FERC-582 Supporting Statement

CUI

FERC-582 (OMB Control No.: 1902-0132)

Supporting Statement

FERC-582 (Electric Fees, Annual Charges, Waivers, and Exemptions)

(Three-year approval for extension requested)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) requests the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend its approval of the FERC-582, (Electric Fees, Annual Charges, Waivers, and Exemptions) under OMB Control Number 1902-0132 for an additional three years. The reporting requirements have not changed for this information collection.

1. CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAKE THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION NECESSARY

The Commission uses the FERC-582 to implement the statutory provisions of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952 (IOAA) which authorizes the Commission to establish fees for its services. In addition, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 (OBRA) authorizes the Commission to assess and collect fees and annual charges in any fiscal year in amounts equal to all the costs incurred by the Commission in that fiscal year.

The Commission has jurisdiction over all facilities used for the transmission of electrical energy in interstate commerce under Section 201(b) of the FPA. Any person who owns or operates facilities subject to the Commission’s jurisdiction is a public utility. The Commission is charged with the responsibility to ensure that a public utility’s rates, charges, and classifications are just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential under Sections 205 and 206 of the FPA.

2. HOW, BY WHOM, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE THE INFORMATION IS TO BE USED AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT COLLECTING THE INFORMATION

The information collected by the Commission on FERC-582 is used by Commission Staff to obtain total megawatt-hours of transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce, which for purposes of computing the annual charges are measured by the sum of the megawatt-hours of all unbundled transmission (including MWh delivered in wheeling transactions and all bundled wholesale power sales (to the extent these latter megawatt-hours are not separately reported as unbundled transmission). All parties involved in the generation and sale of electric energy rely on the transmission system to move their product. Power sellers will be contributing to the Commission’s recovery of electric regulatory program costs in that, they will be using the transmission system and, in any cost-based rates that they pay for transmission service that they may take, they will pay, albeit indirectly, their share of the Commission’s costs.

3. DESCRIBE ANY CONSIDERATION OF THE USE OF IMPROVED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE THE BURDEN AND TECHNICAL OR LEGAL OBSTACLES TO REDUCING BURDEN

The Commission allows eFiling for the FERC-582.

4. DESCRIBE EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY DUPLICATION AND SHOW SPECIFICALLY WHY ANY SIMILAR INFORMATION ALREADY AVAILABLE CANNOT BE USED OR MODIFIED FOR USE FOR THE PURPOSE(S) DESCRIBED IN INSTRUCTION NO. 2

The Commission periodically reviews filing requirements concurrent with OMB review or as the Commission deems necessary to eliminate duplicative filing and to minimize the filing burden. No similar information exists.

5. METHODS USED TO MINIMIZE THE BURDEN IN COLLECTION OF INFORMATION INVOLVING SMALL ENTITIES

FERC-582 is a regulatory filing requirement pertaining to the filing of fees for use by the Commission in its computation of annual charges. The data required imposes the least possible burden for small and large entities while collecting the information required to carry out the responsibilities under OBRA. The Commission provides as noted, waiver provisions (18 CFR 381.106 and 382.105(a)) and requests for exemption (18 CFR 381.108) from fees and annual charges, respectively, on the basis of financial hardship.

Respondents file requests for waivers and exemptions of fees and charges based on need. The Commission’s staff uses the filer’s financial information to evaluate the request for a waiver or exemption of the obligation to pay a fee or an annual charge.

6. CONSEQUENCE TO FEDERAL PROGRAM IF COLLECTION WERE CONDUCTED LESS FREQUENTLY

The Commission requires this information in order to perform its statutory requirements. Without this information, the Commission would be unable to meet its statutory responsibility required in 18 CFR 382.201 (c). This information is required only once a year and is necessary to compute annual charges the Commission will assess later to the applicable regulated entities.

7. EXPLAIN ANY SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO THE INFORMATION COLLECTION

There are no special circumstances related to this information collection.

8. DESCRIBE EFFORTS TO CONSULT OUTSIDE THE AGENCY: SUMMARIZE PUBLIC COMMENTS AND THE AGENCY’S RESPONSE

In accordance with OMB requirements, the Commission published a 60-day notice¹ and a 30-day notice² to the public regarding this information collection on April 16, 2021 and June 24, 2021, respectively. Within the public notices, the Commission noted that it would be requesting a three-year extension of the public reporting burden.

The Commission received no comments in response to the 60-day notice.

