64758 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 211 / Friday, October 31, 2014 / Notices 

1NERC Petition at 3. 

2 Id. at 4. 3 Id. at 15. 

Coordination Act consultation 

procedures. Other environmental review 

and consulation requirements for the 

proposed project include the need for 

the applicant to obtain water quality 

certification under Section 401 of the 

Clean Water Act from the Louisiana 

Department of Environmental Quality. 

In addition, because the proposed 

project may affect federally listed 

species, the USACE will consult with 

the Service and the National Marine 

Fisheries Service (NMFS) in accordance 

with Section 7 of the Federal 

Endangered Species Act. The NMFS 

will be consulted regarding the effects of 

this proposed project on Essential Fish 

Habitat per the Magnuson-Stevens Act. 

The USACE will also be consulting with 

the State Historic Preservation Officer 

under 106 of the National Historic 

Preservation Act concerning properties 

listed, or potentially eligible for listing. 

The USACE will serve as the lead 

Federal agency in the preparation of the 

EIS. Other federal and/or state agencies 

may participate as cooperating and/or 

commenting agencies throughout the 

EIS process. 

The USACE will use a ‘‘third party 

contractor’’ to prepare all or part of the 

EIS or to obtain required information 

(40 CFR 1500–1508). ‘‘Third party 

contract’’ refers to the preparation of the 

EIS by a contractor paid by the 

applicant but who is selected and 

supervised directly by the district 

engineer. Contractor election by the 

USACE for a Regulatory Program EIS 

will be as follows: The USACE will 

select from the applicant’s list the first 

contractor that is fully acceptable to the 

USACE, using the applicant’s order of 

preference; this selection is finalized by 

the applicant’s selection of the same 

contractor. The procedures outlined in 

40 CFR 1500–1508 and CEQ’s forty 

questions must be followed. 

Furthermore, the USACE is responsible 

for final acceptance of the draft and 

final EIS. 

7. Availability. The Draft EIS (DEIS) is 

expected to be available for public 

comment and review no sooner than the 

spring of 2016. At that time, a 45-day 

public review period will be provided 

for individuals and agencies to review 

and comment on the DEIS. All 

interested parties are encouraged to 

respond to this notice and provide a 

current address if they wish to be 

notified of the DEIS circulation. 

Brenda S. Bowen, 

Army Federal Register Liaison Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2014–25869 Filed 10–30–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3720–58–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket No. RD14–11–000] 

Proposed Agency Information 

Collection 

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, DOE. 

ACTION: Comment request. 

SUMMARY: In compliance with the 

requirements of the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 

3507(a)(1)(D), the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission (Commission or 

FERC) is submitting the information 

collection in Docket No. RD14–11–000 

to the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) for review of the information 

collection requirements. Any interested 

person may file comments directly with 

OMB and should address a copy of 

those comments to the Commission as 

explained below. The Commission 

issued a Notice in the Federal Register 

(79 FR 46781, 8/11/2014) requesting 

public comments. FERC received no 

comments in response to that notice and 

has made this notation in its submission 

to OMB. 

DATES: Comments on the collection of 

information are due by December 1, 

2014. 

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, 

regarding FERC–725A (OMB Control 

Number 1902–0244) and FERC–725X 

(OMB Control Number TBD), should be 

sent via email to the Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs: 

oira_submission@omb.gov. Attention: 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 

Desk Officer. The Desk Officer may also 

be reached via telephone at 202–395– 

4718. 

A copy of the comments should also 

be sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, identified by the Docket 

No. RD14–11–000, by either of the 

following methods: 

• eFiling at Commission’s Web site: 

http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/

efiling.asp. 

• Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 

Secretary of the Commission, 888 First 

Street NE., Washington, DC 20426. 

Instructions: All submissions must be 

formatted and filed in accordance with 

submission guidelines at: http://

www.ferc.gov/help/submissionguide.asp. For user assistance contact 

FERC Online Support by email at 

ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov, or by phone 

at: (866) 208–3676 (toll-free), or (202) 

502–8659 for TTY. 

