[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 10, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1247-1249]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-00258]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

U.S. Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Extension With Changes

AGENCY: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Department 
of Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: EIA has submitted an information collection request to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for extension under the

[[Page 1248]]

provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The information 
collection requests a three-year extension of its Form OE-417 Electric 
Emergency Incident and Disturbance Report, OMB Control Number 1901-
0288. The form collects information on electric emergency incidents and 
disturbances for DOE's use in fulfilling its overall national security 
and National Response Framework and other energy management 
responsibilities.

DATES: Comments regarding this information collection must be received 
on or before February 9, 2018. If you anticipate that you will be 
submitting comments, but find it difficult to do so within the period 
of time allowed by this notice, please advise the DOE Desk Officer at 
OMB of your intention to make a submission as soon as possible. The 
Desk Officer may be telephoned at 202-395-1254.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to the DOE Desk Officer: 
James Tyree, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of 
Management and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 9249, 735 
17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20503, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#086269656d7b2666267c717a6d6d4867656a266d6778266f677e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="bdd7dcd0d8ce93d393c9c4cfd8d8fdd2d0df93d8d2cd93dad2cb">[email protected]</span></a>.
    And to Matthew Tarduogno, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 
Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585, Fax: 202-586-2623, Email: 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#327d77060305725a431c565d571c555d44"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d9969cede8ee99b1a8f7bdb6bcf7beb6af">[email protected]</span></a>.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument and instructions should 
be directed to Matthew Tarduogno, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 
Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585, phone: 202-586-2892, or 
email it to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e08d819494888597ce9481928495878f8e8fa08891ce848f85ce878f96"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a8c5c9dcdcc0cddf86dcc9daccddcfc7c6c7e8c0d986ccc7cd86cfc7de">[email protected]</span></a>. Form OE-417 and its 
instructions are available on the internet at https://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/oe417.aspx.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request 
contains:
    (1) OMB No. 1901-0288;
    (2) Information Collection Request Title: Electric Emergency 
Incident and Disturbance Report.
    (3) Type of Request: Three-year extension with changes;
    (4) Purpose: The U.S Department of Energy uses Form OE-417, 
Emergency Incident and Disturbance Report, to monitor emergencies and 
incidents that affect U.S. electric power systems, including events 
such as the power outages caused by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Nate and 
Maria during the 2017 Hurricane Season. The information gathered allows 
DOE to conduct post-incident reviews examining significant 
interruptions, or potential interruptions, of electric power or threats 
to the national electric system. Form OE-417 enables DOE to meet the 
Department's national security responsibilities and requirements as the 
lead agency for Emergency Support Function (ESF) #12--Energy under the 
National Response Framework and the Sector-Specific Agency for energy 
under Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 21 and PPD 41. The 
information may also be shared with other non-regulatory federal 
agencies assisting in emergency response and recovery operations, or 
investigating the causes of an incident or disturbance to the national 
electric system. Public summaries are posted to the Form OE-417 website 
on a monthly basis to keep the public informed.
    (4a) Changes to Information Collection:
    1. The main change to Form OE-417 is to incorporate questions that 
are or will be included in the North American Electric Reliability 
Corporation (NERC) EOP-004 Reliability Standard Event Reporting Form. 
With the changes to Form OE-417 if a respondent elects to have the form 
submitted to NERC, the entity does not need to file an EOP-004 Event 
Reporting Form. Form OE-417 will now collect the same information as 
EOP-004. By incorporating the same information, and aligning language 
across these two forms, entities will only be required to submit Form 
OE-417. This will reduce the reporting burden for the electric power 
industry. Additional changes to Form OE-417 clarify and improve the 
flow of questions.
    2. The instructions include a note that ``NERC has determined that, 
for U.S. NERC reporting entities, the revised Form OE-417 meets NERC's 
submittal requirements'' (i.e. Form EOP-004).
    3. Reintroduced Email submissions; however, online submissions will 
remain the preferred method. Rewording of descriptions describing the 
criteria and timing for when a report should be filed.
    4. Named the three categories of submission: Emergency Alert; 
Normal Report; System Report to provide better clarity and easy 
reference under ``Criteria for Filing''.
    5. Aligned alert criteria 5 and 6 with EOP-004 Reliability Standard 
terminology
    6. Under ``Criteria for Filing'' section: 12 new data elements are 
added to collect the additional information that NERC collects or will 
collect on under the EOP-004 Reliability Standard. The additional 
questions are in a new category of submission called ``System Report'' 
and include:
    <bullet> Damage or destruction of a Facility within its Reliability 
Coordinator Area, Balancing Authority Area or Transmission Operator 
Area that results in action(s) to avoid a Bulk Electric System 
Emergency;
    <bullet> Damage or destruction of its Facility that results from 
actual or suspected intentional human action;
    <bullet> Physical threat to its Facility excluding weather or 
natural disaster related threats, which has the potential to degrade 
the normal operation of the Facility. Or suspicious device or activity 
at its Facility;
    <bullet> Physical threat to its Bulk Electric System control 
center, excluding weather or natural disaster related threats, which 
has the potential to degrade the normal operation of the control 
center. OR suspicious device or activity at its Bulk Electric System 
control center;
    <bullet> Bulk Electric System Emergency resulting in voltage 
deviation on a Facility; a voltage deviation of equal to or greater 
than 10% of nominal voltage sustained for greater than or equal to 15 
continuous minutes;
    <bullet> Uncontrolled loss of 200 Megawatts or more of firm system 
loads for 15 minutes or more from a single incident for entities with 
previous year's peak demand less than or equal to 3,000 Megawatts;
    <bullet> Total generation loss, within one minute of: greater than 
or equal to 2,000 Megawatts in the Eastern or Western Interconnection 
or greater than or equal to 1,400 Megawatts in the ERCOT 
Interconnection;
    <bullet> Complete loss of off-site power (LOOP) affecting a nuclear 
generating station per the Nuclear Plant Interface Requirements;
    <bullet> Unexpected Transmission loss within its area, contrary to 
design, of three or more Bulk Electric System Facilities caused by a 
common disturbance (excluding successful automatic reclosing);
    <bullet> Unplanned evacuation from its Bulk Electric System control 
center facility for 30 continuous minutes or more;
    <bullet> Complete loss of Interpersonal Communication and 
Alternative Interpersonal Communication capability affecting its 
staffed Bulk Electric System control center for 30 continuous minutes 
or more;
    <bullet> Complete loss of monitoring or control capability at its 
staffed Bulk Electric System control center for 30 continuous minutes 
or more.
    7. Line numbers 1 through 20 were relabeled as letters A through T 
to prevent confusion between line numbers and alert criteria.

