82 FR 37580 - Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-717); Comment Request; Revision and Extension

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 154 (August 11, 2017)

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 a revision to the information collection, FERC-717, (Open Access Same-Time Information System and Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocol) which will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a review of the information collection requirements.

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 154 (Friday, August 11, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37580-37581]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-16959]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC17-13-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-717); Comment 
Request; Revision and Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy.

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

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 a revision to the information 
collection, FERC-717, (Open Access Same-Time Information System and 
Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocol) 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 October 10, 
2017.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Docket No. IC17-13-000 
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], telephone at (202) 502-8663, and fax at (202) 
273-0873.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: FERC-717, Open Access Same-Time information System and 
Standards for Business Practices & Communication Protocols.
    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.
    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: \1\ The Commission estimates a reduction 
in the annual public reporting burden for the FERC-717. The numbers 
comport two separate entities: Transmission Owners and Transmission 
Operators. The respondent estimate provide corresponds to 170 
Transmission Operators. The rational is that many Transmission Owners 
have elected to turn over operational control of their collective 
transmission systems to Transmission Operators, including RTOs/IS0s (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. 
For completeness, we ascribe the reduction in Transmission Owners to 
mergers and acquisitions occurring during the time periods examined.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Many Transmission Owners have turned over operational control of 
their collective transmission systems to Transmission Operators, 
including RTOs/ISOs. As a result of the efficiency gains, and an 
overestimate of the respondents in our past request, we are submitting 
a more accurate number of respondents. The changes in business practice 
standards from version to version requires a different number of hours 
each time a respondent submits there response. The estimate below 
reflects the work associated with the most recent version of the 
standards:

[[Page 37581]]



     FERC-717, Open Access Same-Time Information System and Standards for Business Practices & Communication
                                                    Protocols
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  Annual  number                      Average      Total annual
     Information collection          Number of     of  responses   Total number    burden hours    burden hours
          requirements              respondents         per        of responses    and cost per      and total
                                                    respondent                     response \2\     annual cost
                                             (1)             (2)     (1) * (2) =             (4)     (3) * (4) =
                                                                             (3)                             (5)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FERC-717........................             170               1             170              30           5,100
                                                                                          $2,295        $390,150
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \2\ 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 2017 annual average of 
$158,754 (for salary plus benefits), the average hourly cost is 
$76.50/hour.

    Dated: August 7, 2017.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-16959 Filed 8-10-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P