Docket: Users interested in receiving 

automatic notification of activity in this 

docket or in viewing/downloading 

comments and issuances in this docket 

may do so at http://www.ferc.gov/docsfiling/docs-filing.asp. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Ellen Brown may be reached by email 

at DataClearance@FERC.gov, by 

telephone at (202) 502–8663, and by fax 

at (202) 273–0873. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

proposed information collection 

changes in Docket No. RD14–11–000 

relate to the proposed Reliability 

Standards VAR–001–4 (Voltage and 

Reactive Control) and VAR–002–3 

(Generator Operation for Maintaining 

Network Voltage Schedules), developed 

by the North American Electric 

Reliability Corporation (NERC), and 

submitted to the Commission for 

approval. The Commission received 

NERC’s petition to approve the 

proposed Reliability Standards on June 

9, 2014. 

NERC summarizes the VAR group of 

standards as follows: 

The Voltage and Reactive (‘‘VAR’’) group of 

Reliability Standards, which consists of two 

continent-wide Reliability Standards, VAR– 

001–3 and VAR–002–2b, is designed to 

maintain voltage stability on the Bulk-Power 

System, protect transmission, generation, 

distribution, and customer equipment, and 

support the reliable operation of the BulkPower System.1

In its petition, NERC also summarizes 

the proposed Reliability Standards’ 

applicability and requirements: 

In general, proposed Reliability Standard 

VAR–001–4 sets forth the requirements 

applicable to Transmission Operators for 

scheduling, monitoring, and controlling 

Reactive Power resources in the Real-time 

Operations, Same-day Operations, and 

Operational Planning time horizons to 

regulate voltage and Reactive Power flows for 

the reliable operation of the Bulk-Power 

System. Proposed Reliability Standard VAR– 

002–3 sets forth the requirements applicable 

to Generator Operators and Generator 

Owners for providing the necessary reactive 

support and voltage control necessary to 

maintain reliable operations. Generators are 

the largest and most reliable Reactive Power 

resource and play an integral role in 

maintaining voltage stability on the BulkPower System. Collectively, the proposed 

Reliability Standards are designed to prevent 

voltage instability and voltage collapse on the 

Bulk-Power System.2

Finally, NERC also states that the 

proposed Reliability Standards improve 

reliability, clarify requirement language 

and eliminate redundant or unnecessary 

requirements.3


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 211 / Friday, October 31, 2014 / Notices 64759 

4TOP = Transmission Operator, GOP = Generator 

Operator. 5The estimate for cost per hour (rounded to the 

nearest dollar) is derived as follows: 

• $61/hour, the average salary plus benefits 

(representing 30.1% of the total compensation) per 

engineer (from Bureau of Labor Statistics at 

http://bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm. and 

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm. 

Burden Statement: Commission staff 

analyzed the proposed and currently 

enforced standards and has concluded 

that while information collection 

requirements have been deleted, added, 

and/or changed, the overall paperwork 

burden and applicable respondent 

universe remains unchanged. To 

improve accounting of the burden, the 

Commission recognizes that in the 

transition from VAR–001–3 to VAR– 

001–4 (requirement R1) there is a 

decrease in documentation related to 

policies and procedures. However, the 

transmission operators are now required 

to have documentation related to system 

voltage and reactive power schedules as 

well as documentation related to 

coordination with adjacent transmission 

operators and applicable reliability 

coordinators. The Commission estimates 

that this transition leads to a decrease of 

160 hours as well as an increase of 160 

hours, for a net change of zero. The 

Commission seeks comment on whether 

this estimate is accurate. 

For the transition from VAR–002–2b 

to VAR–002–3, the Commission 

estimates that changes in requirement 

R1 lead to an increase of 80 hours for 

recordkeeping and changes in 

requirement R2 lead to an increase in 

120 hours for documentation. However, 

the Commission estimates a decrease of 

the same magnitude (200 hours) related 

to the changes in requirements R3 and 

R4. The remaining information 

collection requirements in the two 

standards remain essentially 

unchanged. 