9. EXPLAIN ANY PAYMENT OR GIFTS TO RESPONDENTS

There are no payments or gifts to respondents of this collection.

10. DESCRIBE ANY ASSURANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY PROVIDED TO RESPONDENTS

The Commission does not consider the information collected in FERC-582 filings to be confidential.

If an entity chooses to seek confidential treatment of the information, they must submit a request for the Commission to treat this information as confidential and non-public, consistent with 18 CFR 388.112.

11. PROVIDE ADDITIONAL JUSTIFICATION FOR ANY QUESTIONS OF A SENSITIVE NATURE, SUCH AS SEXUAL BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES, RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, AND OTHER MATTERS THAT ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED PRIVATE.

There are no questions of a sensitive nature associated with the reporting requirements.

12. ESTIMATED BURDEN OF COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

Based on the Commission's recent information with the burden of FERC-582, the estimated burden and cost³ is:

FERC-582, Electric Fees, Annual Charges, Waivers, and Exemptions Docket No. IC21-16-0004
No. of Respondents (1)	Annual No. of Responses Per Respondent (2)	Total No. of Responses (1)x(2)=(3)	Average Burden & Cost per Response (4)	Total Annual Burden Hrs. & Cost (3)*(4)=(5)	Cost per Respondent (5)/(1)=(5)
53	1	53	2.39 hrs.; $198.37	126.67 hrs.; $10,513.61	$198.37

13. ESTIMATE OF THE TOTAL ANNUAL COST BURDEN TO RESPONDENTS

There are no non-labor PRA-related costs. All of the costs in the information collection are associated with burden hours and addressed in Questions #12 and #15.

14. ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The estimated annualized cost to the Federal Government for FERC-582 is:

FERC-582	Number of Employees (FTEs)	Estimated Annual Federal Cost (rounded)
Analysis and Processing of filings5	0.5	$86,164.50
PRA6 Administrative Cost7		$6,475.00
FERC-582 Total		$92,639.50

FERC bases its estimate of the “Analysis and Processing of Filings” cost to the Federal Government on salaries and benefits for professional and clerical support. This estimated cost represents staff analysis, decision-making, and review of any actual filings submitted in response to the information collection.

15. REASONS FOR CHANGES IN BURDEN INCLUDING THE NEED FOR ANY INCREASE

The total annual burden for FERC-582 information collection decreased by 14 responses and 33 burden hours from previously approved burden. The decrease in the number of responses and the decrease in total hours is related to more accurate estimate. FERC-582 submittals for qualifying conduit exemption applications are much less burdensome to prepare than the other applications reported.

The reporting requirements are not changing for FERC-582 information collection.

FERC-582	Total Request	Previously Approved	Change due to Adjustment in Estimate	Change Due to Agency Discretion
Annual Number of Responses	53	67	-14	0
Annual Time Burden (Hr.)	127	160	-33	0
Annual Cost Burden ($)	0	0	0	0

16. TIME SCHEDULE FOR PUBLICATION OF DATA

There is no publication of data associated with FERC-582 collection of information.

17. DISPLAY OF EXPIRATION DATE

The PRA information (including expiration dates and OMB Control Nos.) is posted at https://www.ferc.gov/enforcement-legal/legal/information-collections

18. EXCEPTIONS TO THE CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

There are no exception for FERC-582.

1 86 FR 20133, 04/16/2021

2 86 FR 33269, 6/24/2021

3 FERC’s 2020 average annual salary plus benefits of one FERC FTE (full-time equivalent): $172,329 (or $83.00 per hour).

4 This includes requirements of 18 CFR 381.105 (methods of payment), 381.106 (waiver), 381.108 (exemption), 381.302 (declaratory order), 381.303 (review of DOE remedial order), 381.304 (DOE denial of adjustment), and 381.305 (OGC interpretation).

5 The “Estimated Annual Federal Cost” uses the FERC’s 2020 average annual salary plus benefits of one FERC FTE (full-time equivalent): $172,329 (or $83.00 per hour).

6 Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520.

7 The Paperwork Reduction Act Administrative Cost is a Federal Cost associated with preparing, issuing, and submitting materials necessary to comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) for rulemakings, orders, or any other vehicle used to create, modify, extend, or discontinue an information collection.   This average annual cost includes requests for extensions, all associated rulemakings, and other changes to the collection, as well as the related publication of material in the Federal Register.