Document ID: FERC-2014-0294-0001
Agency: ferc
Document Type: Rule
Title: Electric Quarterly Report Data Dictionary Update
Posted Date: 2014-03-14T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 50 (Friday, March 14, 2014)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 14369-14399]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-05583]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

18 CFR Part 35

[Docket Nos. RM01-8-000, RM10-12-000, RM12-3-000]

Order Updating Electric Quarterly Report Data Dictionary

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.

ACTION: Order Updating Electric Quarterly Report (EQR) Data Dictionary.

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SUMMARY: In this order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
(Commission) updates the EQR Data Dictionary to indicate how market 
participants should enter information in certain fields of the new EQR 
system so that the new system's validation process will more readily 
accept filings. These updates to the EQR Data Dictionary enable the 
implementation of the Commission's revised EQR filing process. This 
order also updates the EQR Data Dictionary's list of Balancing 
Authority names and abbreviations to reflect changes in the official 
source of such data.

DATES: This order is effective March 14, 2014. The definitions adopted 
in this order shall be used beginning with the filing of the third 
quarter (Q3), 2013 EQR.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Astrid Kirstin Rapp (Technical Information), Office of Enforcement, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Washington, 
DC 20426, (202) 502-6246.
Adam Batenhorst (Legal Information), Office of the General Counsel, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Washington, 
DC 20426, (202) 502-6150.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Before Commissioners: Cheryl A. LaFleur, Acting Chairman; Philip D. 
Moeller, John R. Norris, and Tony Clark.

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                                                           Docket No.
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Filing Requirements for El. Utility S.A...............        RM01-8-000
Electricity Market Transparency Provisions of Section        RM10-12-000
 220 of the Federal Power Act.........................
Revisions to Electric Quarterly Report Filing Process.        RM12-3-000
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[[Page 14370]]

    (Issued March 10, 2014.)
    1. In this order we are updating the Electric Quarterly Report 
(EQR) Data Dictionary in order to conform to the changes to the EQR 
filing process mandated by Order No. 770.\1\ Specifically, we are 
updating the EQR Data Dictionary to indicate how market participants 
should enter information into certain fields in the new EQR system so 
that the new system's validation process will more readily accept the 
filings. This order also updates Appendix B of the EQR Data Dictionary, 
which contains Balancing Authority names and abbreviations, to reflect 
changes in the official source of such data.
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    \1\ Revisions to Electric Quarterly Report Filing Process, Order 
No. 770, 77 FR 71288 (Nov. 30, 2012), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,338 
(2012) (Order No. 770).
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I. Background

