156 FERC ¶ 61,046

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

18 CFR Part 35

Docket No. RM15-23-000

Collection of Connected Entity Data from Regional Transmission Organizations 

and Independent System Operators

(July 21, 2016)

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Withdrawal of Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Termination of 

Rulemaking Proceeding.

SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is 

withdrawing its proposal to amend its regulations to require each regional transmission 

organization and independent system operator to electronically deliver to the 

Commission, on an ongoing basis, data required from its market participants that would: 

(i) identify the market participants by means of a common alpha-numeric identifier; 

(ii) list their “Connected Entities;” and (iii) describe in brief the nature of the relationship 

of each Connected Entity. The Commission is also concurrently issuing a Notice of 

Proposed Rulemaking in Docket No. RM16-17-000, which supersedes this proposal. 

DATES: The notice of proposed rulemaking published on September 29, 2015, at 

80 FR 58,382, is withdrawn as of [insert date of publication in the FEDERAL 

REGISTER]. 
Docket No. RM15-23-000 - 2 -

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jamie Marcos

Office of Enforcement

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

888 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20426

(202) 502-6628

Jamie.marcos@ferc.gov

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
156 FERC ¶ 61,046

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Collection of Connected Entity Data from Regional

Transmission Organizations and Independent 

 System Operators

Docket No. RM15-23-000

WITHDRAWAL OF NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING AND

TERMINATION OF RULEMAKING PROCEEDING

(Issued July 21, 2016)

1. On September 17, 2015, the Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 

(NOPR) in this proceeding.1 For the reasons set forth below, we are exercising our 

discretion to withdraw the NOPR and terminate this rulemaking proceeding. The 

NOPR is superseded by the new proposal reflected in the concurrently issued NOPR on 

Data Collection for Analytics and Surveillance and Market-Based Rate Purposes 

(Data Collection NOPR).2

2. In the NOPR, the Commission proposed to amend its regulations to require each 

regional transmission organization and independent system operator to electronically 

deliver to the Commission, on an ongoing basis, data required from its market 

participants that would: (i) identify the market participants by means of a common 

alpha-numeric identifier; (ii) list their “Connected Entities,” which included entities that 

 

1 Collection of Connected Entity Data from Regional Transmission Organizations 

and Independent System Operators, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 32,711 (2015).

2 Data Collection for Analytics and Surveillance and Market-Based Rate 

Purposes, 156 FERC ¶ 61,045 (2016).
Docket No. RM15-23-000 - 2 -

have certain ownership, employment, debt, or contractual relationships with the 

market participants; and (iii) describe in brief the nature of the relationship of each 

Connected Entity. The Commission proposed to collect such information to assist 

with its screening and investigative efforts to detect market manipulation. The 

Commission has since developed a new proposal, as reflected in the concurrently issued 

Data Collection NOPR, which is substantially narrower than the proposal in the instant 

NOPR, and streamlines and consolidates the collection of market-based rate information 

with new information proposed to be collected for analytics and surveillance purposes. 

Among other things, in the Data Collection NOPR, the Commission proposes to require 

market-based rate sellers and certain market participants in Commission-jurisdictional 

organized electric markets to submit certain, defined information about their financial and 

legal connections to other entities. While the Data Collection NOPR proposes to collect 

similar information to that which was proposed in the NOPR in this proceeding, this new 

proposal presents substantial revisions, thereby superseding the proposal in the instant 

NOPR. 

3. The Commission therefore withdraws the NOPR and terminates this rulemaking 

proceeding.

By direction of the Commission.

( S E A L )

Kimberly D. Bose,

Secretary.