[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 12, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-682]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: January 12, 1994]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
18 CFR Parts 141, 375 and 385
[Docket No. RM93-20-000]
Electronic Filing of FERC Form No. 1 and Delegation to Chief
Accountant; Intent To Act and Response to Comments
Issued December 30, 1993.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; notice of intent to act and
response to comments.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has received comments
on its proposal to amend its regulations to provide for the electronic
filing of FERC Form No. 1, ``Annual Report of Major electric utilities,
licensees and others''. The Commission intends to issue a final rule
pending the development and testing of the necessary software, and
anticipates that this will be completed for reporting year 1994. The
Commission, in this document, is also providing comments on certain
suggestions and recommendations made by interested parties concerning
features they believe should be incorporated in the software.
DATES: Form 1 is due on or before April 30, 1994, but no electronic
filings. The Commission anticipates it will complete its final rule in
1994 in order to provide for the electronic filing of Form 1 for the
reporting year 1994, due on or before April 30, 1995.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Richard Mattingly (Legal Information), Electric Rates and Corporate
Regulation, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, 825 North Capitol Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, (202)
208-2070
James G. Baird (Technical Information), Office of Chief Accountant,
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 810 First Street NE., Washington,
DC 20426, (202) 219-2613
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, at 941 North
Capitol Street NE., Washington, DC 20426.
The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS), an electronic
bulletin board service, provides access to the text 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 use
300, 1200, or 2400 bps, full duplex, no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop
bit. CIPS can also be accessed at 9600 bps by dialing (202) 208-1781.
The full text of the Final Rule will be available on CIPS for 30 days
from the date of issuance. 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.
I. Introduction
On July 23, 1993, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(Commission) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR)1 in
which the Commission proposed to amend 18 CFR Parts 141 and 385 to
provide for the electronic filing of FERC Form No. 1, ``Annual Report
of Major electric utilities, licensees and others'' (Form 1). Under the
proposed rule, in addition to paper copies, future Form 1 filings would
also be made by means of a computer diskette incorporating software
programming developed by the Commission. Electronic reporting of Form 1
was proposed to commence with reporting year 1993, due on or before
April 30, 1994. No change was proposed in Form 1 itself.
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\1\58 FR 40606 (July 29, 1993); IV FERC Stats. & Regs. 32,498
(1993).
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The Commission also proposed to amend 18 CFR part 375 to delegate
to the Chief Accountant or his designee the authority to act on
requests for waiver of the Form 1 and Form 1-F2 filing
requirements.3
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\2\FERC Form No. 1-F, ``Annual Report of Nonmajor public
utilities and licensees.''
\3\No party objected to the proposal to delegate authority to
rule on requests for waiver of the Form 1 and Form 1-F filing
requirements. The proposal is being implemented by a separate order
issued concurrently with this notice.
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Interested parties were requested to submit written comments.
Comments were received from 22 electric utilities,4 three industry
associations5 and the Energy Information Administration of the
U.S. Department of Energy.
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\4\American Electric Power System, Arizona Public Service
Company, Carolina Power & Light Company, Cincinnati Gas & Electric
Company, Commonwealth Edison Company, Commonwealth Energy System,
Delmarva Power & Light Company, Duke Power Company, Florida Power &
Light Company, Florida Power Corporation, Idaho Power Company, Iowa
Illinois Gas & Electric Company, Kansas City Power & Light Company,
Kentucky Utilities Company, Nantahala Power and Light Company, New
England Power Service Company, Ohio Edison Company, PSI Energy,
Inc., Pennsylvania Power & Light Company, Southern Company Services,
Inc., UtiliCorp United, Inc., Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.
\5\American Public Power Association, Edison Electric Institute,
Wisconsin Utilities Association, Inc.
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Having considered these comments, the Commission is deferring
issuance of a final rule at this time pending development and testing
of the necessary software. Once that process is complete the Commission
intends to issue a final rule providing for the electronic filing of
Form 1. The Commission presently anticipates that that process will be
complete in time for the electronic filing of Form 1 for reporting year
1994, due on or before April 30, 1995. However, there will be no
electronic reporting of Form 1 for reporting year 1993.
