FERC-917, FERC-918 60-day Fed Reg

Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 25 / Tuesday, February 6, 2018 / Notices
verbal public comments. Members of
the public who have requested to make
a verbal comment and whose comments
have been deemed relevant under the
process described above, will be allotted
no more than three (3) minutes during
this period, and will be invited to speak
in the order in which their requests
were received by the DFO and ADFO.
Brenda S. Bowen,
Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018–02298 Filed 2–5–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3720–58–P

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission
[Docket Nos. IC18–5–000]

Commission Information Collection
Activities; (FERC–917 & FERC–918)
Comment Request; Extension
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, DOE.
ACTION: Notice of information
collections and request for comments.
AGENCY:

In compliance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(Commission or FERC) is soliciting
public comment on the information
collections, FERC–917 (Electric
Transmission Facilities) and FERC–918
(Standards for Business Practices and
Communication Protocols for Public
Utilities, both under OMB Control No.
1902–0233.
DATES: Comments on the collection of
information are due April 9, 2018.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
(identified by Docket No. IC18–5–000)
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/submissionguide.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/docsfiling/docs-filing.asp.

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SUMMARY:

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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–917 (Electric
Transmission Facilities) and FERC–918
(Standards for Business Practices and
Communication Protocols for Public
Utilities.
OMB Control No.: 1902–0233.
Type of Request: Three-year extension
of the FERC–917 and FERC–918
information collection requirements
with no changes to the current reporting
requirements.
Abstract: On February 17, 2007, the
Commission issued Order No. 890 to
address and remedy opportunities for
undue discrimination under the pro
forma Open Access Transmission Tariff
(OATT) adopted in 1996 by Order No.
888.1 Through Order No. 890, the
Commission:
(1) Adopted pro forma OATT
provisions necessary to keep imbalance
charges closely related to incremental
costs;
(2) Increased nondiscriminatory
access to the grid by requiring public
utilities, working through the North
American Electric Reliability
Corporation (NERC), to develop
consistent methodologies for available
transfer capability (ATC) calculation
and to publish those methodologies to
increase transparency.
(3) Required an open, transparent, and
coordinated transmission planning
process thereby increasing the ability of
customers to access new generating
resources and promote efficient
utilization of transmission.
(4) Gave the right to customers to
request from transmission providers,
studies addressing congestion and/or
integration of new resource loads in
areas of the transmission system where
they have encountered transmission
problems due to congestion or where
they believe upgrades and other
investments may be necessary to reduce
congestion and to integrate new
resources.
(5) Required both the transmission
provider’s merchant function and
1 Promoting Wholesale Competition Through
Open Access Non-discriminatory Transmission
Services by Public Utilities; Recovery of Stranded
Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities,
Order No. 888, 61 FR 21540 (May 10, 1996), FERC
Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,036 (1996), order on reh’g, Order
No. 888–A, 62 FR 12274 (Mar. 14, 1997), FERC
Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,048 (1997), order on reh’g, Order
No. 888–B, 81 FERC ¶ 61,248 (1997), order on reh’g,
Order No. 888–C, 82 FERC ¶ 61,046 (1998), aff’d
in relevant part sub nom. Transmission Access
Policy Study Group v. FERC, 225 F.3d 667 (DC Cir.
2000), aff’d sub nom. New York v. FERC, 535 U.S.
1 (2002).

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network customers to include a
statement with each application for
network service or to designate a new
network resource that attests, for each
network resource identified, that the
transmission customer owns or has
committed to purchase the designated
network resource and the designated
network resource comports with the
requirements for designated network
resources. The network customer
includes this attestation in the
customer’s comment section of the
request when it confirms the request on
the Open Access Same-Time
Information System (OASIS).
(6) Required with regard to capacity
reassignment that: (a) All sales or
assignments of capacity be conducted
through or otherwise posted on the
transmission provider’s OASIS on or
before the date the reassigned service
commences; (b) assignees of
transmission capacity execute a service
agreement prior to the date on which
the reassigned service commences; and
(c) transmission providers aggregate and
summarize in an electric quarterly
report the data contained in these
service agreements.
(7) Adopted an operational penalties
annual filing that provides information
regarding the penalty revenue the
transmission provider has received and
distributed.
(8) Required creditworthiness
information to be included in a
transmission provider’s OATT.
Attachment L must specify the
qualitative and quantitative criteria that
the transmission provider uses to
determine the level of secured and
unsecured credit required.
The Commission required a NERC/
NAESB 2 team to draft and review Order
No. 890 reliability standards and
business practices. The team was to
solicit comment from each utility on
developed standards and practices and
utilities were to implement each, after
Commission approval. Public utilities,
working through NERC, were to revise
reliability standards to require the
exchange of data and coordination
among transmission providers and,
working through NAESB, were to
develop complementary business
practices.
Required OASIS postings included:
(1) Explanations for changes in ATC
values;
(2) Capacity benefit margin (CBM)
reevaluations and quarterly postings;
(3) OASIS metrics and accepted/
denied requests;
2 NAESB is the North American Energy Standards
Board.

