data 
with data reported on Form EIA-860 and Form EIA-923 by collecting the 
plants and generators used by each balancing authority.

Pretesting Interviews

    EIA would like to conduct up to 100 pretesting interviews each year 
for testing purposes. These methodologies will test or evaluate new 
terminology, unclear questions in surveys, unclear instructions, or 
questions that may be added to the Electric Power & Renewable 
Electricity Surveys. This will help improve ongoing surveys and reduce 
errors due to respondent confusion.
    (5) Annual Estimated Number of Respondents: 23,737:
    Form EIA-63B has 36 respondents;
    Form EIA-860 has 5,716 respondents;
    Form EIA-860M has 478 respondents;
    Form EIA-861 has 1,735 respondents;
    Form EIA-861S has 1,692 respondents;
    Form EIA-861M has 650 respondents;
    Form EIA-923 has 13,204 respondents;
    Form EIA-930 has 63 respondents;
    Form EIA-930A has 63 respondents;
    Pretesting has 100 respondents;
    (6) Annual Estimated Number of Total Responses: 84,838;

[[Page 70795]]

    (7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: 202,320 hours;
    (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: 
$16,892,482 (202,320 burden hours times $83.38 per hour). EIA estimates 
that there are no additional costs to respondents associated with the 
surveys other than the costs associated with the burden hours since the 
information is maintained during normal course of business.
    Statutory Authority: 15 U.S.C. 772(b) and 42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.

Samson Adeshiyan,
Director, Office of Statistical Methods & Research, U.S. Energy 
Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 2022-25287 Filed 11-18-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P