[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 184 (Monday, September 23, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58295-58296]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-23004]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. RD13-3-000]
Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725A); Comment
Request
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.
ACTION: Comment request.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3507(a)(1)(D), the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (Commission or FERC) is submitting the information
collection FERC-725A, Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Bulk
Power System, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review
of the information collection requirements. Any interested person may
file comments directly with OMB and should address a copy of those
comments to the Commission as explained below. The Commission solicited
public comments on the information collection analysis associated with
its approval of Reliability Standard EOP-004-2, in an order published
in the Federal Register (78 FR 420064, 7/15/2013).\1\ FERC received no
comments in response to that solicitation and is making this notation
in its submission to OMB.
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\1\ North American Electric Reliability Corp., 143 FERC ]61,252
(2013).
DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due by October 23,
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2013.
ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by collection FERC-725A,
should be sent via email to the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs: [email protected]. Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission Desk Officer. The Desk Officer may also be reached via
telephone at 202-395-4718.
A copy of the comments should also be sent to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, identified by the Docket No. RD13-3-000, by
either of the following methods:
eFiling at Commission's Web site: 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 CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at
[email protected], by telephone at (202) 502-8663, and by fax at
(202) 273-0873.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: FERC-725A, Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Bulk
Power System.
OMB Control No.: 1902-0244.
Type of Request: Three-year approval of the FERC-725A information
collection requirements.
Abstract: The change in this information collection relates to
FERC-approved Reliability Standard EOP-004-2--Event Reporting. Rather
than creating entirely new obligations to report a system disturbance,
the revised Reliability Standard, EOP-004-2, primarily clarifies the
thresholds that can trigger a reporting obligation, and reduces the
reporting burden for certain individual respondents due to the use of a
simplified form in Attachment 2. However, the revised Reliability
Standard would increase the reporting burden for some individual
entities, because it would apply for the first time to transmission
owners and generator owners. We do not anticipate a large increase in
the number of respondents because the existing Reliability Standard
applies to transmission operators and generator operators, which
includes the majority of the entities registered as transmission owners
and generator owners.
Our estimate below regarding the number of respondents is based on
the NERC compliance registry as of March 2013. According to the
registry, there are 7 transmission owners that are not also
transmission operators, 128 generator owners that are not also
generator operators, and 101 distribution providers that are not also
registered as another functional entity covered by the current event
reporting standards. Thus, we estimate that a total of 236 entities may
be subject to the event reporting requirements of EOP-004-2 for the
first time.\2\
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\2\ Although distribution providers are included as responsible
entities under the revised Reliability Standard, their reporting
obligations will be de minimis, as explained in the Guidelines and
Technical Basis attached to the revised standard. See NERC Petition,
Ex. B at 13, Docket No. RD13-3-000 (Dec. 31, 2012). For purposes of
this analysis, however, we included distribution providers as part
of the assumed number of reports per year.
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The number of annual reports required could vary widely based on
the individual entity and the extent of its facilities. The estimate
below is based on an assumption that, on average, 25 percent of the
entities covered by EOP-004-2 will have one reportable event per year.
As demonstrated below, the primary increase in cost associated with the
revised standard is expected in Year 1, when newly covered entities
must develop an operating plan for reporting. In Years 2 and 3, an
overall reduction in reporting and recordkeeping burden is expected,
due to the simplified reporting form.
Type of Respondents: Reliability Coordinator, Balancing Authority,
Transmission Owner, Transmission Operator, Generator Owner, Generator
Operator, and Distribution Provider.\3\
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\3\ These entity types are contained in the North American
Electric Reliability Corporation's compliance registry. See http://
www.nerc.com/page.php?cid=3[bond]25 for more information.
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Estimate of Annual Burden:\4\
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\4\ 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, reference 5 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.
[[Page 58296]]
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Number of Average burden Estimated
Type of respondent Reporting/ Number of responses per Total number hours per total annual Estimated total
recordkeeping req't respondents respondent of responses response burden annual cost
(A) (B) (A)x(B)=(C) (D) (C)x(D) (see below)
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New Entities (GO, TO, DP)........ Developing Operating 236 1 236 8 1,888 $113,280.00
Plan (Yr 1 Only).
Reporting Event (Yr 59 1 59 0.17 10.03 601.80
1, 2, and 3).
Entities Subject to Existing Conforming Operating 1164 1 1164 2 2,328 139,680.00
Reporting Requirements. Plan to New
Thresholds (Yr 1
Only).
Reporting Event 291 1 291 -0.33 -96.03 (5,761.80)
(using new form)
(Yrs 1, 2, and 3).
Total for Year 1 \5\......... .................... .............. .............. .............. .............. 4,130 247,800
Total for each of Years 2 & 3 .................... .............. .............. .............. .............. -86 \6\ (5,160)
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The estimated breakdown of annual cost is as follows:
Year 1
[cir] New Entities, Development of Operating Plan: 236 entities * 1
response/entity * (8 hours/response * $60/hour \7\) = $113,280.
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\5\ Year 1 costs include implementation costs for entities that
must comply with the standard for the first time, plus the cost for
entities that are currently subject to NERC event reporting
requirements to review and make changes to their existing plans. The
Year 1 total also includes the savings from the reduction in
reporting time due to the new Event Reporting Form.
\6\ In the Order approving the EOP Reliability Standard we
incorrectly used ``-81'' in this cell.
\7\ For the burden categories above, the estimated hourly loaded
cost (salary plus benefits) for an engineer was assumed to be $60/
hour, based on salaries as reported by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) (http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm). Loaded
costs are BLS rates divided by 0.703 and rounded to the nearest
dollar (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm).
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[cir] New Entities, Event Reporting: 59 entities * 1 response/
entity * (.17 hours/response * $60/hour) = $601.80.
[cir] Current Responsible Entities, Conforming Operating Plan: 1164
entities * 1 response/entity * (2 hours/response * $60/hour) =
$139,680.
[cir] Current Responsible Entities, Event Reporting Using New Event
Reporting Form: 291 entities * 1 response/entity * [(.17 hours/
response--.5 hours/response) \8\ * $60/hour] = ($5,761.80).
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\8\ It is estimated that the average time to complete the
required event report under Reliability Standard EOP-004-1 is 30
minutes, versus an estimated 10 minutes under Reliability Standard
EOP-004-2.
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Year 2 and ongoing
[cir] New Entities, Using ``Event Reporting Form'': 59 entities * 1
response/entity * (.17 hours/response * $60/hour) = $601.80.
[cir] Old Entities, Using ``Event Reporting Form'': 291 entities *
1 response/entity * [(.17 hours/response--.5 hours/response) * $60/
hour] = ($5,761.80).
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: September 16, 2013.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2013-23004 Filed 9-20-13; 8:45 am]
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