Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 226, November 24, 2010, Pages 71519-72652 Page: 71,623
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Federal Register/Vol. 75, No. 226/Wednesday, November 24, 2010/Proposed Rules
determination of penalties; 41 (3)
violation severity level assignments
should be consistent with the
corresponding requirement; and (4)
violation severity level assignments
should be based on a single violation,
not a cumulative number of
violations.42 The Commission found
that these guidelines will provide a
consistent and objective means for
assessing, inter alia, the consistency,
fairness and potential consequences of
violation severity level assignments.
The Commission noted that these
guidelines were not intended to replace
NERC's own guidance classifications,
but rather, to provide an additional level
of analysis to determine the validity of
violation severity level assignments.
72. On August 10, 2009, NERC
submitted an informational filing setting
forth a summary of revised guidelines
that NERC intends to use in determining
the assignment of violation risk factors
and violation severity levels for
Reliability Standards. NERC states that
these revised guidelines were consistent
with Commission's guidelines. On May
5, 2010, NERC submitted the subject
informational filing as a supplement to
its March 5, 2010 Violation Severity
Level Order compliance filing.43
NERC Proposal
73. NERC proposes a complete set of
violation severity levels and violation
risk factors for proposed new Reliability
Standards IRO-008-1, IRO-009-1, and
IRO-010-la. In addition, NERC
proposes to apply the existing set of
violation severity levels and violation
risk factors assigned to the proposed
modified requirements.
74. NERC states that it developed the
violation severity levels for the new IRO
Reliability Standards before the
Commission issued its June 19, 2008
order on violation severity levels.44
NERC also notes that the proposed
violation severity levels were developed
before NERC proposed a new
methodology for assigning violation
severity levels and violation risk
factors.45 As a result, NERC states that
41 Guideline 2 contains two sub-parts: (a) The
single violation severity level assignment category
for binary requirements should be consistent and
(b) violation severity levels assignments should not
contain ambiguous language.
42 Violation Severity Level Order, 123 FERC
61,284 at P 17.
43 North American Reliability Corporation, Filing
of the North American Electric Reliability
Corporation regarding the Assignment of Violation
Risk Factors and Violation Severity Levels, Docket
No. RRO8-4-005 (filed May 5, 2010).
44Id.
45NERC, Informational Filing Regarding the
Assignment of Violation Risk Factors and ViolationSeverity Levels, Docket Nos. RM08-11-000, RRO7-
9-000, and RRO7-10-000, (filed Aug. 10, 2009).some of the proposed violation severity
levels do not comport with the
Commission's guidelines on violation
severity levels and some do not comport
with the NERC's revised guidelines.
NERC has identified differences and
commits to propose revisions to the
violation severity levels.
NOPR Proposal
75. The Commission proposes to
accept the proposed violation risk
factors and violation severity levels
presented in NERC's petition. In
addition, we propose to accept NERC's
commitment to review the proposed
violation risk factors and violation
severity levels to ensure compliance
with the Commission's guidelines.
Accordingly, we propose to direct NERC
to submit a compliance filing within six
months of the effective date of the final
rule in this proceeding that would
provide the results of NERC's review
including any modifications necessary
to comply with the Commission's
guidelines on violation risk factors and
violation severity levels.
76. The violation risk factors and
violation severity levels for proposed
new Reliability Standards IRO-008-1,
IRO-009-1, and IRO-010-la, and the
proposed modified requirements also
would be impacted by NERC's revised
guidelines for assigning violation
severity levels currently pending before
the Commission in Docket No. RRO8-4-
005. Subject to Commission action on
NERC's revised guidelines, NERC may
need to make additional revisions to the
proposed violation risk factors and
violation severity levels.
III. Information Collection Statement
77. The Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) regulations require
approval of certain information
collection requirements imposed by
agency rules.46 Upon approval of a
collection(s) of information, OMB will
assign an OMB control number and an
expiration date. Respondents subject to
the filing requirements of this rule will
not be penalized for failing to respond
to these collections of information
unless the collections of information
display a valid OMB control number.
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) 47
requires each federal agency to seek and
obtain OMB approval before
undertaking a collection of information
directed to ten or more persons, or
continuing a collection for which OMB
approval and validity of the control
number are about to expire.48
46 5 CFR 1320.11.
47 44 U.S.C. 3501-20.4844 U.S.C. 3502(3)(A)(i), 44 U.S.C. 3507(a)(3).
78. The Commission is submitting
these reporting and recordkeeping
requirements to OMB for its review and
approval under section 3507(d) of the
PRA. Comments are solicited on the
Commission's need for this information,
whether the information will have
practical utility, the accuracy of
provided burden estimates, ways to
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity
of the information to be collected, and
any suggested methods for minimizing
the respondent's burden, including the
use of automated information
techniques.
79. This NOPR proposes to approve
three new Reliability Standards, IRO-
008-1, IRO-009-1 and IRO-010-la
governing reliability coordinator
analyses, operational actions and data
collection, which standards will replace
parts of the currently-effective
Reliability Standards EOP-001-0, IRO-
002-1, IRO-004-1, IRO-005-2, TOP-
003-0, TOP-005-1 and TOP-006-1
approved by the Commission in Order
No. 693. Many of the proposed
requirements are based requirements in
currently-effective Reliability Standards
and match common industry practice.
Thus, this proposed rulemaking does
not impose entirely new burdens on the
effected entities. With the exception of
the addition of Interchange Authority as
an applicable entity in IRO-010-la, the
currently-effective standards EOP-001-
0, IRO-002-1, IRO-004-1, IRO-005-2,
TOP-003-0, TOP-005-1 and TOP-006-
1 require actions by the same applicable
group of entities. IRO-010-la clarifies
for balancing authorities, generator
owners, generator operators, interchange
authorities, load-serving entities,
reliability coordinators, transmission
operators, and transmission owners
shall provide data and information, as
specified, to the reliability
coordinator(s) with which it has a
reliability relationship.49 The
requirements of IRO-008-1 and IRO-
009-a provide clarification from
existing requirements, dictating the
analysis and operational roles of the
reliability coordinator.
80. Public Reporting Burden: Our
estimate below regarding the number of
respondents is based on the NERC
compliance registry as of September 28,
2010. According to the NERC
compliance registry, there are 134
balancing authorities, 824 generator
owners, 773 generator operators, 61
interchange authorities, 541 load-
serving entities, 26 reliability
coordinators, 178 transmission
operators, and 332 transmission owners49 Proposed Reliability Standard IRO-010-la,
Requirement R3.71623
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United States. Office of the Federal Register. Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 226, November 24, 2010, Pages 71519-72652, periodical, November 24, 2010; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52807/m1/113/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.