On June 20, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that it is “revising its electronic filing format for certain data collections to make it easier for filers to submit and data users to analyze information.” They are hoping that modernizing the “data collections and making them more accessible,” will help to increase efficiency for both business information processing and regulatory filings. This is also intended to help further FERC’s goal to increase transparency and decrease the costs that come with preparing data for submission.

FERC is also planning to put together a database to make it easier to search through the forms and find the information they need.

The new filing format will be “eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), a nonproprietary, open technology standard.” Using XBRL will enhance both the system’s security and compatibility, and it should “allow efficient sharing of data across different information systems.” FERC said that this move has been supported by many groups in the industry.

The new standard forms will be “Form Nos. 1, 1-F, 2, 2-A, 3-Q electric, 3-Q natural gas, 6, 6-Q, 60 and 714.” FERC plans to “develop a draft XBRL taxonomy that will be discussed at a future technical conference.” They will also be accepting further comments on this subject before they issue an “order to adopt the final standard and establish an implementation schedule.”

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