91 FERC  61,081 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION Before Commissioners: James J. Hoecker, Chairman; William L. Massey, Linda Breathitt, and Curt H‚bert, Jr. Open Access Same-Time Information System Docket No. RM95-9-010 and Standards of Conduct ORDER GRANTING CLARIFICATION AND DENYING REHEARING (Issued April 26, 2000) The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) filed a request for rehearing and clarification of the Commission's order issued in this proceeding on February 25, 2000 in Open Access Same-Time Information System and Standards of Conduct, Final Rule, Order No. 638, 65 Fed. Reg. 17,370, 90 FERC  61,202 (2000). In this order, as discussed below, we clarify that: (1) NERC, acting as an agent on behalf of transmission providers, may continue to charge a nominal annual fee to administer registration of OASIS users on behalf of transmission providers through an the industry-wide OASIS Home Page (www.tsin.com); and (2) NERC need not enter specific agency agreements with each transmission provider to accomplish this. Given these clarifications, we dismiss NERC's request for rehearing as moot. Background On February 25, 2000, the Commission issued Order No. 638, which included a set of "Business Practice Standards for OASIS Transactions" (BPS) to implement the Commission's policies on transmission service price negotiation and improve interactions between transmission providers and customers over OASIS nodes. Regarding the registration of OASIS users on a single industry- wide Internet website, we stated as follows: We expect that a single industry-wide OASIS Home Page for registration that keeps track of OASIS users, transmission providers, and transmission providers' services, would have great benefits. However, we are still concerned that an entity not subject to the Commission's jurisdiction would be setting fees for the use of the industry-wide OASIS Home Page. Thus, we will require transmission providers to: (1) use the industry-wide OASIS Home Page at www.tsin.com; and (2) ensure that the third-party operator of the industry- Docket No. RM95-9-010 -2- wide OASIS Home Page acts as an agent on behalf of affected transmission providers. In our view, such an arrangement would create a mechanism for transmission providers to recover the reasonable fees they paid for the operation and maintenance of the industry-wide OASIS Home Page, while keeping transmission providers responsible for ensuring that the industry-wide OASIS Home Page is properly operated. [Footnotes omitted]. NERC seeks clarification of whether Order No. 638 intended to disturb its existing practice of charging an annual fee of $100 to administer registration of OASIS users on behalf of transmission providers and whether Order No. 638 requires NERC to enter specific agency agreements with each transmission provider as the prescribed means to recover the expenses of administering the registration of OASIS users. NERC seeks rehearing to the extent that the above-described clarification is denied. Discussion As explained in Order No. 638, the Commission has concerns about a non-jurisdictional entity setting the charge for registering OASIS users. This concern is satisfied, however, so long as NERC sets and collects this charge only as an agent for the affected transmission providers. Moreover, the $100 annual registration fee is only a nominal charge and does not present a 1 significant obstacle to accessing the industry-wide OASIS Page. Also, our references in Order No. 638 to an agency relationship between the third party registrar of OASIS users and transmission providers was never intended to create a requirement that NERC execute a separate (or joint) agency agreement with each transmission provider. Instead, the references were intended to underscore that the Commission's allowing NERC to register OASIS users "does not undermine the responsibilities of individual transmission providers to make their OASIS sites accessible to users and potential users, and to operate their OASIS sites in compliance with all applicable Commission orders and regulations." We intended to make clear that by allowing NERC to register OASIS users, we did not intend to shift the responsibility for compliance with OASIS requirements from transmission providers to a third party registrar of OASIS users. We also sought to emphasize that a third party registrar of OASIS users could not by itself deny access to the OASIS. It would be up to the transmission providers to seek Commission approval to 1 We note, however, that 18 C.F.R.  37.5(c) requires that "read only" access to the OASIS is to be given to Commission staff and the staffs of State regulatory authorities and that we interpret this to include registration as an OASIS user through the NERC website. Docket No. RM95-9-010 -3- deny or revoke OASIS access to any customer or potential customer. The Commission orders: (A) NERC's motion for clarification is hereby granted, as discussed in the body of this order. (B) NERC's request for rehearing is hereby dismissed, as discussed in the body of this order. By the Commission. ( S E A L ) David P. Boergers, Secretary.