In the meantime, the Commission believes it useful to comment on
certain suggestions and recommendations made by interested parties
concerning features they believe should be incorporated in the
software.
II. Summary of Proposal
The Commission is presently developing a personal computer (PC)
based software package for Form 1 reporting.6 The software will be
available on standard computer diskettes with instructions and
documentation, and will be sent to each Form 1 respondent without
charge. This package will display the Form 1, schedule by schedule, on
a respondent's PC. The required data may then be manually key-entered
on the respondent's PC. The program will also permit the respondent to
``import'' the required data from its PC or mainframe computer directly
into the software package, thus avoiding the manual data-entry process.
When the data entry process is completed, the respondent, using the
software, will produce a data diskette that will be submitted to the
Commission, along with the required paper copies.7 The data
contained on the data diskette will be in a data base format for use by
the Commission.
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\6\An IBM compatible, DOS-based system.
\7\The software package will also enable respondents to print
paper copies of the form.
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The Commission has already initiated the process of procuring the
necessary software package for automating Form 1 reporting. The
Commission intends to test all aspects of the system, including data
input, data output, and print capability. The Commission also intends
to conduct a field test of the software package with volunteer Form 1
respondents.
In the NOPR, the Commission stated that it expected the program to
be complete and to have diskettes ready for distribution to each Form 1
respondent in time to allow reporting for reporting year 1993 by the
April 30, 1994 filing deadline; that time frame is being delayed
pending development and testing of the necessary software. Thus, there
will be no electronic reporting of Form 1 for reporting year 1993.
III. Discussion of Comments
The commenters generally expressed support for the objectives set
forth in the NOPR, although virtually all suggested a delay in
implementation until at least reporting year 1994.
The commenters also made numerous suggestions and recommendations
concerning development and implementation of the proposal. It was the
Commission's intention in initiating this proposal that the software
would be developed by the Commission's staff and that modifications or
revisions would be made as necessary based on the results of staff and
field tests.
Nevertheless, a number of commenters have offered specific
suggestions as to features which they believe should be incorporated in
the software, and the Commission has reviewed these various suggestions
and is prepared to state its views on most of these suggestions.
Additionally, the Commission's staff will continue to evaluate
suggestions as the software is developed and the field test is
undertaken.
A. Effective Date of Electronic Reporting Requirement and Response to
Comments on Software
A majority of the commenters suggested that implementation be
delayed from reporting year 1993; they variously suggest delays until,
for example, reporting year 1994, or voluntary filing in 1994 and
mandatory filing in 1995, or until one year after the software package
has been fully tested.
Based on the comments received, the Commission agrees that the
electronic reporting requirement should not be implemented for the 1993
reporting year. Rather, we believe that the electronic reporting
requirement should be delayed pending development and testing of the
required software.
As stated both in the NOPR and above, the Commission intends to
conduct a field test of the Form 1 software with volunteer respondents
and, to the extent needed, modifications will be made. This field
testing will be in addition to testing by the Commission's staff. In
order to allow sufficient time for development and testing, the
Commission concludes that the most prudent course at the present time
is to defer implementation.
As noted above, the NOPR only addressed the adoption of an
electronic filing requirement and the effective date for that
requirement (and a delegation of authority). It did not address the
specifics of the electronic filing, its development and implementation.
The Commission believes that the details of such development and
implementation are best done at the staff level in the first instance.
Although not specifically solicited in the NOPR, many of the
commenters nevertheless made recommendations on features they would
like to see included in the software, or that they felt needed to be
included in the software. We anticipate that many of the
recommendations will, in fact, be included in the initial version of
the software. There are others which appear to be worthwhile features
which are not contemplated for the initial version software, although
they may be considered and included in future updates. We believe that
other recommendations are without merit in that they are at odds with
the intent of the Form 1 as a whole (i.e., uniform reporting), or the
purpose of electronic filing.
It is presently anticipated that the following features suggested
by commenters will be incorporated in the initial software program:
1. Edit checking within pages and across pages.
2. Supplemental or continuation page feature.
3. Use of data base structure in ASCII format.
4. Compatibility with different types of printers, including laser
printers.
