[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 4, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14458-14459]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-06798]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC18-10-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-921); 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 currently approved 
information collection, FERC-921 (Ongoing Electronic Delivery of Data 
from Regional Transmission Organization and Independent System 
Operators).

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due June 4, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments (identified by Docket No. IC18-10-
000) by either of the following methods:
     eFiling at Commission's website: http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp.
     Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, Secretary of the Commission, 888 First Street NE, 
Washington, DC 20426.
    Instructions: All submissions must be formatted and filed in 
accordance with submission guidelines at: http://www.ferc.gov/help/submission-guide.asp. For user assistance, contact FERC Online Support 
by email at [email protected], or by phone at: (866) 208-3676 
(toll-free), or (202) 502-8659 for TTY.
    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: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at 
[email protected], telephone at (202) 502-8663, and fax at (202) 
273-0873.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: FERC-921, Ongoing Electronic Delivery of Data from Regional 
Transmission Organization and Independent System Operators.
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0257.
    Type of Request: Three-year extension of the FERC-921 information 
collection requirements with no changes to the current reporting 
requirements.
    Abstract: The collection of data in the FERC-921 is an effort by 
the Commission to detect potential anti-competitive or manipulative 
behavior or ineffective market rules by requiring Regional Transmission 
Organizations (RTO) and Independent System Operators (ISO) to 
electronically submit, on a continuous basis, data relating to physical 
and virtual offers and bids, market awards, resource outputs, marginal 
cost estimates, shift factors, financial transmission rights, internal 
bilateral contracts, uplift, and interchange pricing. Individual 
datasets that the Commission is requesting may be produced or retained 
by the market monitoring units (MMUs). The Commission directed each RTO 
and ISO either to: (1) Request such data from its MMU, so that the RTO 
or ISO can deliver such data to the Commission; or (2) request its MMU 
to deliver such data directly to the Commission. All data for this 
collection has (and is expected to continue to) come from each RTO 
orISO and not the MMUs. Therefore, any associated burden is counted as 
burden on RTO andISO.
    Each RTO or ISO may make changes to their individual markets with 
Commission approval. Each RTO or ISO may also change the data being 
sent to the Commission to ensure compliance with Order No. 760. Such 
changes typically require respondents to alter the ongoing delivery of 
data under FERC-921. For this reason, the burden estimate has been 
updated to reflect the incremental burden associated with such changes. 
The burden associated with a changes varies considerably based on the 
significance of the specific change, therefore, the estimate reflects 
the incremental burden for an average change. Based on historical 
patterns of change, staff estimates there to be about one and a half 
changes per RTO or ISO per year.
    Type of Respondent: Regional transmission organizations and 
independent system operators.
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \1\ The Commission estimates the total 
annual burden and cost \2\ for this information collection as follows.
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    \1\ ``Burden'' is 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 Title 5 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.
    \2\ Costs (for wages and benefits) are based on wage figures 
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for May 2016 (at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm) and benefits information (for 
December 2017, issued March 20, 2018, at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm). The ongoing electronic delivery of data 
requires a computer support specialist (code 15-1150), at an hourly 
cost (wages plus benefits) of $47.30 (rounded).
    Changes to the delivered data require a database administrator 
(code 15-1141), legal review (code 23-0000), and executive review 
(code 11-1000). According to BLS, the hourly cost (wages plus 
benefits) is $65.07, $143.68, and $96.68, respectively. We estimate 
the fraction of time for each skill set for each response to be \3/
4\, \1/8\, and \1/8\ respectively, so the weighted hourly cost 
(wages plus benefits) is $78.85 (rounded). We estimate the total 
time required per change to be 320 hours. Because a response 
encompasses one year where there are, on average, 1.5 changes, the 
total time per response is 480 hours (1.5 x 320 hours).
    \3\ Each RTO/ISO electronically submits data daily. To match 
with past filings, we are considering the collection of daily 
responses to be a single response.
    \4\ Each RTO/ISO is estimated to make one and a half changes 
yearly. To be consistent with the formulation that the submissions 
over the course of a year constitute a single response, for the 
purpose of this calculation, we are assuming that each response 
requires one and a half changes over the course of the year and 
estimating burden accordingly.

[[Page 14459]]



                 FERC-921--Ongoing Electronic Delivery of Data From Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators
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                                                      Annual
                                                    number of      Total                                                                        Annual
              Category                 Number of    responses    number of     Average burden  and cost      Total annual burden hours and     cost per
                                      respondents      per       responses           per response                        cost                 respondent
                                                    respondent                                                                                   ($)
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                                              (1)          (2)  (1) * (2) =  (4).........................  (3) * (4) = (5).................    (5) / (1)
                                                                        (3)
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Ongoing electronic delivery of data.            6            1        \3\ 6  52 hrs.;....................  312 hrs.;.......................       $2,460
                                                                             $2,460......................  $14,758.........................
Changes to the delivered data made              6            1        \4\ 6  480 hrs.:...................  2,880 hrs.:.....................       37,848
 by the RTO/ISO.                                                             $37,848.....................  $227,088........................
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    Total...........................            6            2           12  532 hrs.....................  3,192 hrs.......................       40,308
                                                                             $40,308.....................  $241,846........................
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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: March 29, 2018.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-06798 Filed 4-3-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P


