Department of Energy April 24, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to section 215 of the Federal Power Act (FPA),\1\ the Commission proposes to approve modifications to four existing Reliability Standards as submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Commission certified Electric Reliability Organization. Specifically, the Commission is proposing to approve Reliability Standards FAC-001-1 (Facility Connection Requirements), FAC-003-3 (Transmission Vegetation Management), PRC-004- 2.1a (Analysis and Mitigation of Transmission and Generation Protection System Misoperations), and PRC-005-1.1b (Transmission and Generation Protection System Maintenance and Testing). The proposed modifications improve reliability either by extending their applicability to certain generator interconnection facilities, or by clarifying that the existing Reliability Standard is and remains applicable to generator interconnection facilities. The Commission also proposes to approve the related Violation Risk Factors and Violation Severity Levels, as well as the implementation plan and effective dates proposed by NERC.

Pursuant to section 215 of the Federal Power Act, the Commission proposes to approve the Version 5 Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standards, CIP-002-5 through CIP-011-1, submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the Commission-certified Electric Reliability Organization. The proposed Reliability Standards, which pertain to the cyber security of the bulk electric system, represent an improvement over the current Commission- approved CIP Reliability Standards as they adopt new cyber security controls and extend the scope of the systems that are protected by the CIP Reliability Standards. The Commission is concerned, however, that limited aspects of the proposed CIP version 5 Standards are potentially ambiguous and, ultimately, raise questions regarding the enforceability of the standards. Therefore, the Commission proposes to direct that NERC develop certain modifications to the CIP version 5 Standards to address the matters identified by the Commission.

In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3507(a)(1)(D), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is submitting the information collections Application for License/Relicense for Water Projects with Greater than 5 Megawatt Capacity (FERC-500), and Application for License/Relicense for Water Projects with 5 Megawatt or Less Capacity (FERC-505) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review of the information collection requirements. Any interested person may file comments directly with OMB and should address a copy of those comments to the Commission as explained below. The Commission published notices in the Federal Register (77 FR 56636, 9/13/2012, and 77 FR 73631, 12/ 11/2012) requesting public comments. FERC received no comments on the FERC-500 and FERC-505 for either notice and is making this notation in its submittal to OMB. The Commission is issuing this 15-day public notice due to a change of the estimated burden figures. Upon further review, the Commission found that the previously approved burden estimates (i.e. the numbers presented here) should be used.