96-5166. Revisions to Uniform System of Accounts, Forms, Statements, and Reporting Requirements for Natural Gas Companies  

  • [Federal Register Volume 61, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 6, 1996)]
    [Rules and Regulations]
    [Pages 8870-8872]
    From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
    [FR Doc No: 96-5166]
    
    
    
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    DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
    18 CFR Part 284
    
    [Docket No. RM95-4-000]
    
    
    Revisions to Uniform System of Accounts, Forms, Statements, and 
    Reporting Requirements for Natural Gas Companies
    
    February 29, 1996.
    AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
    
    ACTION: Final rule; Notice Adopting Electronic Filing Specifications 
    for the Index of Customers and Discount Transportation Rate Report.
    
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    SUMMARY: On September 28, 1995, the Commission issued a final rule in 
    this proceeding requiring pipelines to file electronically, a quarterly 
    Index of Customers through a downloadable file, and the discount 
    transportation rate reports previously filed only on paper. The 
    Commission is adopting specifications and instructions for the 
    electronic filing of these reports. These filing specifications are 
    entitled ``Instruction Manual for Electronic Filing of the Index of 
    Customers,'' and ``Instruction Manual for Electronic Filing of the 
    Discount Transportation Rate Report,'' respectively.
    
    DATES: Pipelines must implement the data sets for the Index of 
    Customers starting on April 1, 1996, and for the discount 
    transportation rate reports, starting with the first filing after April 
    1, 1996.
    
    ADDRESSES: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., 
    Washington, D.C. 20426.
    
     
    [[Page 8871]]
    
    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
    Richard A. White, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Energy 
    Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Washington, D.C. 20426, 
    (202) 208-0491
    Elizabeth A. Taylor, Office of Pipeline Regulation, 888 First Street 
    NE., Washington, D.C. 20426, (202) 208-0826.
    
    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 
    the document during normal business hours in Room 2-A, 888 First 
    Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 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 if dialing locally or 1-800-856-3720 if dialing 
    long distance. To access CIPS, set your communications software to 
    19200, 14400, 12000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400 or 1200 bps, full duplex, 
    no parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit. The full text of this notice 
    will be available on CIPS indefinitely in ASCII and WordPerfect 5.1 
    format. 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 the Public Reference Room, 888 First 
    Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426.
        The Commission's bulletin board system can also be accessed through 
    the FedWorld system directly by modem or through the Internet. To 
    access the FedWorld system by modem:
    
     Dial (703) 321-3339 and logon to the FedWorld system.
     After logging on, type: /go FERC
    
        To access the FedWorld system, through the Internet:
    
     Telnet to: fedworld.gov
     Select the option: [1] FedWorld
     Logon to the FedWorld system
     Type: /go FERC
    
    Or:
    
     Point your Web Browser to: http://www.fedworld.gov
     Scroll down the page to select FedWorld Telnet Site
     Select the option: [1] FedWorld
     Logon to the FedWorld system
     Type: /go FERC
        On September 28, 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
    (Commission) issued Order No. 581, amending its Uniform System of 
    Accounts, its forms, and its reports and statements for natural gas 
    companies.1 These changes include modifications to the 
    Commission's electronic filing requirements.
    
        \1\ Revisions to Uniform System of Accounts, Forms, Statements, 
    and Reporting Requirements for Natural Gas Companies, 60 FR 53019 
    (October 11, 1995).
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        Order No. 581 contains several new and revised electronic filing 
    requirements. Interstate pipelines transporting or storing gas under 
    subparts B and G must now provide an electronic Index of Customers 
    through a downloadable file that is updated quarterly.2 The 
    discount rate report, previously filed only on paper, will now be filed 
    both on paper and electronically.3 In addition, the electronic 
    filing requirements for Form Nos. 2, 2-A, and 11 must be modified to 
    recognize changes made to these forms.
    
        \2\ See 18 CFR 284.106(c) and 284.223(b). II FERC Stats. & Regs. 
    Paras.  24,866 and 24,943. No paper copies of the Index of Customers 
    are required to be filed.
        \3\ See 18 CFR 284.7(c)(6). II FERC Stats. & Regs. para. 24,847. 
    In its ``Order on Clarification and Granting Rehearing Solely for 
    the Purpose of Further Consideration,'' 73 FERC para. 61,215 (1995), 
    the Commission clarified that the discount rate reports should be 
    filed solely on paper until the electronic filing specifications are 
    issued.
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        Although Order No. 581 imposed new electronic filing requirements, 
    it did not include the final electronic filing specifications. The 
    Commission wanted to provide the industry the opportunity to 
    participate in the formulation of the specifications and formats for 
    the electronic filing requirements. To ensure the widest possible 
    input, the Commission directed its staff to convene an informal 
    technical conference. The first conference was convened on December 1, 
    1995. As a result of the discussions at that meeting, the Commission's 
    staff has formulated the final electronic filing requirements for the 
    Index of Customers and the discount rate reports, attached as 
    Appendices A and B, respectively.4 Work on Form Nos. 2, 2-A, and 
    11 will be completed by the working group established for that 
    purpose.5
    
