Document ID: FERC-2017-1559-0001
Agency: ferc
Document Type: Notice
Title: Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposals, Submissions, and Approvals
Posted Date: 2017-12-21T05:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 244 (Thursday, December 21, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60594-60595]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27496]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC17-14-000]

Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-725U); Errata 
and Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy.

ACTION: Errata and comment request.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (PRA) of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission 
or FERC) is submitting the information collection FERC-725U (Mandatory 
Reliability Standards: Reliability Standard CIP-014) 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 published notices in the Federal 
Register (82 FR 41618, 9/1/2017, and 82 FR 50645, 11/1/2017) requesting 
public comments. FERC received no comments on the FERC-725U for either 
notice and is making this notation in its submittal to OMB.
    This 30-day errata and notice corrects the total annual burden 
estimates and explains changes in the calculation of the annual burden 
estimates. There are no changes to the information collection, filing, 
or recordkeeping requirements.

DATES: Comments on the collections of information are due by January 
22, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Comments filed with OMB, identified by the OMB Control No. 
1902-0274 (FERC-725U) should be sent via email to the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs: [email protected], 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. IC17-14-000, by one 
of the following methods:
     eFiling at Commission's website: 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/submission-guide.asp. For user assistance contact FERC Online Support 
by email at [email protected], 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/docs-filing/docs-filing.asp.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at 
[email protected], by telephone at (202) 502-8663, and by fax at 
(202) 273-0873.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Titles: Mandatory Reliability Standards: Reliability Standard CIP-
014.
    OMB Control Nos.: 1902-0274.
    Type of Request: Three-year extension of the FERC-725U information 
collection requirements with no changes to the reporting or 
recordkeeping requirements.
    Abstract: Two previous notices proposing the extension of FERC-725U 
were published in the Federal Register.\1\ The total annual burden 
presented in those notices was incorrect and based on faulty approaches 
for calculating burden estimates. This 30-day errata/notice corrects 
the total annual burden estimates and explains changes in calculation 
of the annual burden estimates.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ 60-Day notice: 82 FR 41618, 9/1/2017; 30-day notice: 82 FR 
50645, 11/1/2017.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The burden for the FERC-725U information collection is estimated 
based on the five year cycle of the requirements in the Reliability 
Standard. Over this five-year cycle, annual burden levels fluctuate 
greatly based on which reporting requirements are implicated each year.
    FERC extensions usually request three years of extension/approval. 
However, using a three-year timespan to calculate the burden would 
cause the total annual burden to fluctuate in an unrepresentative way 
because of the mathematical mismatch between the Reliability Standard's 
five-year cycle and the three-year PRA cycle for OMB approval. Some 
extension requests would propose inordinately high or low burden solely 
dependent on the timing of the request, not on any actual changes to 
reporting requirements.
    In order to provide the annual burden estimate in a more 
representative way, Commission staff is calculating the average annual 
burden using the five-year cycle of the Standard and using that average 
for Years 1-3 of this extension.
    Types of Respondents: Intrastate natural gas and Hinshaw pipelines.
    Estimate of Annual Burden: \2\ The Commission estimates the total 
Public Reporting Burden for the FERC-725U information collection as:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \2\ Burden is defined as the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. For 
further explanation of what is included in the information 
collection burden, reference 5 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.

                                      FERC-725U: Mandatory Reliability Standards: Reliability Standard CIP-014 \3\
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                            Number of
Year and requirement for this PRA   Number and type  of   responses per   Total number    Average burden hours  and cost   Total burden hours  and total
         clearance cycle                respondents        respondent     of responses          per response \4\                       cost
                                   (1).................             (2)     (1) * (2) =  (4)............................  (3) * (4)
                                                                                    (3)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 1:
    Record Retention.............  334 TO and 2 TOP \5\               1             336  2 hrs.; $76....................  672 hrs.; $25,536.

[[Page 60595]]