    2. On April 25, 2002, the Commission issued Order No. 2001, a final 
rule establishing revised public utility filing requirements.\2\ This 
rule revised the Commission's filing requirements to require companies 
subject to the Commission's regulations under section 205 of the 
Federal Power Act (FPA) \3\ to file EQRs summarizing transaction 
information for short-term and long-term cost-based sales and market-
based rate sales and the contractual terms and conditions in their 
agreements for all jurisdictional services. The requirement to file 
EQRs replaced the requirement to file quarterly transaction reports 
summarizing a utility's market-based rate transactions and sales 
agreements that conformed to the utility's tariff.
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    \2\ Revised Public Utility Filing Requirements, Order No. 2001, 
67 FR 31044 (May 8, 2002), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,127, reh'g 
denied, Order No. 2001-A, 100 FERC ] 61,074, reh'g denied, Order No. 
2001-B, 100 FERC ] 61,342, order directing filing, Order No. 2001-C, 
101 FERC ] 61,314 (2002), order directing filing, Order No. 2001-D, 
102 FERC ] 61,334, order refining filing requirements, Order No. 
2001-E, 105 FERC ] 61,352 (2003), order on clarification, Order No. 
2001-F, 106 FERC ] 61,060 (2004), order revising filing 
requirements, Order No. 2001-G, 72 FR 56735 (Oct. 4, 2007), 120 FERC 
] 61,270, order on reh'g and clarification, Order No. 2001-H, 73 FR 
1876 (Jan. 10, 2008), 121 FERC ] 61,289 (2007), order revising 
filing requirements, Order No. 2001-I, 73 FR 65526 (Nov. 4, 2008), 
FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,282 (2008).
    \3\ 16 U.S.C. 842d (2012).
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    3. In Order No. 2001, the Commission also adopted a new section in 
its regulations, 18 CFR 35.10b, which required that the EQRs are to be 
prepared in conformance with the Commission's software and guidance 
posted and available from the Commission's Web site. Since the issuance 
of Order No. 2001, as need has arisen, the Commission has issued orders 
to resolve questions raised by EQR users and has directed Staff to 
issue additional guidance on how to report certain transactions.\4\
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    \4\ See, e.g., Revised Public Utility Requirements for Electric 
Quarterly Reports (Notice Providing Guidance on the Filing of 
Information on Transmission Capacity Reassignments in Electric 
Quarterly Reports), 124 FERC ] 61,244 (2008) (providing guidance on 
complying with the Commission's Order No. 890-B reporting 
requirements); Order No. 2001-E, 105 FERC ] 61,352 (2003) 
(standardizing the terminology for control areas); Revised Public 
Utility Filing Requirements, 67 FR 65973 (Oct. 29, 2002), FERC 
Stats. & Regs. ] 35,045 (2002) (providing general guidance for using 
the EQR software).
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    4. On September 24, 2007, the Commission issued Order No. 2001-G, 
adopting an EQR Data Dictionary that collected in one document the 
definitions of certain terms and values used in filing EQR data and 
provided formal definitions for fields that were previously undefined. 
Since its creation, the Commission has revised the EQR Data Dictionary 
on several occasions to clarify terms and definitions as needed.\5\
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    \5\ See, e.g., Order No. 2001-I, FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,282 
(revising the EQR Data Dictionary to define and rename the 
Commencement Date of Contract Terms and clarifying information to be 
reported concerning ancillary services); Order No. 2001-H, 121 FERC 
] 61,289 (clarifying information to be included in several EQR data 
fields).
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    5. On September 21, 2012, the Commission issued Order No. 768,\6\ 
which, among other things, revised the existing EQR filing requirements 
to require market participants that are excluded from the Commission's 
jurisdiction under section 205 of the FPA \7\ and have more than a de 
minimis market presence to file EQRs with the Commission. Order Nos. 
768 and 768-A also updated the EQR Data Dictionary to reflect changes 
required by the inclusion of non-public utilities in the EQR process.
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    \6\ Electric Market Transparency Provisions of Section 220 of 
the Federal Power Act, Order No. 768, 77 FR 61896 (Oct. 11, 2012), 
FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,336 (2012), order on reh'g, Order No. 768-
A, 143 FERC ] 61,054 (2013).
    \7\ 16 U.S.C. 842d (2012).
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    6. On November 15, 2012, the Commission issued Order No. 770, which 
revised the Commission's regulations to change the process for filing 
EQRs. In Order No. 770, the Commission announced that, due to 
technology changes that will render the current filing process outmoded 
and unsustainable, the Commission will discontinue the use of 
Commission-distributed software to file an EQR. The Commission reported 
that, instead, beginning with Q3 2013 EQRs, it will adopt a web-based 
approach to filing EQRs that will allow a public or non-public utility 
to file an EQR directly through the Commission's Web site, either 
through a web interface or by submitting an Extensible Mark-Up Language 
(XML)-formatted file (XML filing option).\8\ In Order No. 770, the 
Commission also updated the EQR Data Dictionary.\9\
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    \8\ Although it originally was anticipated that the new EQR 
filing system would be available in October 2013 for use in filing 
Q3 2013 EQRs, the Commission issued orders extending the deadline to 
file Q3 2013 and Q4 2013 EQRs to dates to be determined. Filing 
Requirements for El. Utility, S.A., 145 FERC ] 61,031 (2013) 
(extending the deadline for Q3 2013 EQRs); Filing Requirements for 
El. Utility, S.A., 145 FERC ] 61,282 (2013) (extending the deadline 
for Q4 2013 EQRs).
    \9\ The most current version of the EQR Data Dictionary (version 
2.2) was issued on April 18, 2013 as an appendix to Order No. 768-A.
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II. Discussion

