576-supporting statement9-11-2018

FERC-576 (OMB Control No. 1902-0004)

Supporting Statement for

FERC-576, Report of Service Interruptions

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) requests that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review and approve FERC-576 (Report of Service Interruptions), for a three year period. FERC-576 (OMB Control No. 1902-0004) is an existing Commission data collection, as stated by 18 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 260.9.

1. CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAKE THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION NECESSARY

A natural gas company must obtain Commission authorization to engage in the transportation, sale, or exchange of natural gas in interstate commerce under the Natural Gas Act (NGA)¹. The NGA also empowers the Commission to oversee continuity of service in the transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce. The information collected under FERC-576 notifies the Commission of actual or potential problems, which create the potential for serious delivery problems on the pipeline’s own system or the pipeline grid. These problems include:

• damage to jurisdictional natural gas facilities due to natural disaster (e.g., hurricane, earthquake, or other natural disaster) or terrorist activity; and

• serious interruptions to service.

In cases of emergency and pending the determination of any application on file with the Commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity pursuant to section 7 of the Natural Gas Act, application may be made for a temporary certificate authorizing the construction and operation of extensions of existing facilities, interconnections of pipeline systems, or sales of natural gas that may be required to assure maintenance of adequate service, or to service particular customers².

2. HOW, BY WHOM AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE IS THE INFORMATION TO BE USED AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT COLLECTING THE INFORMATION

Filings (in accordance with the provisions of section 4(d) of the NGA)³ must contain information necessary to advise the Commission when a change in service has occurred. 18 CFR 157.17 authorizes the Commission to issue an application for a temporary certificate authorizing the construction and operation of extensions of existing facilities, interconnections of pipeline systems, or sales of natural gas that may be required to assure maintenance of adequate service, or to service particular customers.

Respondents to the FERC-576 may submit the initial reports by e-mail to [email protected]. 18 CFR 260.9(b) requires that a report of service interruption or damage to natural gas facilities state:

1. The location of the service interruption or damage to natural gas pipeline or storage facilities

2. The nature of any damage to pipeline or storage facilities

3. Specific identification of the facilities damaged

4. The time the service interruption or damage to the facilities occurred

5. The customers affected by the service interruption or damage to the facilities

6. Emergency actions taken to maintain service, Company contact and telephone number.

The Commission may contact other pipelines to determine available supply, and if necessary, authorize transportation or construction of facilities to alleviate the problem in response to these reports.

A report required by 18 CFR 260.9(a)(1)(i) of damage to natural gas facilities resulting in loss of pipeline throughput or storage deliverability shall be reported to the Director of the Commission’s Office of Energy Projects, Division of Pipeline Certificates at the earliest feasible time and also when pipeline throughput or storage deliverability has been restored.

In any instance in which an incident or damage report involving jurisdictional natural gas facilities is required by the Department of Transportation (DOT) reporting requirements under the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968⁴, a copy of such report shall be submitted to the Director of the Commission’s Office of Energy Projects, Division of Pipeline Certificates, within 30 days of the reportable incident⁵.

If the Commission failed to collect these data, it would lose the ability to monitor and evaluate transactions, operations, and reliability of interstate pipelines and perform its regulatory functions.

2. DESCRIBE ANY CONSIDERATION OF THE USE OF IMPROVED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE BURDEN AND THE TECHNICAL OR LEGAL OBSTACLES TO REDUCING BURDEN

The FERC-576 filings must be emailed to [email protected] or faxed to (202)-208-2853. These filings may not be e-filed in eLibrary.

For current information on the FERC-576 submission guidelines, go to http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling/filing.pdf.

4. DESCRIBE EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY DUPLICATION AND SHOW SPECIFICALLY WHY ANY SIMILAR INFORMATION ALREADY AVAILABLE CANNOT BE USED OR MODIFIED FOR USE FOR THE PURPOSE(S) DESCRIBED IN INSTRUCTION NO. 2.

The reports (required by 18 CFR 260.9(a)(1)(i)) describe a particular incident, location, and time. No similar information can be used or modified.

5. METHODS USED TO MINIMIZE BURDEN IN COLLECTION OF INFORMATION INVOLVING SMALL ENTITIES

The required information in a FERC-576 filing applies for all entities regardless of the size of the entity.

6. CONSEQUENCE TO FEDERAL PROGRAM IF COLLECTION WERE CONDUCTED LESS FREQUENTLY

If the Commission failed to collect these data, it would lose the ability to monitor and evaluate transactions, operations, and reliability of interstate pipelines and perform its regulatory functions. Moreover, the Commission cannot collect the FERC-576 data less frequently due to statutory requirements to monitor emergency situations. The information collection cannot be discontinued due to statutory requirements. The Commission must review reports concerning any disruptions in service of the transportation of natural gas in wholesale markets. The timing and frequency of data filed with the Commission under FERC-576 is determined by the respondent and when an interruption of service occurs. The consequences of not collecting this information are that the Commission’s ability to fulfill its statutory mandate under the NGA and its own rules of practice and procedure would be hindered.

7. EXPLAIN ANY SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO THE INFORMATION

There are no special circumstances related to this collection.

8. DESCRIBE EFFORTS TO CONSULT OUTSIDE THE AGENCY: SUMMARIZE PUBLIC COMMENTS AND THE AGENCY’S RESPONSE TO THESE COMMENTS

In accordance with OMB requirements, the Commission published a 60-day notice⁶ in the Federal Register providing the public an opportunity to comment. In the public notice, the Commission noted that it would be requesting a three-year extension of the public reporting burden with no change to the existing requirements. No comments were received.

