The FERC XBRL mandate
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC, Commission) has since Q3 2021 started collecting financial and operational data from US energy companies in the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format. The MS Visual FoxPro-based data filing system has been discontinued.
The FERC requires the following forms to be submitted in XBRL format:
- Form 1, Form 1-F, Form 3-Q, Form 714 for electricity companies
- Form 2, Form 2A, and Form 3-Q for gas companies
- Form 6, Form 6-Q for oil pipeline companies
- Form 60 for service companies
In this blog, we examine Form 714 for electricity companies in detail.
What Is FERC Form 714?
The FERC uses Form 714 to collect information from electric utility balancing authorities and planning areas in the US. Form 714 is authorized by the Federal Power Act and is a regulatory support requirement provided by 18 CFR § 141.51.
The information collected through Form 714 is used by the FERC to monitor interconnected balancing authority area operations. This includes comprehensive information about balancing authority area generation, actual and scheduled inter-balancing authority area power transfers, and load. Form 714 data is also used to prepare status reports on the electric utility industry including a review of inter-balancing authority area bulk power trade information. Planning area data is used to monitor forecasted demands by electric utilities with fundamental demand responsibility, and to develop hourly demand characteristics.
Who Needs To Submit Form 714?
Parts I, II, and IV of the FERC Form 714 need to be completed by electric utilities operating a balancing authority area and groups of such utilities bound by pooling contracts, holding company operations, or other contracts, and operating a balancing authority area.
Each balancing authority area generally has one electric utility responsible for operating the area and its automatic generation balancing authority equipment. This utility should complete Part I, II, and IV of Form 714.
The balancing area authority in some large power pools may be operated by a member-designated agency or a holding company subsidiary. Such an entity needs to complete Part I, II, and IV of Form 714.
Electric utilities that own one or more power generation plants outside their balancing authority area – where the output is controlled by some other utility – should exclude such plants from Part II of Form 714. Information about such a plant needs to be provided by the utility in whose area the plant is located and controlled.
Utilities with planning area annual peak demand greater than 200 MW need to file Parts I, III, and IV of Form 714
Electric utilities that carry out resource planning and demand forecasting for a planning area need to complete Parts I, III, and IV of Form 714. Such utilities would typically be the principal resource planning and forecasting entity obligated to serve the planning area demands. Such utilities might be suppliers of full and partial requirements wholesale power to other electric utilities.
Often, Form 714 information will already have been reported to a utility’s regional reliability council. However, only utilities subject to the reporting requirements need to submit Form 714. Entities that are neither balancing authority area operators nor planning area operators, but who have their members’ authorization to compile Form 714 data on their behalf, need to make the data available to their balancing authority area and planning area operators. Those operators will in turn file the data with the FERC.
How to Submit Form 714?
The electric utilities mentioned above need to submit Form 714 in the XBRL format. Companies need to ensure they use high-quality, feature-rich XBRL reporting software that uses the latest FERC taxonomy.
IRIS CARBON® – a cloud-based, collaborative XBRL reporting platform – is the perfect fit for your FERC compliance. With a rich experience with SEC iXBRL filings and over 17 years of regulatory compliance experience, IRIS simplifies FERC reporting and ensures high-quality XBRL output.
We at IRIS CARBON® follow a simple four-step process for filing a form: Create project > Input values > Run validations > Submit your Forms
When to Submit Form 714?
Utilities need to submit their Q4 2021 filing of Form 714 on or before June 1, 2022.
Additional Info
In order to file FERC Forms in XBRL, you will need to get a CID number and eRegister yourself. Click here for more info on eRegistration: https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/Form-714.pdf
You can email ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov for further assistance with the initial login for your entity and instructions on eRegistering as a 714 Agent.