5. Footnote references on schedules by line items and written
columns, including headings.
6. View screen option.
7. Menu driven screens, including a help function.
8. Support function to provide assistance to users when
implementing the new software.
9. LAN compatibility.
Certain additional features suggested by commenters are not
considered feasible for incorporation in the initial software, but may
merit consideration in future software updates. These features include
the following:
1. Submission by modem rather than diskette.
2. Electronic dissemination capability to others.
3. Incorporation of filings on a ``bulletin board'' accessible to
the public.
4. Providing a diskette to update Form 1 schedules without reissue
of the entire software package each year.
5. Providing a capability to carry over data from year to year in
instances where there is no change in the data to be reported.
6. Providing a capability to extract portions of the program onto
diskettes for distribution to various individual departments.
Certain additional proposed features have been determined to be
inconsistent with the basic Form 1 objective of uniform reporting by
the electric utility industry, and are therefore rejected. These
features include the following:
1. Providing a capability to insert user defined rows.
2. Allowing for center, left and right justification of data within
columns.
3. Elimination of General Instruction II (use of whole numbers,
dollars or MWH).
4. Providing compatibility of the software with Lotus 1-2-3
spreadsheet or Windows.8
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\8\However, the Commission's software will allow a user to
export data files to ASCII, which can then be read by spreadsheets
or other software; also, the Commission's software can be run in a
DOS session within windows.
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American Electric Power System (AEP) and Utilicorp United, Inc.
suggest that the Form 1 software should be made compatible with the
Securities and Exchange Commission's Electric Data Gathering Analysis
and Retrieval (EDGAR) system, or that a system should be adopted based
on EDGAR. The Commission declines to adopt this suggestion. In
developing requirements for the electronic filing of Form 1, a number
of approaches were considered initially, including the EDGAR system.
The approach chosen was based on the Commission's information needs, as
well as the estimated costs of development and implementation. It was
concluded that the software program should be consistent with the
current information and data formats of Form 1. Consequently the EDGAR
approach was not, and is not, adopted.
Delmarva Power & Light Company and Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
suggest that the software program be based on (or similar to) EEI's
electronic Uniform Statistical Report (USR). The Commission declines to
adopt this recommendation. Form 1 reporting is more extensive than that
for the USR. Because of the unique information requirements of Form 1,
compatibility with the USR program would be difficult to develop and
maintain and would not be cost effective.
CG&E suggests that, for combination gas and electric utilities,
Form 1 reporting under the Federal Power Act should be compatible with
Form 2 reporting under the Natural Gas Act. At this time, there are no
plans to attempt to make Form 1 and Form 2 reporting electronically
compatible.
Florida Power & Light Company (FP&L), Florida Power Corporation,
and EEI argue that, because of the emergence of competition in the
industry, sensitive competitive data should no longer be required or
publicly disclosed, citing as an example electric generating plant
operating statistics. This issue is beyond the scope of this proceeding
and the Commission will therefore not address it.
FP&L argues that, before continuing with the electronic filing
project, the Commission should review the actual data required to be
reported on Form 1, and should eliminate obsolete or unnecessary
information. The subject matter of this proceeding is the electronic
filing of Form 1. It was not intended as, and is not, a forum for
evaluation of the need for the data presently required to be reported.
Accordingly, as the issue is beyond the scope of this proceeding, the
Commission will not address it.
Utilicorp United, Inc. argues that the existing systems used by the
many Form 1 respondents are incompatible and that no product or program
exists to convert them to a usable computer format. The Commission
agrees that no comprehensive program exists to convert the various
systems in use to the Commission's electronic software. The Commission
anticipates, however, that the Form 1 software program will allow the
respondents to develop and use such a conversion program.
IV. Conclusion
Accordingly, in light of the foregoing, the Commission hereby gives
notice of its intent to defer issuance of a final rule prescribing the
electronic filing of Form 1 at this time.
The Commission expects that it will issue a final rule in 1994 to
provide for the electronic filing of Form 1 for reporting year 1994,
due on or before April 30, 1995.
By direction of the Commission.
Lois D. Cashell,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 94-682 Filed 1-11-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