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 25 / Tuesday, February 6, 2018 / Notices

(4) Planning redispatch offers and
reliability redispatch data;
(5) Curtailment data;
(6) Planning and system impact
studies;
(7) Metrics for system impact studies;
(8) All rules.
Incorporating the Order No. 890
standards into the Commission’s
regulations benefits wholesale electric
customers by streamlining utility
business practices, transactional
processes, and OASIS procedures, and
by adopting a formal ongoing process
for reviewing and upgrading the
Commission’s OASIS standards and
other electric industry business
practices. These practices and

procedures benefit from the
implementation of generic industry
standards.
The Commission’s Order No. 890
regulations can be found in 18 CFR
35.28 (pro forma tariff requirements),
and 37.6 and 37.7 (OASIS
requirements).
Action: The Commission is requesting
a three-year extension of the current
FERC–917 and FERC–918 (Order No.
890) reporting requirements, with no
change to the existing requirements.
Burden Statement: The FERC–917
and FERC–918 information collections
are both approved under the OMB
Control Number 1902–0233. The
estimated annual public reporting

FERC information
collection

burdens for FERC–917 (requirements in
18 CFR 35.28) and FERC–918
(requirements in 18 CFR 37.6 and 37.7)
are reduced from the original estimates
made three years ago. The reductions
are due to the incorporation and
completion of: (1) One-time pro forma
tariff and standards changes by utilities
in existence at that time, which would
not be needed unless the tariff and/or
standards are changed again; and (2)
completed development and comment
solicitation of the required NERC/
NAESB reliability standards and
business practices. The other activities
are annual ongoing requirements. The
estimated annual figures follow.

Annual
Number of
respondents

Average
Number of
reponses per
respondent

Average
burden 3
hours per
response

Total annual
burden hours

(1)

(2)

(3)

(1) × (2) × (3)

18 CFR 35.28 (FERC–917)
Conforming tariff changes ...............................................................................
Revision of Imbalance Charges .......................................................................
ATC revisions ..................................................................................................
Planning (Attachment K) ..................................................................................
Congestion studies ..........................................................................................
Attestation of network resource commitment ..................................................
Capacity reassignment ....................................................................................
Operational Penalty annual filing .....................................................................
Creditworthiness—include criteria in the tariff .................................................

0
0
0
134
134
134
134
134
0

0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0

0
0
0
100
300
1
100
10
0

0
0
0
13,400
40,200
134
13,400
1,340
0

FERC–917—Sub Total Part 35 ................................................................

........................

........................

........................

68,474

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18 CFR 37.6 & 37.7 (FERC–918)
ATC-related standards:
NERC/NAESB Team to develop ..............................................................
Review and comment by utility .................................................................
Implementation by each utility ..................................................................
Mandatory data exchanges .............................................................................
Explanation of change of ATC values .............................................................
Reevaluate CBM and post quarterly ...............................................................
Post OASIS metrics; requests accepted/denied .............................................
Post planning redispatch offers and reliability redispatch data .......................
Post curtailment data .......................................................................................
Post Planning and System Impact Studies .....................................................
Posting of metrics for System Impact Studies ................................................
Post all rules to OASIS ....................................................................................
FERC–918—Recordkeeping Requirements ....................................................

0
0
0
134
134
134
134
134
134
134
134
134
134

0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

0
0
0
80
100
20
90
20
10
5
100
5
40

0
0
0
10,720
13,400
2,680
12,060
2,680
1,340
670
13,400
670
5,360

FERC–918 -Sub Total of Part 37 Reporting Requirements .....................

........................

........................

........................

57,620

FERC–918—Sub Total of Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements .............................................................................................

........................

........................

........................

62,980

Total FERC–917 and FERC–918 (Part 35 + Part 37, Reporting and
Recordkeeping Requirements) .............................................................

........................

........................

........................

131,454

Total combined annual burden for
FERC–917 and FERC–918 is 131,454
hours (126,094 reporting hours + 5,360
recordkeeping hours). This is a

reduction of 28,300 hours from the
combined FERC–917 and FERC–918
burden OMB previously approved.

3 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

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collection burden, refer to 5 Code of Federal
Regulations 1320.3.

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 25 / Tuesday, February 6, 2018 / Notices
Total combined estimated annual cost
for FERC–917 and FERC–918 is
$131,454 4. This includes:
(1) Reporting costs of $10,339,708; 5
(126,094 hours @$82.00 an hour (average cost
of attorney ($143.68 per hour), consulting
($89.00), management Analyst ($63.49), and
administrative support ($40.89)) and
(2) Recordkeeping (labor and storage) costs
of $7,575,486.40; (labor = $175,486.40; 5,360
hours × $32.74/hour 7 (file/record clerk @
$32.74 an hour) and off-site storage costs =
$7,400,000; (8,000 sq. ft. × $925/sq. ft.).

