[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3648-3650]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01038]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC24-2-000]


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

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of revision of information collection and request for 
comments.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is soliciting public 
comment on revisions of the information collection FERC-725R (Mandatory 
Reliability Standards for the Bulk-Power System: BAL Reliability 
Standards), which will be submitted to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB).

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due February 20, 
2024.

[[Page 3649]]


ADDRESSES: Send written comments on FERC-725R to OMB through 
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission Desk Officer. Please identify the OMB Control Number (1902-
0268) 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. IC24-2-000) 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 http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/docs-filing.asp.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jean Sonneman may be reached by email 
at [email protected], and telephone at (202) 502-6362.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: FERC-725R, Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Bulk-
Power System: BAL Reliability Standards.
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0268.
    Type of Request: OMB renewal of the FERC-725R information 
collection requirements, with no changes to the requirements.
    Abstract: The FERC 725R information collection includes four 
reliability standards.
 BAL-001-2, Real Power Balancing Control Performance; 
(effective July 1, 2016)
 BAL-002-3, Disturbance Control Standard--Contingency Reserve 
for Recovery from a Balancing Contingency Event; (effective April 1, 
2019)
 BAL-003-2, Frequency Response and Frequency Bias Setting; 
(effective December 1, 2020)
 BAL-005-1, Balancing Authority Control. (effective January 1, 
2019)
    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, any Reliability Standard 
may be enforced by the ERO subject to Commission oversight, or the 
Commission may 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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    This collection was last revised beginning on December 19, 2019 
when NERC submitted for approval the proposed Reliability Standard BAL-
003-2.
    Types of Respondents: Balancing authorities and a Frequency 
Response Sharing Group (FRSG).
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \5\ The estimated burdens of the FERC 
725R include the Reliability Standards: BAL-001-2, BAL-002-3, BAL-003-
2, and BAL-005-1.
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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. See 5 
CFR 1320 for additional information on the definition of information 
collection burden.
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    The requirements for each Reliability Standard--are as follows:
    BAL-001-2: Real Power Balancing Control Performance. Reliability 
Standard BAL-001-2 is designed to ensure that applicable entities 
balance generation and load by maintaining system frequency within 
narrow bounds around a scheduled value, and it improves reliability by 
adding a frequency component to the measurement of a Balancing 
Authority's Area Control Error (ACE).\6\
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    \6\ Area Control Error is the ``instantaneous difference between 
a Balancing Authority's net actual and scheduled interchange, taking 
into accounts the effects of Frequency Bias, correction for meter 
error, and Automatic Time Error Correction (ATEC), if operating in 
the ATEC mode. ATEC is only applicable to Balancing Authorities in 
the Western Interconnection.'' NERC Glossary.
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    BAL-002-3: Disturbance Control Standard--Contingency Reserve for 
Recovery from a Balancing Contingency Event. This standard ensures that 
a responsible entity, either a balancing authority or reserve sharing 
group, is able to recover from system contingencies by deploying 
adequate reserves to return their Area Control Error to defined values 
and replacing the capacity and energy lost due to generation or 
transmission equipment outages.
    BAL-003-2: Frequency Response and Frequency Bias Setting. This 
standard requires sufficient Frequency Response from the Balancing 
Authority (BA) to maintain Interconnection Frequency within predefined 
bounds by arresting frequency deviations and supporting frequency until 
the frequency is restored.
    BAL-005-1: Balancing Authority Control. This standard establishes 
requirements for acquiring data necessary to calculate Reporting Area 
Control Error (Reporting ACE). The standard also specifies a minimum 
periodicity, accuracy, and availability requirement for acquisition of 
the data and for providing the information to the System Operator. It 
requires balancing authorities to maintain minimum levels of annual 
availability of 99.5% for each balancing authority system for 
calculating Reporting ACE.
    Our estimates are based on the NERC Compliance Registry as of 
September

[[Page 3650]]

22, 2023, which indicates that in the United States there are 98 
registered balancing authorities, 8 registered reserve sharing group 
(RSG) and 1 frequency response sharing group (FRSG).\7\
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    \7\ NERC Compliance Registry (September 22, 2023), available at 
https://www.nerc.com/pa/comp/Registration%20and%20Certification%20DL/NERC_Compliance_Registry_Matrix_Excel.xlsx.
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    Estimates for the average annual burden and cost \8\ follow.
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    \8\ The hourly cost estimates are based on wage data from the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics for May 2022 (at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm) and benefits data for Dec. 2022 (issued March 
2023, at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm). The hourly 
costs (for wages and benefits) for reporting are: Electrical 
Engineer (Occupation code 17-2071), $77.29. The hourly costs (for 
wages and benefits) for evidence retention are: Information and 
Record Clerk (Occupation code 43-4199), $56.14.

                                                                        FERC-725R
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                                                     Number of
                                         Number &      annual     Total number
               Function                  type of     responses      of annual    Average burden hours & cost   Total annual burden hours & total annual
                                       respondents      per         responses          ($) per response                        cost ($)
                                                     respondent
                                               (1)          (2)     (1) x (2) =  (4)........................  (3) x (4) = (5)
                                                                            (3)
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BAL-001-2:
    BA Reporting Requirements........           98            1              98  8 hrs.; $618.32............  784 hrs.; $60,595.36.
    BA Recordkeeping Requirements....           98            1              98  4 hrs.; $224.56............  392 hrs.; $22,006.88.
BAL-002-3:
    BA & RSG Reporting Requirements..          106            1             106  8 hrs.; $618.32............  848 hrs.; $65,541.92.
    BA & RSG Recordkeeping                     106            1             106  4 hrs.; $224.56............  424 hrs.; $23,803.36.
     Requirements.
BAL-003-2:
    BA & FRSG Reporting Requirements.           99           28           2,772  8 hrs.; $618.32............  22,176 hrs.; $1,713,983.04.
    BA & FRSG Recordkeeping                     99            1              99  2 hrs.; $112.28............  198 hrs.; $11,115.72.
     Requirements.
BAL-005-1:
    BA Reporting Requirements........           98            1              98  1 hr.; $77.29..............  98 hrs.; $7,574.42.
    BA Recordkeeping Requirements....           98            1              98  1 hr.; $56.14..............  98 hrs.; $5,501.72.
                                                                                                             -------------------------------------------
        Sub-Total for Reporting        ...........  ...........  ..............  ...........................  23,906 hrs.; $1,847,694.74.
         Requirements.
        Sub-Total for Recordkeeping    ...........  ...........  ..............  ...........................  1,112 hrs.; $62,427.68.
         Requirements.
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            Total for FERC-725R......  ...........  ...........  ..............  ...........................  25,018 hrs.; $1,910,122.42.
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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.

    Dated: January 12, 2024.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2024-01038 Filed 1-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P