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
ICR 202006-1902-004
OMB: 1902-0075
Federal Form Document
⚠️ Notice: This information collection may be outdated. More recent filings for OMB 1902-0075 can be found here:
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
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
11/30/2022
11/30/2022
11/30/2022
4,318
0
4,318
20,032
0
6,537
0
0
0
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.
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
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.
$560,533
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Nishi Parekh 202
502-8325
No
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Form Form No. 556, modi Certification of Qualifying Facility (QF) Status for a Small Power Production or Cogeneration Facility
rm19-15-001_20201119-3099_FERC Affirms Clarifies PURPA Final Rule.pdf
clean_FERC-556 FERC-912_RehearingRM19-16 12-1 2020 redline supp state.docx
Certification of Qualifying Facility (QF) Status for a Small Power Production or Cogeneration Facility