30722 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 110 / Thursday, June 7, 2001 / Notices

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Program Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2756b.

Dated: May 31, 2001.

Greg Woods,

Chief Operating Officer, Office of Student

Financial Assistance.

[FR Doc. 01–14384 Filed 6–6–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4000–01–U

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission

[Docket No. IC01–720–000; FERC–720]

Proposed Information Collection and

Request for Comments

June 1, 2001.

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission.

ACTION: Request for Office of

Management and Budget emergency

processing of proposed information

collection and request for comments.

SUMMARY: The Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission (Commission) is

providing notice of request to the Office

of Management and Budget (OMB) for

emergency processing of a proposed

collection of information in connection

with the New York electricity markets,

and is soliciting public comment on that

information collection.

DATES: Comments are requested on or

before June 8, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Send comments: (1)

Michael Miller, Officer of the Chief

Information Officer, CI–1, Federal

Energy Regulatory Commission, 888

First, NE, Washington, DC 20426. Mr.

Miller may be reached by telephone at

(202) 208–1415 and by e-mail at

mike.miller@ferc.fed.us; and (2) Amy

Farrell, FERC Desk Officer, Office of

Information and Regulatory Affairs,

Office of Management and Budget,

Room 10202 NEOB, 725 17th Street NW,

Washington, DC 20503. Ms. Farrell may

be reached by telephone at (202) 395–

7318 or by fax at (202) 395–7285.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Connie Caldwell, Office of the General

Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission, (202) 208–2027.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

Federal Power Act directs the

Commission to ensure just and

reasonable rates for transmission and

wholesale sales of electricity in

interstate commerce. See 16 U.S.C.

824e(a). To enable the Commission to

fulfill this duty the Federal Power Act

also authorizes the Commission to

conduct investigations of, and collect

information from, public utilities. See

16 U.S.C. 825, 825c, 825f, and 825j.

Commission staff has reason to

believe that the New York electricity

market may experience prices at very

high levels during the summer season.

Several recent surveys and reports cite

New York as an area likely to

experience high electricity prices as we

move into the summer. For example, a

study published in May, 2001, by

Xenergy entitled ‘‘Wholesale Market

Structure,’’ found that ‘‘fundamental

supply/demand factors * * * are the

greatest contributor to high prices and

other market problems’’ in New York.

The North American Electric Reliability

Council’s ‘‘Summer Assessment for

2001’’ cites New York as an area that

should be closely watched over the next

few months. See http://www.nerc.com.

In March, 2001, the NYISO issued a

report titled, ‘‘Power Alert: New York’s

Energy Crossroads,’’ which reported the

possibility of an impending electricity

crisis in New York due to a growing

imbalance in the supply and demand of

electricity. This report may be found at

http://www.nyiso.com. The Wall Street

Journal has reported that ‘‘New York

City already displays some of the early

warning signs observed in California in

the spring of 2000. The city’s grid

operator estimates that this summer

demand could outstrip supply by as

much as 9%, raising the specter of

blackouts.’’ See Wall Street Journal,

April 26, 2001.

If demand does in fact exceed supply

this summer, forced and scheduled

outages by electric generators in New

York, particularly in the New York City

and Long Island areas, may contribute to

or be the sole cause of the high prices

that are bound to accompany a supply/

demand imbalance. In addition to

causing higher prices, the outages limit

the availability of electric power, and

may lead to the necessity for blackouts

to preserve transmission and

distribution systems. If increased

summer demand is not matched by

generation supply in New York, these

problems are likely to occur.

Commission staff believes that it is in

the public interest to monitor generation

outages in New York to assess their

causes, particularly during the summer

cooling season when electricity demand

is at its highest. Commission staff

proposes to do so by requesting that

selected generators in the state of New

York electronically provide to the

Commission information on total or

partial generation unit outages within

24 hours of their occurrence, whether

scheduled, forced or otherwise.

Specifically, Commission staff will be

requesting information only from

generators that own, operate, or control

in New York an individual generation

unit with a generating capacity of 30

MW or more or generation units

aggregating capacity of 50 MW or more.

For the purposes of this data

collection, Commission staff considers

an outage partial if it reduces the

available output of a generation unit

below its nameplate rated capacity or

below the New York Independent

System Operator’s (NYISO’s)

Dependable Maximum Net Capability

(DMNC) for the unit. The Commission

staff will treat information provided by

the generators as non-public pursuant to

the provisions of 18 CFR 1b.9.

Commission staff will be requesting

that the information be provided

through a template that will be mailed

to the generators and that can be

accessed from the FERC website at

http://www.ferc.gov/. The Commission

staff is requesting that the generators

send the outage information to an

electronic address,

ny.outages@ferc.fed.us. To further assist

monitoring efforts, Commission staff

will be requesting that generators

provide the information on the template

for all outages that are current as of the

date they receive the letter containing

the template. Although Commission

staff will be requesting information from

municipalities concerning their

generation units in New York,

Commission staff is requesting such

data on a voluntary basis and is not

questioning the jurisdictional status of

those entities.

Because Commission staff is

requesting information from a large

number of generators (over 100)

concerning future outages, the data

collection is subject to the Paperwork

Reduction Act, which requires OMB to

Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 110 / Thursday, June 7, 2001 / Notices 30723

review certain federal reporting

requirements. 44 U.S.C. 3507. In light of

the potential for critical events to occur

in the New York electricity market

caused by generation outages,

particularly during the summer cooling

season, Commission staff will be

requesting emergency processing of this

proposed information collection. If the

Commission followed the regular

provisions of the Paperwork Reduction

Act, Commission staff would be unable

to collect this information until most of

the summer cooling season was over.

