FERC Adopt XBRL for Utilities Reporting
Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that they are adopting the XBRL standard for utilities reporting on Form Nos. 1, 1-F, 2, 2-A, 3-Q electric, 3-Q natural gas, 6, 6-Q, 60, and 714. The final rule states:
“The use of XBRL will make the information in these forms easier for filers to submit and data users to analyse, and assist in automating regulatory filings. The Commission believes that transitioning from the current Visual FoxPro system to XBRL will decrease the costs, over time, of preparing the necessary data for submission and complying with future changes to filing requirements set forth by the Commission.”
The rule requires the building of an XBRL taxonomy to accommodate XBRL formatting of the forms noted above. The rule further states that following the release of the draft taxonomy, the Commission will convene staff-led technical conference(s) to enable interested industry members, vendors, and the public to discuss and propose revisions to the draft taxonomy, along with other important components of the XBRL system. At the conclusion of the technical conference process, the Commission will continue to solicit comments and, after reviewing those comments, the Commission will issue an order adopting the final taxonomy, protocols, implementation guide and other documents, and establishing an implementation schedule.
Here at XBRL International, we applaud this move by FERC to adopt data standards to upgrade and modernise financial data reporting by energy utilities in the US.
Read the ruling here.
