[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 197 (Friday, October 13, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70967-70969]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-22551]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC23-14-000]


Commission Information Collection Activity (FERC-717); 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 (Commission or 
FERC) is soliciting public comment on the revision of the currently 
approved information collection, FERC-717 (Standards for Business 
Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities).

DATES: Comments on the collections of information are due December 12, 
2023.

ADDRESSES: You may submit your comments (identified by Docket No. IC23-
14-000) on FERC-717 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, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852.
    Instructions: All 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at 
[email protected], or by telephone at (202) 502-8663.
    Title: FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication 
Protocols for Public Utilities.

[[Page 70968]]

    OMB Control No.: 1902-0173.
    Type of Request: Three-year approval of the FERC-717 information 
collection requirements with deletion of one-time burdens previously 
approved by the Office of Management and Budget.
    Abstract: Section 205 of the Federal Power Act (FPA) (16 U.S.C. 
824d) requires that all rates and charges for the transmission or sale 
of electric energy and all rules and regulations affecting or 
pertaining to such rates and charges be just and reasonable. Section 
206 of the FPA (16 U.S.C. 824e) authorizes FERC to initiate a 
proceeding to address any ``rate, charge or classification'' related to 
the transmission or sale of electricity that the agency determines is 
``unjust, unreasonable, unduly discriminatory or preferential.''
    Commission regulations at 18 CFR 35.28 and 18 CFR part 37 are in 
accordance with FPA Sections 205 and 206. The regulation at 18 CFR 
35.28 applies to any public utility that owns, operates, or controls 
interstate transmission facilities and any non-public utility seeking 
voluntary compliance with jurisdictional transmission tariff 
reciprocity conditions. These entities must offer transmission service 
on an open and non-discriminatory basis pursuant to a pro forma Open 
Access Transmission Tariff (OATT). Part 37 applies to any public 
utility that owns, operates, or controls facilities used for the 
transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce and to 
transactions performed under the pro forma OATT established under 18 
CFR 35.28. As stated at 18 CFR 37.2, the purpose of 18 CFR part 37 is 
to ensure that potential customers of open access transmission service 
receive access to information that will enable them to obtain 
transmission service on a non-discriminatory basis from any 
Transmission Provider.\1\ The regulations in 18 CFR part 37 provide 
standards of conduct and require the Transmission Provider (or its 
agent) to create and operate an Open Access Same-Time Information 
System (OASIS) that gives all users of the open access transmission 
system access to the same information.
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    \1\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.3(a), a ``Transmission Provider'' is 
any public utility that owns, operates, or controls facilities used 
for the transmission of electricity in interstate commerce.
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    The collection of information in accordance with FERC-717 is 
necessary for the implementation of OASIS. The regulation at 18 CFR 
37.6 lists the information that Transportation Providers or Responsible 
Parties \2\ must calculate and post on OASIS. Paragraph (a) of section 
37.6 provides that the information posted on OASIS must be in such 
detail and the OASIS must have such capabilities as to allow 
Transmission Customers \3\ to:
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    \2\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.3(c), a ``Responsible Party'' is the 
Transmission Provider or an agent to whom the Transmission Provider 
has delegated the responsibility of meeting any of the requirements 
of 18 CFR part 37.
    \3\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.3(b), a ``Transmission Customer'' is 
any eligible customer (or its designated agent) that can or does 
execute a transmission service agreement or can or does receive 
transmission service.
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    (1) Make requests for transmission services offered by Transmission 
Providers, Resellers \4\ and other providers of ancillary services, 
request the designation of a network resource, and request the 
termination of the designation of a network resource;
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    \4\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.3(d), a ``Reseller'' is any 
Transmission Customer who offers to sell transmission capacity it 
has purchased.
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    (2) View and download in standard formats, using standard 
protocols,\5\ information regarding the transmission system necessary 
to enable prudent business decision making;
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    \5\ The standard protocols are included in the Standards for 
Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities 
adopted by the Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ) of the North 
American Energy Standards Board (NAESB). The Commission adopted the 
protocols by reference in 18 CFR 38.1(b)(2)(iv) in a final rule at 
86 FR 29491 (June 2, 2021). The protocols remain effective at 
present.
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    (3) Post, view, upload and download information regarding available 
products and desired services;
    (4) Clearly identify the degree to which transmission service 
requests or schedules were denied or interrupted;
    (5) Obtain access, in electronic format, to information to support 
available transmission capability calculations and historical 
transmission service requests and schedules for various audit purposes; 
and
    (6) Make file transfers and automated computer-to-computer file 
transfers and queries as defined by the Standards and Communications 
Protocols Document.

