18 Cfr 284.12

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
properly allocated to the service to
which the rate applies.
(ii) Any minimum rate filed under
this section must be based on the average variable costs which are properly
allocated to the service to which the
rate applies.
(5) Rate flexibility. (i) Any rate schedule filed under this section must state
a maximum rate and a minimum rate.
(ii)(A) Except as provided in paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(B) of this section the
pipeline may charge an individual customer any rate that is neither greater
than the maximum rate nor less than
the minimum rate on file for that service.
(B) If a pipeline does not hold a blanket certificate under Subpart G of this
part, it may not charge, in a transaction involving its marketing affiliate, a rate that is lower than the highest rate it charges in any transaction
not involving its marketing affiliate.
(iii) The pipeline may not file a revised or new rate designed to recover
costs not recovered under rates previously in effect.

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[Order 436, 50 FR 42493, Oct. 18, 1985, as
amended at 50 FR 52274, Dec. 23, 1985; 53 FR
22163, June 14, 1988; Order 522, 55 FR 12169,
Apr. 2, 1990; Order 581, 60 FR 53072, Oct. 11,
1995. Redesignated and amended by Order 637,
65 FR 10220, Feb. 25, 2000]

§ 284.11 Environmental compliance.
(a) Any activity involving the construction of, or the abandonment with
removal of, facilities that is authorized
pursuant to § 284.3(c) and subpart B or C
of this part is subject to the terms and
conditions of § 157.206(b) of this chapter.
(b) Advance notification—(1) General
rule. Except as provided in paragraph
(b)(2) of this section, at least 30 days
prior to commencing construction a
company must file notification with
the Commission of any activity described in paragraph (a) of this section.
(2) Exception. The advance notification described in paragraph (b)(1) of
this section is not required if the cost
of the project does not exceed the cost
limit specified in Column 1 of Table I
of § 157.208(d) of this chapter.
(c) Contents of advance notification.
The advance notification described in
paragraph (b)(1) of this section must
include the following information:

§ 284.12
(1) A brief description of the facilities
to be constructed or abandoned with
removal of facilities (including pipeline
size and length, compression horsepower, design capacity, and cost of construction);
(2) Evidence of having complied with
each provision of § 157.206(b) of this
chapter;
(3) Current U.S. Geological Survey
7.5-minute series topographical maps
showing the location of the facilities;
and
(4) A description of the procedures to
be used for erosion control, revegetation and maintenance, and stream and
wetland crossings.
(d) Reporting requirements. On or before May 1 of each year, a company
must file (on electronic media pursuant to § 385.2011 of this chapter, accompanied by 7 paper copies) an annual report that lists for the previous calendar year each activity that is described in paragraph (a) of this section,
and which was completed during the
previous calendar year and exempt
from the advance notification requirement pursuant to paragraph (b)(2) of
this section. For each such activity,
the company must include all of the information described in paragraph (c) of
this section.
[Order 544, 57 FR 46495, Oct. 9, 1992, as amended by Order 581, 60 FR 53072, Oct. 11, 1995;
Order 603–A, 64 FR 54537, Oct. 7, 1999]

§ 284.12 Standards for pipeline business operations and communications.
(a) Incorporation by reference of
NAESB standards. (1) An interstate
pipeline that transports gas under subparts B or G of this part must comply
with the business practices and electronic communications standards as
promulgated by the North American
Energy Standards Board, as incorporated herein by reference in paragraphs (a)(1)(i) thru (vii) of this section.
(i) Additional Standards (Version 3.0,
November 14, 2014, with minor corrections applied through June 29, 2015);
(ii) Nominations Related Standards
(Version 3.0, November 14, 2014, with
minor corrections applied through
June 29, 2015);

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§ 284.12

18 CFR Ch. I (4–1–16 Edition)

(iii) Flowing Gas Related Standards
(Version 3.0, November 14, 2014, with
minor corrections applied through
June 29, 2015);
(iv) Invoicing Related Standards
(Version 3.0, November 14, 2014, with
minor corrections applied through
June 29, 2015);
(v) Quadrant Electronic Delivery
Mechanism Related Standards (Version
3.0, November 14, 2014, with minor corrections applied through June 29, 2015);
(vi) Capacity Release Related Standards (Version 3.0, November 14, 2014,
with minor corrections applied through
June 29, 2015); and
(vii) Internet Electronic Transport
Related Standards (Version 3.0, November 14, 2014, with minor corrections applied through June 29, 2015).
(2) This incorporation by reference
was approved by the Director of the
Federal Register in accordance with 5
U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. Copies
of these standards may be obtained
from the North American Energy
Standards Board, 801 Travis Street,
Suite 1675, Houston, TX 77002, Phone:
(713) 356–0060. NAESB’s Web site is at
http://www.naesb.org/. Copies may be inspected at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Public Reference
and Files Maintenance Branch, 888
First Street, NE., Washington, DC
20426, Phone: (202) 502–8371, http://
www.ferc.gov, or at the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, call
202–741–6030,
or
go
to:
http://
www.archives.gov/federallregister/
codeloflfederallregulations/
ibrllocations.html.
(b) Business practices and electronic
communication requirements. An interstate pipeline that transports gas
under subparts B or G of this part must
comply with the following requirements. The regulations in this paragraph adopt the abbreviations and definitions contained in the North American Energy Standards Board Wholesale Gas Quadrant standards incorporated by reference in paragraph (a)(1)
of this section.
(1) Nominations.
(i) Intra-day nominations.
(A) A pipeline must give scheduling
priority to an intra-day nomination

