View Information Collection Request (ICR) Package

OMB Control No: 1902-0254	ICR Reference No: 201602-1902-002
Status: Historical Active	Previous ICR Reference No: 201212-1902-002
Agency/Subagency: FERC	Agency Tracking No: FERC-740
Title: FERC-740, Availability of e-Tag Information to Commission Staff
Type of Information Collection: Extension without change of a currently approved collection	Common Form ICR: No
Type of Review Request: Regular
OIRA Conclusion Action: Approved with change	Conclusion Date: 05/05/2016
	Date Received in OIRA: 03/07/2016
Terms of Clearance: In accordance with 5 CFR 1320, the information collection is approved for three years.

	Inventory as of this Action	Requested	Previously Approved
Expiration Date	05/31/2019	36 Months From Approved	05/31/2016
Responses	1	0	12,000,000
Time Burden (Hours)	1	0	8,334
Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0	0

Abstract: In FERC Order 771 (issued 12/20/2012 in Docket No. RM11-12), the FERC-740 information collection (providing Commission staff access to e-Tag data) was implemented to provide the Commission, Market Monitoring Units (MMUs), Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), and Independent System Operators (ISOs) with information that allows them to perform market surveillance and analysis more effectively. The e-Tag information is necessary to understand the use of the interconnected electricity grid, particularly transactions occurring at interchanges. Due to the nature of the electricity grid, an individual transaction’s impact on an interchange cannot be assessed adequately in all cases without information from all connected systems, which is included in the e-Tags. The details of the physical path of a transaction included in the e-Tags helps the Commission to monitor, in particular, interchange transactions effectively, detect and prevent price manipulation over interchanges, and ensure the efficient and orderly use of the transmission grid. For example, the e-Tag data allows the Commission to identify transmission reservations as they go from one market to another and link the market participants involved in that transaction. Order No. 771 provided the Commission access to e-Tags by requiring that Purchasing-Selling Entities (PSEs) and Balancing Authorities (BAs), list the Commission on the "CC" list of e-Tags so that the Commission can receive a copy of the e-Tags. The Commission accesses the e-Tags by contracting with a commercial vendor, OATI. In early 2014, the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) incorporated the requirement that the Commission be added to the “CC” list on e-Tags as part of the tagging process. Even before NAESB added the FERC requirement to the tagging standards, the rules behind the "CC" list requirement had already been programmed into the industry standard tagging software so as to make the inclusion of FERC in the "CC" list automatic. The Commission expects that PSEs and BAs will continue to use existing, automated procedures to create and validate the e-Tags in a way that provides the Commission with access to them. In the rare event that a new BA would need to alert e-Tag administrators that certain tags it generates qualify for exemption under the Commission’s regulations (e.g., transmissions from a new Canadian BA into another Canadian BA), this administrative function would be expected to require less than an hour of effort total from both the BA and an e-Tag administrator to include the BA on the exemption list. New exempt BAs occur less frequently than every year, but for the purpose of estimation we will conservatively assume one appears each year creating an additional burden associated with the Commission’s FERC-740 requirement of $60.59.

Authorizing Statute(s): US Code: 16 USC 824v, 825f Name of Law: Federal Power Act

Citations for New Statutory Requirements: None

Associated Rulemaking Information
RIN:	Stage of Rulemaking:	Federal Register Citation:	Date:
	Not associated with rulemaking

Federal Register Notices & Comments
60-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	80 FR 68312	11/04/2015
30-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	81 FR 11781	03/07/2016
Did the Agency receive public comments on this ICR? No

ICR Summary of Burden

	Total Approved	Previously Approved	Change Due to Agency Discretion
Annual Number of Responses	1	12,000,000	-11,999,999
Annual Time Burden (Hours)	1	8,334	-8,333
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0	0

Burden increases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: Yes

Burden Increase Due to: Miscellaneous Actions

Burden decreases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: Yes

Burden Reduction Due to: Miscellaneous Actions

Short Statement: There is a program decrease due to the following. • The implementation phase of adding FERC as the ‘cc’ on the e-Tags is completed. The effort is now completely automated. • The requirement is also part of industry’s normal business function due to NAESB incorporating the requirement for FERC to be added as a ‘cc’ on e-Tags, as described further in the supporting statement. FERC is including a burden of one hour for any new Balancing Authority which may enter the field and need to perform the initial set-up to identify FERC as a ‘cc’ for e-Tags. We have deleted the previous 2 IC's and added a new IC for the possible new Balancing Authority & the now totally completed and automated efforts by Purchasing-Selling Entities (e-Tag Authors) and Balancing Authorities. See the supporting statement for more information.

Annual Cost to Federal Government: $289,427

Does this IC contain surveys, censuses, or employ statistical methods? No

Is the Supporting Statement intended to be a Privacy Impact Assessment required by the E-Government Act of 2002? No

Is this ICR related to the Affordable Care Act [Pub. L. 111-148 & 111-152]? No

Is this ICR related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, [Pub. L. 111-203]? No

Is this ICR related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)? No

Is this ICR related to the Pandemic Response? Uncollected

Agency Contact: Steven Reich 202 502-6446 steven.reich@ferc.gov

View ICR - OIRA Conclusion