Calculation Methods, Availability of Information, and Requests

    The regulation at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(2) provides that information used 
to calculate any posting of ATC and TTC \6\ must be dated and time-
stamped and all calculations shall be performed according to 
consistently applied methodologies referenced in the Transmission 
Provider's transmission tariff and shall be based on Commission-
approved Reliability Standards, business practice and electronic 
communication standards, and related implementation documents, as well 
as current industry practices, standards and criteria. Such 
calculations shall be conducted in a manner that is transparent, 
consistent with anticipated system conditions and outages for the 
relevant timeframe, and not unduly discriminatory or preferential.
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    \6\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(1): (1) ATC is the transfer 
capability remaining in the physical transmission network for 
further commercial activity over and above already committed uses, 
or such definition as contained in Commission-approved Reliability 
Standards. (2) TTC is the amount of electric power that can be moved 
or transferred reliably from one area to another area of the 
interconnected transmission systems by way of all transmission lines 
(or paths) between those areas under specified system conditions, or 
such definition as contained in Commission-approved Reliability 
Standards.
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    On request, the Responsible Party must make all data used to 
calculate ATC, TTC, Capacity Benefit Margin,\7\ and Transmission 
Reliability Margin \8\ for any constrained posted paths publicly 
available in electronic form within one week of the posting. The 
information is required to be provided only in the electronic format in 
which it was created, along with any necessary decoding instructions, 
at a cost limited to the cost of reproducing the material. This 
information is to be retained for six months after the applicable 
posting period.
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    \7\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(1)(vii), ``Capacity Benefit 
Margin'' means the amount of TTC preserved by the Transmission 
Provider for load-serving entities, whose loads are located on that 
Transmission Provider's system, to enable access by the load-serving 
entities to generation from interconnected systems to meet 
generation reliability requirements, or such definition as contained 
in Commission-approved Reliability Standards.
    \8\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(1)(viii), ``Transmission 
Reliability Margin'' is the amount of TTC necessary to provide 
reasonable assurance that the interconnected transmission network 
will be secure, or such definition as contained in Commission-
approved Reliability Standards.
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    System planning studies, facilities studies, and specific network 
impact studies performed for customers or the Transmission Provider's 
own network resources are to be made publicly available in electronic 
form on request and a list of such studies must be posted on the OASIS. 
A study is required to be provided only in the electronic format in 
which it was created, along with any necessary decoding instructions, 
at a cost limited to the cost of reproducing the material. These 
studies are to be retained for five years.

Posting Requirements

    Paragraph (b)(3) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires Transmission Providers to 
calculate and post the ATC, TTC, CBM, and TRM in megawatts for each 
Posted Path.\9\ Paragraph (c) of 18 CFR 37.6

[[Page 70969]]

requires Transmission Providers to post prices and a summary of the 
terms and conditions associated with all transmission products offered 
to Transmission Customers. Paragraph (d) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires 
Transmission Providers to post any ancillary service required to be 
provided or offered under the pro forma OATT.
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    \9\ As defined at 18 CFR 37.6(b)(1)(i), ``Posted Path'' means 
any control area to control area interconnection; any path for which 
service is denied, curtailed, or interrupted for more than 24 hours 
in the past 12 months; and any path for which a customer requests to 
have ATC or TTC posted. For this last category, the posting must 
continue for 180 days and thereafter until 180 days have elapsed 
from the most recent request for service over the requested path. 
For purposes of this definition, an hour includes any part of an 
hour during which service was denied, curtailed, or interrupted.
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Standards of Conduct

    The Commission established Standards of Conduct at 18 CFR 37.4 
requiring that personnel engaged in transmission system operations 
function independently from personnel engaged in marketing functions. 
The Standards of Conduct were designed to prevent employees of a public 
utility (or any of its affiliates) engaged in marketing functions from 
preferential access to OASIS-related information or from engaging in 
unduly discriminatory business practices. Companies were required to 
separate their transmission operations/reliability functions from their 
marketing/merchant functions and prevent system operators from 
providing merchant employees and employees of affiliates with 
transmission-related information not available to all customers at the 
same time through public posting on the OASIS.
    Type of Respondents: Transmission Providers.
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \10\ The previous information collection 
request (ICR Reference No. 202002-1902-006) in the year 2020 was 
approved by OMB with a one-time burden that was expected to be 
completed in Year One. As averaged over a three-year period, the annual 
responses were estimated as 165 annually, 10 hours per response, and 
total hours of 1,650 hours. These burdens are not included in this 
information collection request because all respondents have complied 
with that one-time burden. The removal of those burdens constitutes a 
program change.
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    \10\ 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 1320.3.
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    The estimated annual number of responses for the ongoing 
information collection activity are adjusted in this information 
collection request from 162 to 216, an increase of 54 responses. Based 
on a review of the information collection since our last submission, we 
have determined this change in number of responses is due to changes in 
the regulated industry.
    The current burden estimates are shown in the following table.

                    Burden Estimates for FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities
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                                                      Annual number of
 Information collection requirement     Number of      responses per     Total number   Average burden hours & cost per    Total annual burden hours &
                                       respondents       respondent      of responses            response \11\                  total annual cost
                                                (1)                (2)     (1) * (2) =  (4)............................  (3) * (4) = (5)
                                                                                   (3)
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Open Access Same-Time Information               216                  1             216  30 hrs.; $2,880................  6,480 hrs.; $622,080.
 (OASIS).
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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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    \11\ The Commission staff thinks that the average respondent for 
this collection is similarly situated to the Commission, in terms of 
salary plus benefits. Based upon FERC's FY 2022 annual average of 
$199,867 (for salary plus benefits), and the average hourly cost is 
$96/hour.

    Dated: October 5, 2023.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023-22551 Filed 10-12-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P