submitted by a firm shipper over nominated and scheduled volumes for interruptible shippers. When an interruptible shipper’s scheduled volumes are to
be reduced as a result of an intra-day
nomination by a firm shipper, the interruptible shipper must be provided
with advance notice of such reduction
and must be notified whether penalties
will apply on the day its volumes are
reduced.
(B) An intra-day nomination submitted on the day prior to gas flow will
take effect at the start of the gas day
at 9 a.m. CCT.
(ii) Capacity release scheduling. (A)
Pipelines must permit shippers acquiring released capacity to submit a nomination at the earliest available nomination opportunity after the acquisition of capacity. If the pipeline requires the replacement shipper to enter
into a contract, the contract must be
issued within one hour after the pipeline has been notified of the release,
but the requirement for contracting
must not inhibit the ability of the replacement shipper to submit a nomination at the earliest available nomination opportunity.
(B) A pipeline must permit releasing
shippers, as a condition of a capacity
release, to recall released capacity and
renominate such recalled capacity at
each nomination opportunity. Each replacement shipper must be provided
with advance notice of such recall and
must be notified whether penalties will
apply on the day its volumes are reduced.
(iii) Within 60 days after a shipper request, a pipeline must file to make appropriate tariff changes at the Commission to allow multiple shippers associated with a designated agent or
asset manager to be jointly and severally liable under a single firm transportation service agreement, subject to
reasonable terms and conditions.
(2) Flowing gas. (i) Operational balancing agreements. A pipeline must
enter into Operational Balancing
Agreements at all points of interconnection between its system and the
system of another interstate or intrastate pipeline.
(ii) Netting and trading of imbalances.
A pipeline must establish provisions
permitting shippers and their agents to

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Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
offset imbalances accruing on different
contracts held by the shipper with the
pipeline and to trade imbalances with
other shippers where such imbalances
have similar operational impact on the
pipeline’s system.
(iii) Imbalance management. A pipeline
with imbalance penalty provisions in
its tariff must provide, to the extent
operationally practicable, parking and
lending or other services that facilitate
the ability of its shippers to manage
transportation imbalances. A pipeline
also must provide its shippers the opportunity to obtain similar imbalance
management services from other providers and shall provide those shippers
using other providers access to transportation and other pipeline services
without undue discrimination or preference.
(iv) Operational flow orders. A pipeline
must take all reasonable actions to
minimize the issuance and adverse impacts of operational flow orders (OFOs)
or other measures taken to respond to
adverse operational events on its system. A pipeline must set forth in its
tariff clear standards for when such
measures will begin and end and must
provide timely information that will
enable shippers to minimize the adverse impacts of these measures.
(v) Penalties. A pipeline may include
in its tariff transportation penalties
only to the extent necessary to prevent
the impairment of reliable service.
Pipelines may not retain net penalty
revenues, but must credit them to shippers in a manner to be prescribed in
the pipeline’s tariff. A pipeline with
penalty provisions in its tariff must
provide to shippers, on a timely basis,
as much information as possible about
the imbalance and overrun status of
each shipper and the imbalance of the
pipeline’s system.
(3) Communication protocols. (i)(A) All
electronic information provided and
electronic transactions conducted by a
pipeline must be provided on the public
Internet. A pipeline must provide, upon
request, private network connections
using internet tools, internet directory
services, and internet communication
protocols and must provide these networks with non-discriminatory access
to all electronic information. A pipeline may charge a reasonable fee to re-