    7. As noted in Order No. 770, the Commission is developing a 
validation process in the new system that contains validation checks 
that will run against the data inputted by the EQR Seller or Agent.\10\ 
The validation process includes checks for required fields, character 
formatting, and character limits. As a result, the implementation of 
the new EQR system directed by Order No. 770 requires several 
additional updates to the EQR Data Dictionary, as detailed below. These 
updates provide necessary guidance regarding the new EQR system and 
will help ensure that the EQR validation process accepts market 
participants' EQR filings. The new validation process will reject 
submissions that are not provided in the format expected for each 
particular field. Updating the EQR Data Dictionary to reflect these 
expectations will reduce the number of rejected filings, minimizing EQR 
filing burdens.\11\ The updates to the EQR Data Dictionary are 
described below.
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    \10\ Order No. 770, FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,338 at 31,764-65.
    \11\ Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act, the burden 
estimates (for the EQR, also known as the FERC-920) related to the 
change to the new EQR system were accounted for previously in Order 
No. 770 for existing filers. The initial implementation burden for 
new non-public filers was accounted for in Order No. 768. Because 
the updates to the EQR Data Dictionary adopted in this order impose 
no new or revised burdens or regulatory requirements, under 5 U.S.C. 
553(b), notice and comment procedures are unnecessary.
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    8. The Commission is updating the ``Required'' column for certain 
fields \12\

[[Page 14371]]

and making corresponding updates to the ``Value'' column for Index 
Price Publisher(s) To Which Sales Transactions Have Been Reported 
(Field Number 73). The ``Required'' column now indicates what 
information must be entered in these fields if that information is not 
specified in the contract (e.g., leave the field blank or enter 
``None,'' ``N/A'', etc.) or required in the index publishing data. 
Similarly, the Commission is updating the ``Value'' column, for 
example, by specifying how contact information must be entered and the 
number of available integers or characters in certain fields to be 
consistent with Order No. 770 and the new validation process.\13\ The 
Commission is also updating the ``Definition'' column to include 
guidance on required formatting and data values.\14\
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    \12\ See, e.g., Contract Termination Date (Field Number 23); 
Actual Termination Date (Field Number 24); Extension Provision 
Description (Field Number 25); Quantity (Field Number 32); Units 
(Field Number 33); Rate (Field Number 34); Rate Minimum (Field 
Number 35); Rate Maximum (Field Number 36); Point of Receipt 
Balancing Authority (PORBA) (Field Number 39); Point of Receipt 
Specific Location (PORSL) (Field Number 40); Point of Delivery 
Balancing Authority (PODBA) (Field Number 41); Point of Delivery 
Specific Location (PODSL) (Field Number 42); Begin Date (Field 
Number 43); End Date (Field Number 44); Total Transmission Charge 
(Field Number 69); Filer Unique Identifier (Field Number 71); Seller 
Company Name (Field Number 72); Index Price Publisher(s) To Which 
Sales Transactions Have Been Reported (Field Number 73); and 
Transactions Reported (Field Number 74).
    \13\ See, e.g., Company Identifier (Field Number 3); Contact 
Name (Field Number 4); Contact Country Name (Field Number 10); 
Contact E-Mail (Field Number 12); Transactions Reported to Index 
Price Publisher(s) (Field Number 13); Contract Affiliate (Field 
Number 18); Rate Description (Field Number 37); Transaction Begin 
Date (Field Number 51); Transaction End Date (Field Number 52); and 
Trade Date (Field Number 53).
    \14\ See, e.g., Filer Unique Identifier (Field Number 1); Rate 
Description (Field Number 37); and Transaction Unique ID (Field 
Number 45).
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    9. Moreover, the Commission is removing specific references to 
comma-delimited text (CSV) files and related requirements in certain 
fields given that the new system allows the additional XML filing 
option.\15\ The Commission also is updating the Company Identifier 
(Field Number 3), Contact Name (Field Number 4), Transactions Reported 
to Index Price Publisher(s) (Field Number 13), Contract Service 
Agreement ID (Field Number 20), and Contract Service Agreement ID 
(Field Number 49) to include references to ``Agent'' and ``Sellers,'' 
consistent with the terms adopted in Order No. 770.\16\ The Commission 
is also revising the ``Definition'' for Begin Date (Field Number 43) 
and End Date (Field Number 44) to reflect the fact that time must also 
be noted in those fields, as indicated in the associated ``Value'' 
column. Further, the Commission is revising the ``Definition'' for Time 
Zone (Field Number 56) to clarify that it refers to transaction data 
(not contract data) because this field is associated with transactions.
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    \15\ See Filer Unique Identifier (Field Number 1); Filing 
Quarter (Field Number 14); Contact Unique ID (Field Number 15); and 
Transaction Unique ID (Field Number 45).
    \16\ See Order No. 770, FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,338 at 31,760.
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    10. In addition, the Commission is updating the list of Index Price 
Publishers in Appendix G to delete ``Dow Jones'' and updating the list 
of Exchange/Broker Services in Appendix H to add ``Nodal Exchange.'' 
Moreover, the Commission is updating the list of Balancing Authority 
names and abbreviations to reflect changes in the official source of 
such data, the Open Access Technology, Inc. (OATI) webRegistry, as 
indicated by Order No. 768-A.\17\ Finally, the Commission is making the 
following clerical edits: (1) To state in the ``Definition'' of Filer 
Unique Identifier (Field Number 1) and Transaction Unique ID (Field 
Number 45) that one record for each transaction record ``must be 
included'' because this information is required; (2) to clarify in the 
``Definition'' field of Filing Quarter (Field Number 14) that the 
reference number is used by the EQR System; and (3) to add a period to 
the ``Value'' of Point of Receipt Specific Location (PORSL) (Field 
Number 40). If information is not entered in the manner specified 
above, the filing may not be accepted by the new EQR validation 
process. As discussed above, these updates to the EQR Data Dictionary 
will reduce burden on EQR filers by clarifying system expectations to 
ensure that data makes it through the validation process.
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    \17\ See Order No. 768-A, 143 FERC ] 61,054 at P 55.
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III. Implementation Dates