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The reporting burden includes the
total time, effort, or financial resources
expended to generate, maintain, retain,
disclose, or provide the information
including: (1) Reviewing instructions;
(2) developing, acquiring, installing, and
utilizing technology and systems for the
purposes of collecting, validating,
verifying, processing, maintaining,
disclosing, and providing information;
(3) adjusting the existing ways to
comply with any previously applicable
instructions and requirements; (4)
training personnel to respond to the
collections of information; (5) searching
data sources; (6) completing and
reviewing the collections of
information; and (7) transmitting or
otherwise disclosing the information.
The estimate of cost for respondents
is based upon salaries for professional
and clerical support, as well as direct
and indirect overhead costs. Direct costs
include all costs directly attributable to
providing this information, such as
administrative costs and the cost for
information technology. Indirect or
overhead costs are costs incurred by an
organization in support of its mission.
These costs apply to activities which
benefit the whole organization rather
than any one particular function or
activity.
Comments are invited on: (1) Whether
the proposed collections of information
are 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 of the proposed
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 2017 annual average of
$158,754 (for salary plus benefits), the average
hourly cost is $76.50/hour.
6 This wage figure uses the weighted hourly
average wage (plus benefits) for Legal (Occupation
Code: 23–0000), management, scientific, and
consulting (Occupation Code: 11–0000),
management analyst (Occupation Code: 13–1111),
Administrative Support (43–0000) and File Clerk
(Occupation Code: 43–4071) obtained from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Uses the hourly average
wage (plus benefits) for file clerks obtained from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics: $32.74/hour (BLS
Occupation Code: 43–4071).

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collections of information, including the
validity of the methodology and
assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance
the quality, utility and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (4)
ways to minimize the burden of the
collections of information on those who
are to respond, including the use of
appropriate automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology, e.g., permitting
electronic submission of responses.
Dated: January 31, 2018.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018–02323 Filed 2–5–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717–01–P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
[EPA–HQ–OPPT–2017–0320; FRL–9970–37]

Agency Information Collection
Activities; Proposed Renewal of an
Existing Collection (EPA ICR No.
1741.08); Comment Request
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:

In compliance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), this
document announces that EPA is
planning to submit an Information
Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB). The
ICR, entitled: ‘‘Correction of
Misreported Chemical Substances on
the TSCA Inventory’’ and identified by
EPA ICR No. 1741.08 and OMB Control
No. 2070–0145, represents the renewal
of an existing ICR that is scheduled to
expire on June 30, 2018. Before
submitting the ICR to OMB for review
and approval, EPA is soliciting
comments on specific aspects of the
proposed information collection that is
summarized in this document. The ICR
and accompanying material are
available in the docket for public review
and comment.
DATES: Comments must be received on
or before April 9, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments,
identified by docket identification (ID)
number EPA–HQ–OPPT–2017–0320, by
one of the following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments.
Do not submit electronically any
information you consider to be
Confidential Business Information (CBI)
or other information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute.
SUMMARY:

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• Mail: Document Control Office
(7407M), Office of Pollution Prevention
and Toxics (OPPT), Environmental
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania
Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460–0001.
• Hand Delivery: To make special
arrangements for hand delivery or
delivery of boxed information, please
follow the instructions at http://
www.epa.gov/dockets/contacts.html.
Additional instructions on
commenting or visiting the docket,
along with more information about
dockets generally, is available at http://
www.epa.gov/dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For
technical information contact: Ron
Carlson, Information Management
Division (7407M), Office of Pollution
Prevention and Toxics, Environmental
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania
Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460–0001;
telephone number: (202) 564–8631;
email address: [email protected].
For general information contact: The
TSCA-Hotline, ABVI-Goodwill, 422
South Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY
14620; telephone number: (202) 554–
1404; email address: TSCA-Hotline@
epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. What information is EPA particularly
interested in?
Pursuant to PRA section 3506(c)(2)(A)
(44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)), EPA
specifically solicits comments and
information to enable it to:
1. Evaluate whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary
for the proper performance of the
functions of the Agency, including
whether the information will have
practical utility.
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the
Agency’s estimates of the burden of the
proposed collection of information,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used.
3. Enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be
collected.
4. Minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who
are to respond, including through the
use of appropriate automated electronic,
mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology, e.g., permitting
electronic submission of responses. In
particular, EPA is requesting comments
from very small businesses (those that
employ less than 25) on examples of
specific additional efforts that EPA
could make to reduce the paperwork
burden for very small businesses
affected by this collection.

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