In addition, the Commission is publishing a 30-day notice in the Federal Register.

9. EXPLAIN ANY PAYMENT OR GIFTS TO RESPONDENTS

There are no payments or gifts to FERC-576 respondents.

10. DESCRIBE ANY ASSURANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY PROVIDED TO RESPONDENTS

The Commission does consider the information collected in FERC-576 reports to be confidential. Due to the sensitive nature of the information, the reports are not submitted through the normal eFiling process and are not made available through eLibrary. The Commission considers requests for information submitted in accordance with 18 CFR 260.9 under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on a case by case basis of analysis.

11. PROVIDE ADDITIONAL JUSTIFICATION FOR ANY QUESTIONS OF A SENSITIVE NATURE, SUCH AS SEXUAL BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES, RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, AND OTHER MATTERS THAT ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED PRIVATE

This collection does not include any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. ESTIMATED BURDEN OF COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

The reporting requirements are not changing. The estimates for responses, burden, and cost⁷ follow.

FERC-576, Report of Service Interruptions
	Number of Respondents (1)	Annual Number of Responses per Respondent (2)	Total Number of Responses (1)*(2)=(3)	Average Burden Hrs. & Cost ($) Per Response (4)	Total Annual Burden Hrs. & Total Annual Cost (3)*(4)=(5)	Cost per Respondent8 ($) (5)÷(1)
Submittal of Original Email/Fax	21	3	63	1 hr.; $133.80	63 hrs.; $8,429.40	$$401.40
Submittal of Damage Report	21	3	63	0.25 hrs.; $33.45	15.75 hrs.; $2,107.35	$100.35
Submittal of DOT Incident Report	21	1	21	0.25 hrs.; $33.45	5.25 hrs.; $702.45	$33.45
TOTAL					84 hrs.; $11,239.20

13. ESTIMATE OF TOTAL ANNUAL COST OF BURDEN TO RESPONDENTS

There are no non-labor start-up costs. All costs are related to burden hours and are addressed in Questions #12 and #15.

14. ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The Commission bases its estimate for the cost of the “Analysis and Processing of filings” cost to the Federal Government on salaries and benefits for professional and clerical support. This estimated cost represents staff analysis, decision making, and review of any actual filings.

The Commission also incurs the costs associated with obtaining OMB clearance for this collection under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). The PRA Administrative Cost is a Federal Cost associated with preparing, issuing, and submitting materials necessary to comply with the PRA for rulemakings, orders, or any other vehicle used to create, modify, extend, or discontinue an information collection. This average annual cost includes requests for extensions, all associated rulemakings and orders, other changes to the collection, and associated publications in the Federal Register.

	Number of FERC Hrs. (average of $79/hour for wages plus benefits)	Estimated Annual Federal Cost (rounded)
Analysis and Processing of Filings	73.5 hrs.	$5,807
PRA9 Administration Cost		$4,931
FERC Total		$10,738

15. REASONS FOR CHANGES IN BURDEN INCLUDING THE NEED FOR ANY INCREASE

The FERC-576 has experienced no changes to regulations or reporting requirements. However, over the past several years, there has been an increase in the number of regulated companies due to the robust growth in the natural gas transportation industry.  The greater number of business entities and resultant increase in amount of pipeline infrastructure should have led to a predictable increase in reports of service interruptions and damages affecting throughput. 

These filings are received in response to certain occurrences, not a predetermined schedule or frequency. As such, a decrease in respondents (from 22 to 21) and increase in the number of responses received (from 110 to 147) was observed. These estimates for the total burden are based on an up-to-date count of actual filings received.

The following table shows the total burden of the collection of information. The format, labels, and definitions of the table follow the ROCIS submission system’s “Information Collection Request Summary of Burden” for the metadata.

FERC-576	Total Request	Previously Approved	Change due to Adjustment in Estimate	Program Change Due to Agency Discretion
Annual Number of Responses	147	110	37	0
Annual Time Burden (Hr.)	84	61	23	0
Annual Cost Burden ($)	0	0	0	0

16. TIME SCHEDULE FOR PUBLICATION OF DATA

The data are used for regulatory purposes only and are not published.

17. DISPLAY OF EXPIRATION DATE

The expiration date is displayed in a table posted on ferc.gov at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/info-collections.asp.

18. EXCEPTIONS TO THE CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

There are no exceptions.

1 Public Law 75 688; 15 USC 717-717(w)

2 18 CFR 157.17

3 15 USC 717f(c)

4 49 USC 60105(c)(B)

5 18 CFR 260.9(d)

6 83 FR 34841, July 23, 2018

7 Costs (for wages and benefits) are based on wage figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for May 2016 (at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm) and benefits information (for December 2017, issued March 20, 2018, at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm). Commission staff estimates that 20% of the work is performed by a manager, and 80% is performed by legal staff members. The hourly costs for wages plus benefits are: $94.28 for management services (code 11-0000), and $143.68 for legal services (code 23-0000). Therefore, the weighted hourly cost (for wages plus benefits) is $133.80 [or (0.80 * $143.68) + (0.20 * $94.28)].

8 In the 60-day Notice published July 23, 2018, the figures in this column for “Submittal of Original Email/Fax” and “Submittal of Damage Report” inadvertently showed “cost per response” rather than “cost per respondent.” Those figures are corrected in the 30-day notice and this supporting statement to show “cost per respondent.”

9 Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

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