    11. This order will become effective March 14, 2014. The updated 
EQR Data Dictionary adopted in this order shall be used when the web-
based approach is available, beginning with the filing of the Q3 2013 
EQR.

IV. Document Availability

    12. In addition to publishing the full text of this document in the 
Federal Register, the Commission provides all interested persons an 
opportunity to view and/or print the contents of this document via the 
Internet through the Commission's Home Page (http://www.ferc.gov) and 
in the Commission's Public Reference Room during normal business hours 
(8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time) at 888 First Street NE., Room 2A, 
Washington, DC 20426.
    13. From the Commission's Home Page on the Internet, this 
information is available in the eLibrary. The full text of this 
document is available in the eLibrary both in PDF and Microsoft Word 
format for viewing, printing, and/or downloading. To access this 
document in eLibrary, type RM01-8, RM10-12, or RM12-3 in the docket 
number field. User assistance is available for eLibrary and the 
Commission's Web site during the Commission's normal business hours. 
For assistance contact the Commission's Online Support services at 
FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov or toll-free at (866) 208-3676, or for TTY, 
contact (202) 502-8659.
    The Commission orders:
    (A) The Commission hereby adopts the changes in the EQR Data 
Dictionary shown in the Attachment, as discussed in the body of this 
order.
    (B) The definitions adopted in this order shall be applied to EQR 
filings beginning with the Q3 2013 EQR.

    By the Commission.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.

    Note:  Attachment will not be published in the Code of Federal 
Regulations.

Attachment

Electric Quarterly Report Data Dictionary Version 3.0 (Issued February 
28, 2014)

BILLING CODE 6717-01-P

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[FR Doc. 2014-05583 Filed 3-13-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-C