[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 22, 1995)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 9774-9776]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-4233]
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[[Page 9775]]
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
18 CFR Part 284
[Docket No. RM93-4-007; Order No. 563-E]
Standards for Electronic Bulletin Boards Required Under Part 284
of the Commission's Regulations
Issued February 15, 1995.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Final rule; order granting clarification and extension of time.
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SUMMARY: In response to a request for clarification submitted by the
Electronic Bulletin Board Working Group, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission is issuing an order making changes to the fields that report
the maximum natural gas pipeline tariff rate related to released
capacity. The order clarifies that pipelines must report only the
maximum tariff rate related to the type of release involved; e.g., the
maximum reservation rate for a reservation rate release and the maximum
volumetric rate for a volumetric release. The order also grants an
extension of time for pipelines to implement the new fields.
DATES: New fields must be implemented on or before March 17, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol
Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Michael Goldenberg, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, NE., Washington, DC
20426, (202) 208-2294.
Marvin Rosenberg, Office of Economic Policy, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, NE., Washington, D.C. 20426,
(202) 208-1283
Brooks Carter, Office of Pipeline and Producer Regulation, Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission, 825 North Capitol Street, NE.,
Washington, D.C. 20426, (202) 208-0292
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In addition to publishing the full text of
this document in the Federal Register, the Commission also provides all
interested persons an opportunity to inspect or copy the contents of
this document during normal business hours in Room 3104, 941 North
Capitol Street NE, Washington DC 20426.
The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS), an electronic
bulletin board service, provides access to the texts of formal
documents issued by the Commission. CIPS is available at no charge to
the user and may be accessed using a personal computer with a modem by
dialing (202) 208-1397. To access CIPS, set your communications
software to 19200, 14400, 12000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, 1200 or
300bps, full duplex, no parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit. The full
text of this document will be available on CIPS for 60 days from the
date of issuance in ASCII and WordPerfect 5.1 format. After 60 days the
document will be archived, but still accessible. The complete text on
diskette in WordPerfect format may also be purchased from the
Commission's copy contractor, La Dorn Systems Corporation, also located
in Room 3104, 941 North Capitol Street, NE, Washington DC 20426.
Order Granting Clarification and Extension of Time
Issued February 15, 1995.
Before Commissioners: Elizabeth Anne Moler, Chair; Vicky A.
Bailey, James J. Hoecker, William L. Massey, and Donald F. Santa,
Jr.
On January 24, 1995, the Electronic Bulletin Board (EBB) Working
Group filed a request for clarification of the Commission's December
29, 1994 order 1 requiring pipelines to include maximum rate
fields as part of the capacity release data sets adopted by the
Commission in Order No. 563.2 The Working Group further requests
an extension of time for compliance until the later of 30 days after
the Commission issues a clarification order or the Gas*Flow
implementation guide is available in the Commission's public reference
room. The Commission will grant the requested clarification and will
extend the time for compliance until 30 days from the date of this
order.
\1\Standards For Electronic Bulletin Boards Required Under Part
284 of the Commission's Regulations, Order No. 563-D, 60 FR 1718
(Jan. 5, 1995), 69 FERC 61,418 (Dec. 29, 1994).
\2\Standards For Electronic Bulletin Boards Required Under Part
284 of the Commission's Regulations, Order No. 563, 59 FR 516 (Jan.
5, 1994), III FERC Stats. & Regs. Preambles 30,988 (Dec. 23, 1993),
order on reh'g, Order No. 563-A, 59 FR 23624 (May 6, 1994), III FERC
Stats. & Regs. Preambles 30,994 (May 2, 1994), reh'g denied, Order
No. 563-B, 68 FERC 61,002 (1994).
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In the December 29, 1994 order, the Commission accepted a proposal
by the Working Group to include the maximum tariff rate for capacity
posted for release. The Commission required the inclusion in the Award
Data Set of the maximum reservation rate and maximum volumetric rate
for released capacity. The Working Group had proposed that the fields
should be considered optional, meaning that a pipeline would include
the fields only if the pipeline chooses to do so or its tariff requires
it to include the information. The Commission, however, concluded that
the fields should be mandatory, because the Commission needed maximum
rate data for all releases from all pipelines.
The Working Group requests clarification, contending that these
fields should be designated conditional, rather than mandatory, fields.
A mandatory designation would mean that data must be included in both
of these fields for every release. The Working Group argues that if a
release is a reservation rate release, there is no need to include the
maximum volumetric rate, and vice versa.3 The Working Group
contends, therefore, that the maximum rate fields should be made
conditional on the type of release involved, so that only the maximum
rate related to the release would be provided; e.g., the maximum
reservation rate for a reservation rate release and the maximum
volumetric rate for a volumetric release.4 The Working Group
states that changing the field designation to conditional would not
disturb the Commission requirement that pipelines provide the maximum
rate data for all releases, but would only serve to ensure that
unnecessary information would not be provided. The Working Group has
included revised data sets to implement this change and stated that the
datasets would be provided to the Gas*Flow group for incorporation into
the EDI implementation guide.
\3\If a release is a blended release comprised of both a
reservation rate and volumetric component, the Working Group states
that data would have to be supplied for both fields.
\4\In the argot of the data sets, they propose that each maximum
rate field would be made conditional on the response to the Rate
From Type Code, which is a mandatory field that describes whether
the release is a (1) reservation rate, (2) volumetric, or (3)
blended release. If the Rate Form Type Code is 1 indicating a
reservation rate release, only the maximum reservation rate must be
provided. If the Rate Form Type Code is 2 indicating a volumetric
release, only the maximum volumetric rate must be provided. If the
Rate Form Type Code is 3 indicating a blended release, both the
maximum reservation rate and maximum volumetric rate must be
provided.
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The Commission will accept the proposed modification to make the
fields conditional as described in the data sets. The intent of the
December 29, 1994 order was to require pipelines to supply data on the
maximum rate for each release, but the Commission did not intend that
pipelines report a maximum rate that was unrelated to the type of
release involved; e.g., a maximum reservation rate for a volumetric
release. Such information [[Page 9776]] would be superfluous. Since the
Working Group's proposal would require pipelines to provide the
relevant maximum rate for all releases, the Commission will accept it.
The Working Group further requests that the Commission provide an
extension of time to comply with this requirement until the later of 30
days after the Commission issues a clarification order or the Gas*Flow
implementation guide is available in the Commission's public reference
room. The Commission will grant an extension of time until 30 days
after the issuance of this order.
Unlike the Working Group's previous filing, a proposed EDI
implementation guide was not provided along with the proposed change to
conditional fields. The Commission needs the information on maximum
release rates as promptly as possible and, given the minimum changes
necessary to implement the change, the Commission concludes that, if
Gas*Flow has not already made the necessary changes, it can make them
promptly. Thus, a 30 day delay is adequate to implement the proposed
changes. Once the implementation guide is finalized, it must be filed
with the Commission. The data sets and EDI implementation guide will
then be incorporated into the ``Standardized Data Sets and
Communication Protocols'' which is available at the Commission's Public
Reference and Files Maintenance Branch.
The Commission orders: (A) The Commission will grant the requested
clarification and accept the conditional fields for maximum reservation
rate and maximum volumetric rate as proposed in the January 24, 1995
filing.
(B) Pipelines must implement these new fields within 30 days of the
date of this order.
By the Commission.
Lois D. Cashell,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 95-4233 Filed 2-21-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
