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OMB Control No: 1902-0075	ICR Reference No: 202006-1902-004
Status: Historical Active	Previous ICR Reference No: 201903-1902-005
Agency/Subagency: FERC	Agency Tracking No: FERC-556
Title: FERC-556, (Final Rule & Rehearing Order in RM19-15 & AD16-16) Certification of Qualifying Facility (QF) Status for a Small Power Production or Cogeneration Facility
Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved collection	Common Form ICR: No
Type of Review Request: Regular
OIRA Conclusion Action: Approved with change	Conclusion Date: 12/15/2020
Retrieve Notice of Action (NOA)	Date Received in OIRA: 09/02/2020
Terms of Clearance: In accordance with 5 CFR 1320, the information collection is approved. Because the agency sought comments only on the changes associated with the order, the existing expiration date remains the same for this collection. As terms of clearance, the agency is required to provide in its request for renewal an explanation of the burden hours and to respond fully to any public comments regarding the burden of this information collection.

	Inventory as of this Action	Requested	Previously Approved
Expiration Date	11/30/2022	11/30/2022	11/30/2022
Responses	4,318	0	4,318
Time Burden (Hours)	20,032	0	6,537
Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0	0

Abstract: NOTE: When the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) and corresponding information collection request were submitted to OMB for Docket Nos. RM19-15 and AD16-16 (RIN1902-AF67), OMB review was pending for the regular renewal of the existing FERC Form No. 556. Only one item per OMB Control No. can be pending OMB review at a time. Therefore, we had to use a temporary (placeholder) information collection number (FERC-556A, OMB Control No. 1902-0316; ICR 201904-1902-001) in order to submit the NOPR to OMB on a timely basis. Due to ROCIS requirements (and to avoid an incorrect requirement for metadata showing an emergency request), the information for the NOPR and Final Rule are entered into the ROCIS metadata fields for the 60- and 30-day notices here.It also is required to indicate it's not related to a rulemaking but is in fact a Final Rule. RM19-15 & AD16-16. FERC issues its final rule approving certain revisions to its regulations (PURPA Regulations) implementing sections 201 and 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA). On September 19, 2019, the Commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) proposing to modify its PURPA Regulations. Those regulations were promulgated in 1980 and have been modified in only specific respects since then. Approximately 130 separate comments were submitted in response to the NOPR, several of which were submitted on behalf of multiple parties. In total, over 1,600 pages of comments were submitted, and in addition thousands of pages of exhibits were attached to the comments. In this Order, FERC is updating its PURPA regulations. FERC also issued a rehearing Order (Order 872-A) in RM19-15-001 and AD16-16-001 that is addressed here and in the updated supporting statement. FERC-556 in general. The data required under 18 CFR Section 131.80 and 18 CFR Part 292 are used by the Commission to determine whether a proposed certification for QF status meets the criteria for a qualifying small power production facility or a qualifying cogeneration facility under its regulations and is eligible to receive the benefits available to it under PURPA. In order to obtain QF status and obtain PURPA benefits, an owner or operator of a small power production or cogeneration facility must follow the process indicated in FERC Form 556 and select, at its option, either the procedure set forth in 18 CFR Section 292.207(a), which requires the submission to FERC of a self-certification or self-recertification, or the procedure set forth in 18 CFR Section 292.207(b), which requires the submission to FERC of an application for Commission certification or recertification. The information requirements for these two processes are largely the same (i.e., the submittal of a completed FERC Form 556 provides the information necessary to demonstrate compliance with FERC’s regulations). If FERC did not collect the FERC Form 556 information, there would be no basis for the Commission to determine whether a facility satisfies the requirements of QF status. Since revocation of the qualifying status of a small power production or cogeneration facility may occur if the facility fails to comply with any of the 18 CFR Part 292 criteria, private financial lenders to small power production and cogeneration power facilities occasionally require small power producers and cogenerators to follow 18 CFR Section 292.207(b) procedures (certification by FERC as opposed to self-certification) in order to reduce the risk of status revocation.

Authorizing Statute(s): US Code: 16 USC 792-828c Name of Law: Federal Power Act (FPA)
US Code: 16 USC 2601 Name of Law: Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978

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:
	84 FR 53246	10/04/2019
30-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	85 FR 54638	09/02/2020
Did the Agency receive public comments on this ICR? Yes

ICR Summary of Burden

	Total Approved	Previously Approved	Change Due to Agency Discretion
Annual Number of Responses	4,318	4,318	0
Annual Time Burden (Hours)	20,032	6,537	13,495
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0	0

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

Burden Increase Due to: Changing Regulations

Burden decreases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Reduction Due to:

Short Statement: Given the FERC’s expressed intent in the NOPR to propose revisions to PURPA Regulations that more closely adhere to the goals and terms of PURPA, we considered comments regarding whether these proposals are consistent with the requirements of PURPA. Based on that review and further consideration, we adopt the following changes to the proposals in the NOPR, among certain others described below: • we establish a rebuttable presumption, rather than a per se rule, that locational marginal prices (LMPs) may reflect a purchasing electric utility’s avoided energy costs; • we provide that any competitive solicitations used to establish avoided capacity costs must adhere to the Commission’s Allegheny standard for evaluating competitive solicitations; • we clarify that the FERC’s existing PURPA Regs. already require that states, to the extent practicable, must account for reduced loads in setting QF capacity rates; • we clarify terminology we used in the NOPR relating to the determination of whether small power production facilities are separate facilities to focus not on whether they are separate facilities, but rather to mirror the statutory language and thus focus on whether they are at “the same site”; • we clarify in the regs.that protests may be made to initial self-certifications and applications for FERC certification, but only to self-recertifications and applications for Commission recertification making substantive changes to the existing certification; • we identify additional factors that can be considered for small power production QFs located more than one but less than 10 miles apart, such as evidence of shared control systems, common permitting and land leasing, and shared step-up transformers; • we revise the regulations to lower the rebuttable presumption of small power production QFs’ nondiscriminatory access to 5 MW, rather than 1 MW as proposed in the NOPR, and include factors that a small power production QF sized greater than 5 MW could rely on to rebut the presumption that it has nondiscriminatory access to markets defined in PURPA sections 210(m)(1); and • we revise the proposed requirements to establish a legally enforceable obligation (LEO) to provide that with regard to the issue of obtaining permits, QFs need only have applied for all required permits, instead of being required to have already obtained those permits. FERC also made changes and clarifications in the rehearing order.

Annual Cost to Federal Government: $560,533

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

Does this ICR request any personally identifiable information (see OMB Circular No. A-130 for an explanation of this term)? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. No

Does this ICR include a form that requires a Privacy Act Statement (see 5 U.S.C. §552a(e)(3))? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. 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? No

Agency Contact: Nishi Parekh 202 502-8325

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