[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 178 (Monday, September 14, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56595-56597]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-20166]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC20-25-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (Ferc-717); Comment 
Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Energy.

ACTION: Notice of extension 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 extension to the 
information collection, FERC-717 (Standards for Business Practices and 
Communication Protocols for Public Utilities) which will be submitted 
to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a review of the 
information collection requirements.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due November 13, 
2020.

ADDRESSES: Please submit a copy of your comments to the Commission 
(identified by Docket No. IC20-25-000) by one of the following methods:
     eFiling at Commission's website: http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp.
     U.S. Postal Service Mail: Persons unable to file 
electronically may mail similar pleadings to the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426.
     Effective 7/1/2020, delivery of filings other than by 
eFiling or the U.S.

[[Page 56596]]

Postal Service should be delivered to Health and Human Services, 12225 
Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
    Instructions: All submissions must be formatted and filed in 
accordance with submission guidelines at: http://www.ferc.gov. For user 
assistance contact FERC Online Support by email at 
ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov, 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 
DataClearance@FERC.gov, telephone at (202) 502-8663.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication 
Protocols for Public Utilities.
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0173.
    Type of Request: Three-year approval of the FERC-717 information 
collection requirements with no changes to the current reporting 
requirements.\1\
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    \1\ This collection notice does not address the NOPR for RM05-29 
and RM05-30.
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    Abstract: The Commission directs all public utilities that own, 
control or operate facilities for transmitting energy in interstate 
commerce to provide certain types of information regarding their 
transmission operations on an Open Access Same-time Information System 
(OASIS). The Commission does not believe that open-access 
nondiscriminatory transmission services can be completely realized 
until it removes real-world obstacles that prevent transmission 
customers from competing effectively with the Transmission Provider. 
One of the obstacles is unequal access to transmission information. The 
Commission believes that transmission customers must have simultaneous 
access to the same information available to the Transmission Provider 
if truly nondiscriminatory transmission services are to be a reality.
    The Commission also established Standards of Conduct 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 Owners and Transmission 
Operators.
    Estimate of Annual Burden \2\: The Commission estimates an 
adjustment in the annual public reporting burden for the FERC-717. The 
adjustment is due to Transmission Providers being allowed to file 
responses jointly or individually. The Transmission Provider may 
delegate this responsibility to a Responsible Party such as another 
Transmission Provider, an Independent System Operator, a Regional 
Transmission Group, or a Regional Reliability Council. The number 
comprise two separate entities: Transmission Owners and Transmission 
Operators. The responses submitted are our best estimate of the 
Transmission Operators and remaining individual Transmission Owners. 
The rationale is that some Transmission Owners have elected to turn 
over operational control of their collective transmission systems to 
Transmission Operators, including RTOs/ISOs (as authorized in 18 CFR 
37.5). These Transmission Operators offer OASIS access to the 
collective systems facilitating a single OASIS transmission request 
serving multiple transmission systems. As a result of these efficiency 
gains, the lower respondent count is appropriate.
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    \2\ 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 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.
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    As a result of the efficiency gains, and an overestimate of the 
respondents in our past requests, we are submitting a more accurate 
number of respondents. The estimate below reflects the work associated 
with the current information collection requirements:

         FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities \3\
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                                                                                                   Total annual
    Information collection        Number of     Annual number   Total number    Average burden    burden hours &
         requirements            respondents    of responses    of responses   hours & cost per    total annual
                                               per respondent                    response \4\          cost
                                          (1)             (2)     (1) * (2) =  (4).............  (3) * (4) = (5)
                                                                          (3)
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FERC-717.....................             162               1             162  30 hrs.; $2,490.  4,860 hrs.;
                                                                                                  $403,380.
FERC-717 (compliance with                 165               1             165  10 hrs.; \6\      1,650 hrs.;
 standards, one-time) \5\.                                                      $830.             $136,950.
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    Total....................  ..............  ..............             327  ................  6,510 hrs.;
                                                                                                  $540,330.
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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

[[Page 56597]]

of automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.
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    \3\ This collection includes the one-time burden (over a 3 year 
period of time) for the Final Rule RM05-25,05-26,05-27 [ICR 
Reference No: 202002-1902-006]
    \4\ 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 2020 annual average of 
$172,329, (for salary plus benefits), the average hourly cost is 
$83/hour.
    \5\ FERC-717 corresponds to OMB Control No. 1902-0173 that 
identifies the information collection associated with Standards for 
Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities.
    \6\ The 30-hour estimate was developed in Docket No. RM05-5-013, 
when the Commission prepared its estimate of the scope of work 
involved in transitioning to the NAESB Version 002.1 Business 
Practice Standards. See Order No. 676-E, 129 FERC 61,162 at P 134. 
(FERC-717, 165 * 30 = 4,950 hrs./3 = 1,650 hrs./year)

    Dated: September 8, 2020.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-20166 Filed 9-11-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P