 
Year 2:
    R1...........................  334 TO..............               1             334  20 hrs.; $1,280................  6,680 hrs.; $427,520.
    R2...........................  334 TO..............               1             334  34 hrs; $2,448.................  11,356 hrs.; $817,632.
    R3...........................  2 TOP...............               1               2  1 hrs.; $129...................  2 hrs.; $258.
    R4...........................  30 TO and 2 TOP.....               1              32  80 hrs.; $5,120................  2,560 hrs.; $163,840.
    R5...........................  30 TO and 2 TOP.....               1              32  320 hrs.; $20,480..............  10,240 hrs.; $655,360.
    R6...........................  30 TO and 2 TOP.....               1              32  304 hrs.; $19,456..............  9,728 hrs.; $622,592.
    Record Retention.............  334 TO and 2 TOP....               1             336  2 hrs.; $76....................  672 hrs.; $25,536.
Year 3:
    Record Retention.............  334 TO and 2 TOP....               1             336  2 hrs.; $76....................  672 hrs.; $25,536.
Year 4:
    R1...........................  30 TO...............               1              30  20 hrs.; $1,280................  600 hrs.; $38,400.
    R2...........................  30 TO...............               1              30  34 hrs.; $2,448................  1,020 hrs.; $73,440.
    R3...........................  2 TOP...............               1               2  1 hrs.; $129...................  2 hrs.; $258.
    R4...........................  30 TO and 2 TOP.....               1              32  80 hrs.; $5,120................  2,560 hrs.; $163,840.
    R5...........................  30 TO and 2 TOP.....               1              32  80 hrs.; $5,120................  2,560 hrs.; $163,840.
    R6...........................  30 TO and 2 TOP.....               1              32  134 hrs.; $8,576...............  4,288 hrs.; $274,432.
    Record Retention.............  334 TO and 2 TOP....               1             336  2 hrs.; $76....................  672 hrs.; $25,536.
Year 5:
    Record Retention.............  334 TO and 2 TOP....               1             336  2 hrs.; $76....................  672 hrs.; $25,536.
        Year 1 Total.............  ....................  ..............             336  ...............................  672 hrs.; $25,536.
        Year 2 Total.............  ....................  ..............             336  ...............................  41,238 hrs.; $2,712,738.
        Year 3 Total.............  ....................  ..............             336  ...............................  672 hrs.; $25,536.
        Year 4 Total.............  ....................  ..............             336  ...............................  11,702 hrs.; $739,746.
        Year 5 Total.............  ....................  ..............             336  ...............................  672 hrs.; $25,536.
                                                                                                                         -------------------------------
            Total (for Years 1-5)  ....................  ..............  ..............  ...............................  54,956 hrs.; $3,529,092.
                                                                                                                         -------------------------------
            Average Annual Burden  ....................  ..............  ..............  ...............................  10,991 hrs.; $705,818.
             and Cost (for Years
             1-5)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    A brief synopsis follows of the Reliability Standard's five-year 
cycle and its relation to Requirements R1-R6 and Record Retention 
Requirements. (The year stated is the year in this 3-year PRA cycle 
with the requirements imposed during that year.) \6\

    \3\ For each Reliability Standard, the Measure shows the 
acceptable evidence for the associated Reporting Requirement (R 
numbers), and the Compliance section details the related 
Recordkeeping Requirement.
    \4\ The estimates for cost per response are derived using the 
following formula: Average Burden Hours per Response * $XX per Hour 
= Average Cost per Response.
    The hourly cost figures are based on data for wages plus 
benefits from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (as of 11/9/2016) at 
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm and http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm. The figures are rounded for 
the purposes of calculations in this table and are:
     For electrical engineers (occupation code: 17-2071), 
$64.29/hr., rounded to $64/hr.
     for attorneys (occupation code: 23-0000), $129.12/hr., 
rounded to $129/hr.
     for administrative staff (occupation code: 43-0000), 
$37.75/hr., rounded to $38/hr.
    The record retention cost is based on the administrative staff 
category; R3 is based on the attorney category; and Requirements R1, 
R4, R5 and R6 are based on the electrical engineer category.
    R2 is a mix of the electrical engineer (30 hrs. at $64/hr.) and 
attorney (4 hrs. at $129/hr.) categories. The resulting average 
hourly figure is $71.65, rounded to $72/hr.
    \5\ TO: transmission owner; TOP: transmission operator.

    \6\ Although Year 4 includes R1-R6 and Record Retention similar 
to Year 2, the related burden is not in the same amount as in Year 
2.
    Also note that Years 4 and 5 are part of the 5-year Reliability 
Standard's cycle but beyond the current 3-year PRA approval cycle.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Year 1: Record Retention only
 Year 2: R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, and Record Retention
 Year 3: Record Retention only
 Year 4: R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, and Record Retention
 Year 5: Record Retention only

    For this 3-year PRA extension request, we will use the annual 
averages (over the 5-year cycle of the Reliability Standard, as shown 
in the table) for:

     Burden of 10,991 hours
     cost of $705,828

    Comments: Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the collections of 
information are necessary for the proper performance of the functions 
of the Commission, including whether the information will have 
practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the 
burden and cost of the collections of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance 
the quality, utility and clarity of the information collections; and 
(4) ways to minimize the burden of the collections of information on 
those who are to respond, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.

    Dated: December 15, 2017.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-27496 Filed 12-20-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P