Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION:

60-Day notice of submission of information collection approval and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

The proposed information collection described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The Tennessee Valley Authority is soliciting public comments on this proposed collection.

DATES:

Comments should be sent to the Public Information Collection Clearance Officer no later than January 17, 2022.

ADDRESSES:

Requests for information, including copies of the information collection proposed and supporting documentation, should be directed to the Public Information Collection Clearance Officer: Jennifer A. Wilds, Specialist, Records Compliance, Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 W Summit Hill Dr., CLK-320, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902-1401; telephone (865) 632-6580 or by email at pra@tva.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Type of Request: New collection.

Title of Information Collection: Distribution Technology Capability Assessment.

Frequency of Use: Every 2 years.

Type of Affected Public: State, local, and tribal governments; small businesses; non-profit organizations.

Small Businesses or Organizations Affected: Yes.

Federal Budget Functional Category Code: 455.

Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 153.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 306.

Estimated Average Burden Hours per Response: 2.0.

Need For and Use of Information: As the Balancing Authority of the region, TVA must ensure the electrical grid is reliable. With the growth of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) on the distribution system, TVA and the Local Power Companies (LPCs) must work in tighter coordination to ensure the DER generation does not impact the reliability of the bulk electric system. To support this goal, TVA must understand the current distribution capabilities of the LPCs. Examples of capabilities include but are not limited to customer analytics, advanced asset management, advanced AMI, automated switching, DER monitoring & control, grid planning and voltage optimization. To ease access and completion, information will be submitted online. Once collected, the information will be reviewed by TVA staff and consultants to determine each LPC's state of and plan for system modernization and will inform strategic investment roadmaps and implementation plans that are being developed as part of the Regional Grid Transformation initiative. Summary level information will be provided to the participating LPCs to allow them to gauge where they stand in terms of their technical capabilities compared to their peers which could help give them useful information that informs their individual priorities and investment plans.