Commission staff estimates that

between 100 and 110 generators could

be subject to this reporting request, and

that during any given week, only 15–25

of those entities would likely have an

outage to report. However, many entities

own several generation units, so the

number of entities actually submitting

reports would vary. Based on historical

average outage rates, compiled by NERC

for 1995 through 1999 (see

http:www.nerc.com/∼gads), of U.S. and

Canadian generation facilities and the

number of plants to be monitored, staff

estimates that about 2,900 reports would

be filed during the 180 days the

reporting request would be in place.

Because Commission staff has created

a pre-existing template, generators need

not take any time to develop a reporting

format. Commission’s staff estimates

that it would take each generator

approximately one hour to fill out an

initial report for a generation unit, but,

as most of the unit information will

remain constant (such as its name, fuel

type and megawatt rating), it should

take 20 minutes or less to fill out and

send each subsequent report.

The outage reports are to be submitted

electronically within 24 hours of when

a total or partial unit outage begins and

ends. As stated above, based on

information compiled by the NERC, staff

estimates that 2,900 reports may be filed

under this information collection

requirement. Assuming that number of

reports are filed during the 180 days for

which this information collection is

requested, the total number of hours it

would take to comply with the reporting

requirement would be approximately

110 hours for initial submission and 930

hours for subsequent submissions,

assuming 20 minutes per submission).

Commission staff estimates a cost of $50

per hour for complying with the

reporting requirement, based on salaries

for professional and clerical staff, as

well as direct and indirect overhead

costs. Therefore, the total estimated cost

of compliance would be $52,000.

Commission staff will submit this

reporting requirement to OMB for

approval. OMB’s regulation describe the

process that federal agencies must

follow in order to obtain OMB approval

of reporting requirements. See 5 CFR

Part 1320. The standards for emergency

processing of information collections

appear at 5 CFR 1320.13. If OMB

approves a reporting requirement, it will

assign an information collection control

number to that requirement. If a request

for information subject to OMB review

does not display a valid control number,

or if the agency has not provided a

justification as to why the control

number cannot be displayed, then the

recipient cannot be penalized for failing

to respond.

OMB requires federal agencies

seeking approval of reporting

requirements to allow the public an

opportunity to comment on the

proposed reporting requirement. 5 CFR

1320.5(a)(1)(iv). Therefore, comments

are being solicited on:

(1) Whether the collection of the

information is necessary for the proper

performance of the Commission’s

functions, including whether the

information will have practical utility;

(2) The accuracy of Commission

staff’s estimate of the burden of the

collection of this information, including

the validity of the methodology and

assumptions used;

(3) The quality, utility, and clarity of

the information to be collected; and

(4) How to minimize the burden of the

collection of this information on

respondents, including the use of

appropriate automated electronic,

mechanical, or other forms of

information technology.

David P. Boergers,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 01–14351 Filed 6–6–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission

[Docket No. RP01–432–000]

Columbia Gas Transmission

Corporation; Notice of Proposed

Changes in FERC Gas Tariff

June 1, 2001.

Take notice that on May 29, 2001,

Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation

(Columbia) filed to its FERC Gas Tariff,

Second Revised Volume No. 1, the

following revised tariff sheet bearing a

proposed effective date of June 1, 2001:

First Revised First Revised Sheet No. 500B

Columbia states that is submitting

FTS Service Agreement Nos. 2000–10–

30–0026 and 2000–10–30–0031 which

are agreements for firm transportation to

be provided by Columbia to first Energy

Trading Services Inc. (First Energy). As

directed by the Commission’s order in

Columbia’s Docket No. CP01–70,

Columbia is re-filing the First Energy

service agreements as non-conforming

service agreements to be effective June

1, 2001. Columbia Gas Transmission

Corp., 95 FERC ¶ 61,218, mimeo at p. 15

and p. 18. Columbia filed these service

agreements on March 27, 2001 in Docket

No. CP01–70. As stated in Columbia’s

Docket No. CP01–70, these firm service

arrangements enable First Energy to

generate electricity at its West Lorain

Generating Station effective June 1.

Columbia states that copies of its

filing have been mailed to all firm

customers, interruptible customers, and

affected state commissions.

Any person desiring to be heard or to

protest said filing should file a motion

to intervene or a protest with the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,

888 First Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.

20426, in accordance with sections

385.214 or 385.211 of the Commission’s

Rules and Regulations. All such motions

or protests must be filed in accordance

with section 154.210 of the

Commission’s Regulations. Protests will

be considered by the Commission in

determining the appropriate action to be

taken, but will not serve to make

protestants parties to the proceedings.

Any person wishing to become a party

must file a motion to intervene. Copies

of this filing are on file with the

Commission and are available for public

inspection in the Public Reference

Room. The filing may be viewed on the

web at http://www.ferc.fed.us/online/

rims.htm (call 202–208–2222 for

assistance). Comments, protests, and

interventions may be filed electronically

via the internet in lieu of paper. See, 18

CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the

instructions on the Commission’s web

site at http://www.ferc.fed.us/efi/

doorbell.htm.

David P. Boergers,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 01–14341 Filed 6–6–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M