[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 24, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4173-4175]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-01318]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC22-30-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725N); Comment 
Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

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 FERC-725N, 
(Mandatory Reliability Standards TPL-007-4, Transmission System Planned 
Performance for Geomagnetic Disturbance Events), 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 September 29, 
2022.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due February 23, 
2023.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments on FERC-725N to OMB through 
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission Desk Officer. Please identify the OMB Control Number (1902-
0264) 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. IC22-30-000) 
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-725N, Mandatory Reliability Standards TPL-007-4, 
Transmission System Planned Performance for Geomagnetic Disturbance 
Events.
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0264.
    Type of Request: Extension of the currently approved collection.
    Abstract: On August 8, 2005, Congress enacted into law the 
Electricity Modernization Act of 2005, which is Title XII, Subtitle A, 
of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005).\1\ EPAct 2005 added a 
new section 215 to the Federal Power Act (FPA), which requires a 
Commission-certified Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) to develop 
mandatory and enforceable Reliability Standards, which are subject to 
Commission review and approval. Once approved, the Reliability 
Standards may be enforced by the ERO subject to Commission oversight, 
or the Commission can independently enforce Reliability Standards.\2\
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    \1\ Energy Policy Act of 2005, Public Law 109-58, Title XII, 
Subtitle A, 119 Stat. 594, 941 (codified at 16 U.S.C. 824o).
    \2\ 16 U.S.C. 824o(e)(3).
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    On February 3, 2006, the Commission issued Order No. 672, 
implementing section 215 of the FPA.\3\ Pursuant to Order No. 672, the 
Commission certified one organization, North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation (NERC), as the ERO.\4\ The Reliability 
Standards developed by the ERO and approved by the Commission apply to 
users, owners and operators of the Bulk-Power System as set forth in 
each Reliability Standard.
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    \3\ Rules Concerning Certification of the Electric Reliability 
Organization; and Procedures for the Establishment, Approval, and 
Enforcement of Electric Reliability Standards, Order No. 672, FERC 
Stats. & Regs. ] 31,204, order on reh'g, Order No. 672-A, FERC 
Stats. & Regs. ] 31,212 (2006).
    \4\ 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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    Pursuant to section 215(d)(2) of the FPA),\5\ the Commission 
approved Reliability Standard TPL-001-5 (Transmission System Planning 
Performance Requirements). The North American Electric Reliability 
Corporation (NERC), the Commission-certified Electric Reliability 
Organization (ERO), submitted the

[[Page 4174]]

proposed Reliability Standard TPL-001-5 for Commission approval to 
address: (1) reliability issues concerning the study of single points 
of failure of protection systems discussed in Order No. 754; \6\ and 
(2) directives from Order No. 786 \7\ regarding planned maintenance 
outages and stability analysis for spare equipment strategy.
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    \5\ 16 U.S.C. 824o(d)(2).
    \6\ In Order No. 754, the Commission determined that there is 
``an issue concerning the study of the non[hyphen]operation of 
non[hyphen]redundant primary protection systems; e.g., the study of 
a single point of failure on protection systems.'' Interpretation of 
Transmission Planning Reliability Standard, Order No. 754, 136 FERC 
] 61,186, at P 19 (2011). The phrases ``non[hyphen]operation of a 
non[hyphen]redundant component of a protection system'' and 
``protection system single points of failure'' are used 
interchangeably in this memorandum.
    \7\ Transmission Planning Reliability Standards, Order No. 786, 
145 FERC ] 61,051 (2013).
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    On February 7, 2020, the North American Electric Reliability 
Corporation filed a petition seeking approval of proposed Reliability 
Standard TPL-007-4 (Transmission System Planned Performance for 
Geomagnetic Disturbance Events). The Reliability Standard TPL-007-4 
requires owners and operators of the Bulk-Power System to conduct 
initial and on-going vulnerability assessments of the potential impact 
of defined geomagnetic disturbance events on Bulk-Power System 
equipment and the Bulk-Power System as a whole. Specifically, the 
Reliability Standard requires entities to develop corrective action 
plans for vulnerabilities identified through supplemental geomagnetic 
disturbance vulnerability assessments and requires entities to seek 
approval from the Electric Reliability Organization of any extensions 
of time for the completion of corrective action plan items.
    Type of Respondents: Generator Owners, Planning Coordinators, 
Distribution Providers and Transmission Owners.
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \8\ Our estimates are based on the NERC 
Compliance Registry Summary of Entities as of September 16, 2022.
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    \8\ 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. See 5 
CFR 1320 for additional information on the definition of information 
collection burden.
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    The individual burden estimates include the time needed to gather 
data, run studies, and analyze study results. These are consistent with 
estimates for similar tasks in other Commission-approved standards. 
Estimates for the additional average annual burden and cost \9\ as 
follows:
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    \9\ Both Electrical Engineers ($77.02/hr.) and Information and 
Record Clerks ($42.35/hr.) support the information collection and a 
composite percent split (60/40) cost per hour will be used. Cost per 
Response = [($77.02 * (0.60)) + ($42.35 * (0.40))] = [$46.21 + 
$16.94] = $63.15/hr. from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics at 
http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm, as of June 2022.