        \4\ The Appendices are not being published in the Federal 
    Register, but are available from the Commission's Public Reference 
    Room.
        \5\ The Working Group--Forms met on December 12, 1995, and again 
    on February 7, 1996.
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        The Index of Customers consists of five data elements: the customer 
    name, the rate schedule under which service is rendered, the contract 
    effective date, the contract termination date, and the maximum daily 
    contract quantity, for either transportation or storage service, as 
    appropriate. Since the expiration date of the contract may depend on 
    the terms of an evergreen or roll-over provision,6 a separate 
    field is provided to enter the number of days in the roll-over or 
    evergreen period. For example, if a contract has passed its primary 
    expiration date, and is continuing on a month-to-month basis, the 
    pipeline would report the number 31. This number was chosen since the 
    next possible expiration date would be in one month's time. For three 
    of the four reporting dates, that is 31 days away. To minimize the 
    number of changes each quarter to the Index, the working group 
    participants agreed to use the number 31 to designate an evergreen 
    period of one month and 365 to designate one year. If the primary term 
    has not yet expired and, therefore, the contract is not operating under 
    an evergreen or roll-over clause, this field would be empty. That is, 
    two tabs would appear side-by-side.
    
        \6\ These terms are defined in the electronic filing 
    specifications as they are defined in Order No. 636. III FERC 
    Statutes and Regulations para. 30,939 at 30,445.
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        The primary term must be reported for every record. When the 
    contract is operating under an evergreen clause, the next possible 
    termination date can only be determined by using the primary term date 
    and the number of days reported in the ``Days Until Next Possible 
    Contract Expiration'' field.
        In a departure from past practice, a three-character code to 
    identify the filing pipeline will be used for the Index of Customers 
    and the discount rate reports. Previously, the electronic filing 
    requirements specified a six-digit company code available from the 
    Energy Information Agency. In the future, the three-digit code assigned 
    by the Commission as part of the docket number in all dockets with the 
    prefix ``TM,'' will be used to identify the filing pipeline. The new 
    code's short length allows it to be used not only in the data, but as 
    part of the filename. A complete list of the pipelines' three-digit 
    codes is included in these filing specifications.
        In addition to the file specifications and definitions, the filing 
    instructions contain aids to filing. One such aid is a presentation of 
    a sample tab-delimited file, and a sample of what it would look like 
    when displayed in a text editor. These samples are intended to help the 
    pipeline accurately create the file. Also included is a section 
    entitled ``File Creation Hints/ Do's and Don'ts, which contains helpful 
    hints on creating a tab-delimited file in several popular software 
    applications.
        These electronic filing specifications for the Index of Customers 
    and discount 
    
    [[Page 8872]]
    rate reports, entitled ``Instruction Manual for Electronic Filing of 
    the Index of Customers,'' and ``Instruction Manual for Electronic 
    Filing of the Discount Transportation Rate Report,'' respectively, and 
    attached to this notice as Appendices A and B, are hereby adopted. The 
    first electronic filing of the Index of Customers under sections 
    284.106(c) and 284.223(b) will be April 1, 1996. April 1 is one of the 
    four scheduled filing dates provided for in the referenced regulations. 
    The first discount rate reports to be filed electronically will be the 
    reports due for the month of March 1996. Those reports are due within 
    15 days of the close of the March billing period.
    
        By direction of the Commission.
    Lois D. Cashell,
    Secretary.
    [FR Doc. 96-5166 Filed 3-5-96; 8:45 am]
    BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
    
    

Document Information

Published:
03/06/1996
Department:
Energy Department
Entry Type:
Rule
Action:
Final rule; Notice Adopting Electronic Filing Specifications for the Index of Customers and Discount Transportation Rate Report.
Document Number:
96-5166
Dates:
Pipelines must implement the data sets for the Index of Customers starting on April 1, 1996, and for the discount transportation rate reports, starting with the first filing after April 1, 1996.
Pages:
8870-8872 (3 pages)
Docket Numbers:
Docket No. RM95-4-000
PDF File:
96-5166.pdf
CFR: (1)
18 CFR 284