§ 284.12
cover the costs of providing such an
interconnection.
(B) A pipeline must implement this
requirement no later than June 1, 2000.
(ii) A pipeline must comply with the
following requirements for documents
constituting public information posted
on the pipeline web site:
(A) The documents must be accessible to the public over the public
Internet using commercially available
web browsers, without imposition of a
password or other access requirement;
(B) Users must be able to search an
entire document online for selected
words, and must be able to copy selected portions of the documents; and
(C) Documents on the web site should
be directly downloadable without the
need for users to first view the documents on the web site.
(iii) If a pipeline uses a numeric or
other designation to represent information, an electronic cross-reference
table between the numeric or other
designation and the information represented must be available to users, at
a cost not to exceed reasonable shipping and handling.
(iv) A pipeline must provide the same
content for all information regardless
of the electronic format in which it is
provided.
(v) A pipeline must maintain, for a
period of three years, all information
displayed and transactions conducted
electronically under this section and be
able to recover and regenerate all such
electronic information and documents.
The pipeline must make this archived
information available in electronic
form for a reasonable fee.
(vi) A pipeline must post notices of
operational flow orders, critical periods, and other critical notices on its
Internet web site and must notify affected parties of such notices in either
of the following ways to be chosen by
the affected party: Internet E-Mail or
direct notification to the party’s Internet URL address.
(4) Communication and information
sharing among pipelines and public utilities. (i) A pipeline is authorized to
share non-public, operational information with a public utility, as defined in
§ 38.2(a) of this chapter or another pipeline covered by this section, for the

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§ 284.13

18 CFR Ch. I (4–1–16 Edition)

purpose of promoting reliable service
or operational planning.
(ii) Except as permitted in paragraph
(b)(4)(i) of this section, a pipeline and
its employees, contractors, consultants, and agents are prohibited from
disclosing, or using anyone as a conduit for the disclosure of, non-public,
operational information received from
a public utility pursuant to § 38.2 of
this chapter to a third party or to its
marketing function employees as that
term is defined in § 358.3(d) of this chapter.
[Order 587, 61 FR 39068, July 26, 1996]
EDITORIAL NOTE: For FEDERAL REGISTER citations affecting § 284.12, see the List of CFR
Sections Affected, which appears in the
Finding Aids section of the printed volume
and at www.fdsys.gov.

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§ 284.13 Reporting requirements
interstate pipelines.

for

An interstate pipeline that provides
transportation service under subparts
B or G of this part must comply with
the following reporting requirements.
(a) Cross references. The pipeline must
comply with the requirements in Part
358, Part 250, and Part 260 of this chapter, where applicable.
(b) Reports on firm and interruptible
services. An interstate pipeline must
post the following information on its
Internet web site, and provide the information in downloadable file formats, in conformity with § 284.12 of this
part, and must maintain access to that
information for a period not less than
90 days from the date of posting.
(1) For pipeline firm service and for
release transactions under § 284.8, the
pipeline must post with respect to each
contract, or revision of a contract for
service, the following information no
later than the first nomination under a
transaction:
(i) The full legal name of the shipper,
and identification number, of the shipper receiving service under the contract, and the full legal name, and
identification number, of the releasing
shipper if a capacity release is involved
or an indication that the pipeline is the
seller of transportation capacity;
(ii) The contract number for the shipper receiving service under the contract, and, in addition, for released

transactions, the contract number of
the releasing shipper’s contract;
(iii) The rate charged under each contract;
(iv) The maximum rate, and for capacity release transactions not subject
to a maximum rate, the maximum rate
that would be applicable to a comparable sale of pipeline services;
(v) The duration of the contract;
(vi) The receipt and delivery points
and the zones or segments covered by
the contract, including the location
name and code adopted by the pipeline
in conformance with paragraph (f) of
this section for each point, zone or segment;
(vii) The contract quantity or the
volumetric quantity under a volumetric release;
(viii) Special terms and conditions
applicable to a capacity release transaction, including all aspects in which
the contract deviates from the pipeline’s tariff, and special details pertaining to a pipeline transportation
contract, including whether the contract is a negotiated rate contract,
conditions applicable to a discounted
transportation contract, and all aspects in which the contract deviates
from the pipeline’s tariff.
(ix) Whether there is an affiliate relationship between the pipeline and the
shipper or between the releasing and
replacement shipper.
(x) Whether a capacity release is a
release to an asset manager as defined
in § 284.8(h)(3) and the asset manager’s
obligation to deliver gas to, or purchase gas from, the releasing shipper.
(xi) Whether a capacity release is a
release to a marketer participating in
a state-regulated retail access program
as defined in § 284.8(h)(4).
(2) For pipeline interruptible service,
the pipeline must post on a daily basis
no later than the first nomination for
service under an interruptible agreement, the following information:
(i) The full legal name, and identification number, of the shipper receiving service;
(ii) The rate charged;
(iii) The maximum rate;
(iv) The receipt and delivery points
and the zones or segments covered by
the contract, including the location
name and code adopted by the pipeline

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