[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 22, 1995)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 9774-9776]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-4233]



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[[Page 9775]]

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

18 CFR Part 284

[Docket No. RM93-4-007; Order No. 563-E]


Standards for Electronic Bulletin Boards Required Under Part 284 
of the Commission's Regulations

Issued February 15, 1995.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Final rule; order granting clarification and extension of time.

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SUMMARY: In response to a request for clarification submitted by the 
Electronic Bulletin Board Working Group, the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission is issuing an order making changes to the fields that report 
the maximum natural gas pipeline tariff rate related to released 
capacity. The order clarifies that pipelines must report only the 
maximum tariff rate related to the type of release involved; e.g., the 
maximum reservation rate for a reservation rate release and the maximum 
volumetric rate for a volumetric release. The order also grants an 
extension of time for pipelines to implement the new fields.

DATES: New fields must be implemented on or before March 17, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol 
Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michael Goldenberg, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, NE., Washington, DC 
20426, (202) 208-2294.
Marvin Rosenberg, Office of Economic Policy, Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, NE., Washington, D.C. 20426, 
(202) 208-1283
Brooks Carter, Office of Pipeline and Producer Regulation, Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, NE., 
Washington, D.C. 20426, (202) 208-0292

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In addition to publishing the full text of 
this document in the Federal Register, the Commission also provides all 
interested persons an opportunity to inspect or copy the contents of 
this document during normal business hours in Room 3104, 941 North 
Capitol Street NE, Washington DC 20426.
    The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS), an electronic 
bulletin board service, provides access to the texts of formal 
documents issued by the Commission. CIPS is available at no charge to 
the user and may be accessed using a personal computer with a modem by 
dialing (202) 208-1397. To access CIPS, set your communications 
software to 19200, 14400, 12000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, 1200 or 
300bps, full duplex, no parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit. The full 
text of this document will be available on CIPS for 60 days from the 
date of issuance in ASCII and WordPerfect 5.1 format. After 60 days the 
document will be archived, but still accessible. The complete text on 
diskette in WordPerfect format may also be purchased from the 
Commission's copy contractor, La Dorn Systems Corporation, also located 
in Room 3104, 941 North Capitol Street, NE, Washington DC 20426.

Order Granting Clarification and Extension of Time

Issued February 15, 1995.
    Before Commissioners: Elizabeth Anne Moler, Chair; Vicky A. 
Bailey, James J. Hoecker, William L. Massey, and Donald F. Santa, 
Jr.

    On January 24, 1995, the Electronic Bulletin Board (EBB) Working 
Group filed a request for clarification of the Commission's December 
29, 1994 order <SUP>1 requiring pipelines to include maximum rate 
fields as part of the capacity release data sets adopted by the 
Commission in Order No. 563.<SUP>2 The Working Group further requests 
an extension of time for compliance until the later of 30 days after 
the Commission issues a clarification order or the Gas*Flow 
implementation guide is available in the Commission's public reference 
room. The Commission will grant the requested clarification and will 
extend the time for compliance until 30 days from the date of this 
order.