    FERC-725N--Mandatory Reliability Standards TPL-001-5.1 and TPL-007-4, Transmission System Planned Performance for Geomagnetic Disturbance Events
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                                       Annual  number  Annual  number                                              Total annual burden
                                           \1\ of       of  responses   Total number   Average burden hours and    hours  and cost  ($)      Cost per
                                         respondents   per respondent   of responses    cost  ($) per response          (rounded)         respondent ($)
                                                  (1)             (2)     (1) * (2) =  (4).....................  (3) * (4) = (5)........       (5) / (1)
                                                                                  (3)
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                                                       Mandatory Reliability Standard TPL-001-5.1
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TPL-001-5.1 Reliability Standard.....          63(PC)               1              63  143 hrs.; $9,030.45.....  9,020 hrs.; $569,613...       $9,030.45
                                              205(TP)               1             205  44 hrs.; $2,778.60......  9,020 hrs.; $569,613...        2,778.60
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    Total for TPL-001-5.1............  ..............  ..............             268  ........................  18,040 hrs.; $1,139,226  ..............
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                                                        Mandatory Reliability Standard TPL-007-4
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GO \10\..............................           1,107               1           1,107  36 hrs.; $2,273.40......  39,880 hrs.; $2,598,182        2,273.40
PC \11\..............................              61               1              61  264 hrs.; $16,671.60....  16,101 hrs.;                  16,671.60
                                                                                                                  $1,016,778.15.
TP \12\..............................             205               1             205  127 hrs.; $8,020.05.....  25,981 hrs.;                   8,020.05
                                                                                                                  $1,640,700.15.
TO \13\..............................             326               1             326  43 hrs.; $2,715.45......  13,960 hrs.; $881,574..       2,715,.45
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    Total for TPL-007-4..............  ..............  ..............           1,699  ........................  95,922 hrs;              ..............
                                                                                                                  $6,057,474.3.
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    Total for FERC-725N..............  ..............  ..............           1,967  ........................  113,962 hrs.;            ..............
                                                                                                                  $7,196,700.30.
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    For TPL-001-5.1 the number of respondents has been increased 
slightly to reflect the type of entities--planning coordinators 
reflected and average over a three-year timeframe that was reported 
from RD20-3 ongoing burden from the previous approval, and tried to 
account for overlap between entities, but the overall annual manhours 
remain about the same. With this renewal the table more accurately 
represent the entities on a yearly basis.
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    \10\ Generator Owner.
    \11\ Planning Coordinator.
    \12\ Distribution Provider.
    \13\ Transmission Owner.
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    The entities with responsibility for these standards--planning 
coordinators (PC=61) and transmission planners (TP=205) are taken from 
the NERC Compliance Registration information of November 4, 2022 
(updated from the 60-day notice) for unique US entities.
    For TPL-007-4 the number of respondents has been reduced as the 
standard (TPL-007-4) was revised several times and individual 
information collection respondent counts result in same type of entity 
being counted multiple times. The change also corrects in TPL-007-4 the 
distribution provided (DP) was used instead of transmission provider 
(TP) so was a contributing factor to the overall decrease in number of 
respondents. The updated values more truly represent the cumulative 
responsibility of each entity on the work they must do, and the overall 
annual manhours remains about the same. With this renewal the table for 
TPL-007-4 more accurately represent the entities on a yearly basis.
    The entities with responsibility for these standards have been 
updated to (generator owner (GO=1,107), transmission owner (TO=326), 
planning coordinator (PC=61), and transmission planner (TP=205)) are 
taken from the NERC Compliance Registration information of November 4, 
2022, for unique US entities.
    Comments: Comments are invited on: (1) whether the collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the

[[Page 4175]]

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.

    Dated: January 18, 2023.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023-01318 Filed 1-23-23; 8:45 am]
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