[[Page 1249]]

    8. An Alert status category ``system report,'' was added which 
shall be filed by the later of 24 hours after the recognition of the 
incident OR by the end of the next business day. This change aligns 
with the EOP-004 Reliability Standard. 4:00 p.m. local time will be 
definition for the end of the business day.
    9. The Electric Emergency Incident and Disturbance Report section, 
lines J, K, L were reorganized into ``Cause, Impact, and Action Taken'' 
for clarity and ease of use and additional items were added to align 
with NERC's EOP-004 Reliability Standard.
    10. The burden per response for completing Form OE-417 is reduced 
from 2.16 hours to 1.8 hours based on findings from the results from 
cognitive research conducted by the U.S. Energy Information 
Administration.
    11. The form and instructions were updated to specify maintaining 
the continuity of the ``Bulk Electric System'' versus ``the electric 
power system'' in the ``Criteria for Filing'' section Line 8. This 
change is based on a comment provided during the 60-day comment period.
    12. The words ``lines 13-17'' were replaced with ``lines M-Q'' 
under the ``Response Due'' section, to match updated line labels on the 
form. This change is based on a comment provided during the 60-day 
comment period.
    13. A section was added to allow respondents to select whether the 
information provided in the Form is submitted to the North American 
Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and/or the Electricity 
Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC).
    14. EIA amended its data protection policy for information reported 
on Schedule 2 of Form OE-417. Currently this information is protected 
from public release to the extent that it satisfies the criteria for 
exemption under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, 
the DOE regulations, 10 CFR 1004.11 implementing FOIA, and the Trade 
Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. 1905. EIA will use the Critical Energy 
Infrastructure Information (CEII) regulations as set forth by the 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to implement the 
requirements of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, 
Pub. L. 114-94, pursuant to section 215A(d) of the Federal Power Act, 
as amended, to protect information reported on Schedule 2 in addition 
to continuing to apply FOIA exemptions and using the Trade Secrets Act. 
This change strengthens DOE's ability to protect information reported 
on Schedule 2 of Form OE-417 and provides additional authority for DOE 
to withhold company identifiable information from public release.
    15. The new data protection provision for Form OE-417 is as 
follows:
    <bullet> The information reported on Schedule 1 will be considered 
``public information'' and may be publicly released in company or 
individually identifiable form.
    <bullet> Information reported on Schedule 2 of Form OE-417 will not 
be disclosed to the public to the extent that it satisfies the criteria 
for exemption under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 
552, the DOE regulations, 10 CFR 1004.11, implementing the FOIA, the 
Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. 1905 and Critical Energy Infrastructure 
Information regulations as defined by the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission pursuant to section 215A(d) of the Federal Power Act, as 
amended.
    In accordance with the Federal Energy Administration Act, DOE 
provides company-specific protected data to other Federal agencies when 
requested for official use. The information reported on this form may 
also be made available, upon request, to another component of DOE; to 
any Committee of Congress, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 
or other Federal agencies authorized by law to receive such 
information. A court of competent jurisdiction may obtain this 
information in response to an order. The information may be used for 
any non-statistical purposes such as administrative, regulatory, law 
enforcement, or adjudicatory purposes.
    (5) Annual Estimated Number of Respondents: 2,395.
    (6) Annual Estimated Number of Total Responses: 300.
    (7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: 5,315.
    (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: 
$391,503.

    Statutory Authority:  Section 13(b) of the Federal Energy 
Administration Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-275, codified as 15 U.S.C. 
772(b) and the DOE Organization Act of 1977, Pub. L. 95-91, codified 
at 42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq. In addition, 15 U.S.C. 772(b); 764(a); 
764(b); and 790a, of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 
(FEA Act), Pub. L. 93-275, as well as the Public Utility Regulatory 
Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2601, Pub. L. 93-275.)

    Issued in Washington, DC, on January 3, 2018.
L. Devon Streit,
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Infrastructure Security and Energy 
Restoration, Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability, U. S. 
Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2018-00258 Filed 1-9-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P


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