    \1\Standards For Electronic Bulletin Boards Required Under Part 
284 of the Commission's Regulations, Order No. 563-D, 60 FR 1718 
(Jan. 5, 1995), 69 FERC 61,418 (Dec. 29, 1994).
    \2\Standards For Electronic Bulletin Boards Required Under Part 
284 of the Commission's Regulations, Order No. 563, 59 FR 516 (Jan. 
5, 1994), III FERC Stats. & Regs. Preambles 30,988 (Dec. 23, 1993), 
order on reh'g, Order No. 563-A, 59 FR 23624 (May 6, 1994), III FERC 
Stats. & Regs. Preambles 30,994 (May 2, 1994), reh'g denied, Order 
No. 563-B, 68 FERC 61,002 (1994).
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    In the December 29, 1994 order, the Commission accepted a proposal 
by the Working Group to include the maximum tariff rate for capacity 
posted for release. The Commission required the inclusion in the Award 
Data Set of the maximum reservation rate and maximum volumetric rate 
for released capacity. The Working Group had proposed that the fields 
should be considered optional, meaning that a pipeline would include 
the fields only if the pipeline chooses to do so or its tariff requires 
it to include the information. The Commission, however, concluded that 
the fields should be mandatory, because the Commission needed maximum 
rate data for all releases from all pipelines.
    The Working Group requests clarification, contending that these 
fields should be designated conditional, rather than mandatory, fields. 
A mandatory designation would mean that data must be included in both 
of these fields for every release. The Working Group argues that if a 
release is a reservation rate release, there is no need to include the 
maximum volumetric rate, and vice versa.<SUP>3 The Working Group 
contends, therefore, that the maximum rate fields should be made 
conditional on the type of release involved, so that only the maximum 
rate related to the release would be provided; e.g., the maximum 
reservation rate for a reservation rate release and the maximum 
volumetric rate for a volumetric release.<SUP>4 The Working Group 
states that changing the field designation to conditional would not 
disturb the Commission requirement that pipelines provide the maximum 
rate data for all releases, but would only serve to ensure that 
unnecessary information would not be provided. The Working Group has 
included revised data sets to implement this change and stated that the 
datasets would be provided to the Gas*Flow group for incorporation into 
the EDI implementation guide.

    \3\If a release is a blended release comprised of both a 
reservation rate and volumetric component, the Working Group states 
that data would have to be supplied for both fields.
    \4\In the argot of the data sets, they propose that each maximum 
rate field would be made conditional on the response to the Rate 
From Type Code, which is a mandatory field that describes whether 
the release is a (1) reservation rate, (2) volumetric, or (3) 
blended release. If the Rate Form Type Code is 1 indicating a 
reservation rate release, only the maximum reservation rate must be 
provided. If the Rate Form Type Code is 2 indicating a volumetric 
release, only the maximum volumetric rate must be provided. If the 
Rate Form Type Code is 3 indicating a blended release, both the 
maximum reservation rate and maximum volumetric rate must be 
provided.
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    The Commission will accept the proposed modification to make the 
fields conditional as described in the data sets. The intent of the 
December 29, 1994 order was to require pipelines to supply data on the 
maximum rate for each release, but the Commission did not intend that 
pipelines report a maximum rate that was unrelated to the type of 
release involved; e.g., a maximum reservation rate for a volumetric 
release. Such information [[Page 9776]] would be superfluous. Since the 
Working Group's proposal would require pipelines to provide the 
relevant maximum rate for all releases, the Commission will accept it.
    The Working Group further requests that the Commission provide an 
extension of time to comply with this requirement until the later of 30 
days after the Commission issues a clarification order or the Gas*Flow 
implementation guide is available in the Commission's public reference 
room. The Commission will grant an extension of time until 30 days 
after the issuance of this order.
    Unlike the Working Group's previous filing, a proposed EDI 
implementation guide was not provided along with the proposed change to 
conditional fields. The Commission needs the information on maximum 
release rates as promptly as possible and, given the minimum changes 
necessary to implement the change, the Commission concludes that, if 
Gas*Flow has not already made the necessary changes, it can make them 
promptly. Thus, a 30 day delay is adequate to implement the proposed 
changes. Once the implementation guide is finalized, it must be filed 
with the Commission. The data sets and EDI implementation guide will 
then be incorporated into the ``Standardized Data Sets and 
Communication Protocols'' which is available at the Commission's Public 
Reference and Files Maintenance Branch.
    The Commission orders: (A) The Commission will grant the requested 
clarification and accept the conditional fields for maximum reservation 
rate and maximum volumetric rate as proposed in the January 24, 1995 
filing.
    (B) Pipelines must implement these new fields within 30 days of the 
date of this order.

    By the Commission.
Lois D. Cashell,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 95-4233 Filed 2-21-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P