FERC-582 Supporting Statement

FERC-582 (OMB Control No.: 1902-0132)

Docket No. IC24-12-000

Supporting Statement

FERC-582 (Electric Fees, Annual Charges, Waivers, and Exemptions)

(Three-year approval for extension requested)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) requests that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend its approval of FERC-582, Electric Fees, Annual Charges, Waivers, and Exemptions under OMB Control Number 1902-0132 for an additional three years. The reporting requirements have not changed for this information collection.

1. CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAKE THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION NECESSARY

The Commission receives an annual appropriation from Congress to defray its operating costs and recovers 100 percent of this appropriation through the collection of annual charges and filing fees. These annual charges and filing fees are assessed to recover costs incurred by the Commission in the performance of its regulatory responsibilities.

The Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952¹ authorizes each federal agency, including the Commission, to establish fees for its services, so long as the fees are fair and based on:

(A) the costs to the Government;

(B) the value of the service or thing to the recipient;

(C) public policy or interest served; and

(D) other relevant facts.

The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986² (OBRA) requires the Commission to assess and collect fees and annual charges in any fiscal year in amounts equal to all the costs incurred by the Commission in that fiscal year.

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

FERC-582 is used by Commission Staff to obtain total megawatt-hours of transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce. All parties involved in the generation and sale of electric energy rely on the transmission system to move their product. Power sellers will be contributing to the Commission’s recovery of electric regulatory program costs in that they will be using the transmission system and, in any cost-based rates that they pay for transmission service that they may take, they will pay, albeit indirectly, their share of the Commission’s costs.

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

The Commission allows eFiling for the FERC-582.

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 Commission periodically reviews filing requirements concurrent with OMB review or as the Commission deems necessary to eliminate duplicative filing and to minimize the filing burden. No similar information exists.

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

FERC-582 is a regulatory filing requirement pertaining to the filing of fees for use by the Commission in its computation of annual charges. The data required imposes the least possible burden for small and large entities while collecting the information required to carry out the responsibilities under OBRA. The Commission provides for waiver requests (18 CFR 381.106 and 382.105(a)) and requests for exemption (18 CFR 381.108) from fees and annual charges, respectively, on the basis of financial hardship.

Respondents file requests for waivers and exemptions of fees and charges based on need. The Commission’s staff uses the filer’s financial information to evaluate a request for a waiver or exemption of the obligation to pay a fee or an annual charge.

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

The Commission requires this information in order to perform its statutory requirements. Without this information, the Commission would be unable to meet its statutory responsibility required in 18 CFR 382.201 (c). This information is required only once a year and is necessary to compute annual charges the Commission will assess later to the applicable regulated entities.

7. EXPLAIN ANY SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO THE INFORMATION COLLECTION

There are no special circumstances related to this information collection.

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

In accordance with OMB requirements, the Commission published a 60-day notice on March 7, 2024 (89 FR 16556). Comments in response to the 60-day notice were due May 6, 2024. No comments were received in response.

The Commission published a 30-day notice on May 13, 2024 (89 FR 41430).

9. EXPLAIN ANY PAYMENT OR GIFTS TO RESPONDENTS

There are no payments or gifts to respondents of this collection.

10. DESCRIBE ANY ASSURANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY PROVIDED TO RESPONDENTS

The Commission does not consider the information collected in FERC-582 filings to be confidential.

Any entity choosing to seek confidential treatment of the information may submit a request for the Commission to treat this information as confidential and non-public, consistent with 18 CFR 388.112.

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.

There are no questions of a sensitive nature associated with the reporting requirements.

12. ESTIMATED BURDEN OF COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

Based on the Commission's recent experience with FERC-582, the estimated burden³ and cost⁴ are:

FERC-582, Electric Fees, Annual Charges, Waivers, and Exemptions
No. of Respondents (1)	Annual No. of Responses Per Respondent (2)	Total No. of Responses (1)x(2)=(3)	Average Burden & Cost per Response (4)	Total Annual Burden Hrs. & Cost (3)*(4)=(5) (rounded)	Cost per Respondent (5)/(1)=(5)
51	1	51	2.39 hrs.; $239	122 hrs.; $12,200	$239

13. ESTIMATE OF THE TOTAL ANNUAL COST BURDEN TO RESPONDENTS

There are no non-labor PRA-related costs. All of the costs in the information collection are associated with burden hours and addressed in Questions #12 and #15.

14. ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The PRA Administration Cost of $8,396.00 in the following table includes the federal costs of preparing supporting statements, notices, and the cost of publishing notices in the Federal Register. The Data Processing and Analysis Cost represents staff analysis, decision-making, and review of any actual filings submitted in response to the information collection. That cost is calculated based on FERC’s Fiscal Year 2024 average cost per Full Time Equivalent (salary plus benefits) of $207,786.00 per year (for 2,080 work hours). The estimated annualized cost to the Federal Government for FERC-582 is:

FERC-582	Number of Employees (FTEs)	Estimated Annual Federal Cost (rounded)
Data Processing and Analysis Cost	0.5	$103,893.00
PRA Administrative Cost		$8,396.00
FERC-582 Total		$112,289.00

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

There are no program changes. The number of annual responses is adjusted from 53 to 51 based on the average number of actual filings received recently. The total number of burden hours is decreased from 127 to 122. The revised estimates are due to normal industry fluctuations (e.g., companies entering or leaving the field) in the average number of annual filings.

A. FERC-598	B. Total Request	C. Previously Approved	Change due to Adjustment in Agency Estimate (Column B – Column C)	Program Change Due to Agency Discretion
Annual Number of Responses	51	53	-2	0
Annual Time Burden (Hr.)	122	127	-5	0
Annual Cost Burden ($)	0	0	0	0

16. TIME SCHEDULE FOR PUBLICATION OF DATA

There is no publication of data associated with FERC-582 collection of information.

17. DISPLAY OF EXPIRATION DATE

The PRA information (including expiration dates and OMB Control Nos.) is posted at https://www.ferc.gov/enforcement-legal/legal/information-collections

18. EXCEPTIONS TO THE CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

There are no exceptions for FERC-582.

1 Act of Aug. 31, 1951, Ch. 376, Title V, § 501, 65 Stat. 290 (codified at 31 U.S.C. 9701).

2 Pub. L. No. 99-509, Title III, § 3401, 100 Stat. 1890 (codified at 42 U.S.C. 7178).

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 collections burden, reference 5 CFR 1320.3.

4 The Commission staff estimates that the average respondent for FERC-582 is similarly situated to the Commission, in terms of salary plus benefits. Based on FERC’s current annual average of $207,786  (for salary plus benefits), the average hourly cost is $100/hour.