Based on the above estimates, the 

Commission intends to submit a total 

reduction of 204,240 hours from FERC– 

725A and a total increase of 204,240 

hours into FERC–725X, a new collection 

FERC is using to account for burden 

related to VAR reliability standards. The 

following table summarizes the burden 

changes: 

Changes Number of 

respondents 4

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

Average 

burden hours 

per response 

Total annual 

burden hours 

Total annual 

cost 5

(1) (2) (3) (1)×(2)×(3) 

VAR–001–4 Requirement R1 Increase (FERC–725X) ....... 184 (TOP) 1 160 29,440 $1,766,400 

VAR–001–4 Requirement R1 Decrease (FERC–725A) ...... 184 (TOP) 1 ¥160 ¥29,440 ¥1,766,400 

VAR–002–3 Requirement R1 Increase (FERC–725X) ....... 874 (GOP) 1 80 69,920 4,195,200 

VAR–002–3 Requirement R2 Increase (FERC–725X) ....... 874 (GOP) 1 120 104,880 6,292,800 

VAR–002–3 Requirements R3 and R4 Decrease (FERC– 

725A) ................................................................................ 874 (GOP) 1 ¥200 ¥174,800 ¥10,488,000 

Total .............................................................................. 0 0 

Dated: October 23, 2014. 

Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2014–25901 Filed 10–30–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Project No. 6957–002] 

City of Portland Water Bureau; Notice 

of Application Accepted for Filing, 

Soliciting Comments, Motions To 

Intervene, and Protests 

Take notice that the following 

hydroelectric application has been filed 

with the Commission and is available 

for public inspection: 

a. Types of Application: Surrender of 

Exemption. 

b. Project No.: 6957–002. 

c. Date Filed: October 3, 2014. 

d. Applicant: City of Portland Water 

Bureau. 

e. Name of Project: Mt. Tabor 

Hydroelectric Project. 

f. Location: Mt. Tabor Reservoir, in 

the City of Portland and Multnomah 

County, Oregon. 

g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power 

Act, 16 U.S.C. 791a–825r. 

h. Applicant Contact: Mr. Frank 

Galida, Portland Hydroelectric Project 

Manager, Portland Water Bureau, 1120 

SW. Fifth Avenue, Room 530, Portland, 

OR 97204, (503) 823–1517. 

i. FERC Contact: Ms. Rebecca Martin, 

(202) 502–6012, Rebecca.martin@

ferc.gov. 

j. Deadline for filing comments, 

motions to intervene, and protests, is 

November 23, 2014. All documents may 

be filed electronically via the Internet. 

See, 18 CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the 

instructions on the Commission’s Web 

site at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/

efiling.asp. If unable to be filed 

electronically, documents may be paperfiled. To paper-file, an original and 

seven copies should be mailed to: 

Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, 888 First Street NE., 

Washington, DC 20426. Commenters 

can submit brief comments up to 6,000 

characters, without prior registration, 

using the eComment system at http://

www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/

ecomment.asp. You must include your 

name and contact information at the end 

of your comments. 

Please include the project number (P– 

6957–002) on any comments, motions, 

or recommendations filed. 

k. Description of Request: The 

applicant proposes to surrender the 

exemption for the Mt. Tabor Project. 

The licensee proposes to remove the 

turbine, generator, and governor. The 

underground electrical connection to 

the local power utility would be 

disconnected. No ground disturbing 

activities are proposed. 

l. Locations of the Application: A 

copy of the application is available for 

inspection and reproduction at the 

Commission’s Public Reference Room, 

located at 888 First Street NE., Room 

2A, Washington, DC 20426, or by calling 

(202) 502–8371. This filing may also be 

viewed on the Commission’s Web site at 

http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/

efiling.asp. Enter the docket number 

excluding the last three digits in the 

docket number field to access the 

document. You may also register online 

at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/

esubscription.asp to be notified via 

email of new filings and issuances 

related to this or other pending projects. 

For assistance, call 1–866–208–3676 or 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES