Why is FERC retiring a contingency reserve standard that covered 35 entities in the West?

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has moved to drop a regional reliability rule that forced balancing authorities and reserve sharing groups in the Western Interconnection to hold more contingency reserves than the continent-wide standard requires. For the 34 balancing authorities and one reserve sharing group still subject to it, the change removes an annual paperwork burden of 409 hours and roughly $26,000 in compliance costs.

The rule that asked for more than the baseline

BAL-002-WECC-3 sat on top of the national standard BAL-002-3. Both deal with contingency reserves — the extra generation or load capacity a balancing authority must keep ready to deploy when a large generator or transmission line trips offline. The national standard sets a floor. The WECC regional standard set a higher ceiling. Entities in the Western Interconnection had to document compliance with that higher ceiling, retain the records, and submit reports to WECC. The document says the regional standard "requires applicable WECC entities to maintain reserves at levels that exceed those required under the continent-wide Reliability Standard BAL-002-3."

Why the extra ceiling is coming down

NERC and WECC told the Commission that a recent review found no technical basis for the continued applicability of BAL-002-WECC-3. The filing states the regional standard "may be presenting unnecessary challenges" rather than advancing reliability in the Western Interconnection. That is the core mechanism: a regional entity reviewed its own standard, concluded the extra reserve requirement lacked justification, and asked FERC to retire the information collection tied to it. The Commission agreed to start that process.

What the burden numbers actually count

The Commission's burden estimate covers only the tasks that disappear when BAL-002-WECC-3 goes away. The table in the notice breaks it down:

Annual review and record retention for 34 balancing authorities: one response per entity per year, 12 hours each, at $63.52 per hour. That yields 408 hours and $25,916. One reserve sharing group files once a year, takes one hour, costs $63.52 — rounded to $64 in the total column. Combined: 35 entities, 409 hours, $25,980.

The hourly rate blends 75 percent of an electrical engineer's average wage ($71.19) and 25 percent of an information and record clerk's average wage ($40.51). The entity count comes from the NERC Compliance Registry as of February 9, 2026. The notice does not say how many of those 35 entities are actively operating versus registered but inactive.

The comment window that already closed once

FERC first published a notice on May 6, 2026. That comment period ended July 6, 2026. Zero comments arrived. The August 25 notice reopens the window for 30 days, with comments due September 24, 2026. The Commission is required by the Paperwork Reduction Act to ask the public whether the collection is necessary, whether the burden estimates are accurate, whether the information quality can be improved, and whether automation could reduce the load. The docket number is RD26-5-000. Comments go to OMB via reginfo.gov and a copy to DataClearance@FERC.gov.

What happens if the retirement sticks

If no substantive comments change the analysis, FERC will submit the retirement to OMB for final approval. Once approved, the 34 balancing authorities and the single reserve sharing group stop filing the BAL-002-WECC-3 compliance documentation. They still comply with BAL-002-3. The Western Interconnection keeps its contingency reserves. The only difference: the extra regional layer of reporting disappears.