Electronic Submission Software - Overview

Both Form 2 and 2A are handled by the same submission software. There is only one Form 2/2A Submission System. This also applies to Form 3-Q.

If you have not registered with FERC to use this software, you must email FERC Online Support at ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov for a PIN (personal identification number) for filing purposes. Your email must contain your name, email address, exact legal company name, address, phone and fax numbers. You will receive your PIN by return email.

Note: Comments sent to ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov are not considered an official filing before the Commission or made part of the record. To file an official comment on a proceeding before the Commission, please follow our Rules of Practice at 18 CFR 385 . You may also file comments related to a FERC project using eComment or eFiling.

Note: The current Form 2/2A Software has been updated/tested and will function correctly with Windows 10, Windows 7, and Windows Vista. Text cutting from MS Office documents and pasting into Footnotes and Notes to the Financials can be performed only with MS Office versions equal to or lower than 2013..

Installation Manual
The Form 2/2A Submission System Installation Manual is available for viewing and/or printing by your Web Browser. For anyone who is going to use the software, it is very important to read and understand those documents. In most cases, download, install, and operation are extremely simple and there are no problems. However, if your facility restricts Internet access via firewalls or proxies, certain additional options (inside the program) may need to be set before the program will work correctly. Also, if your facility uses Microsoft Windows NT, and if the NT settings have been set up to be very restrictive (e.g. a person is not allowed to install software on their own machine), other steps will be necessary. For example, if people do not have rights to install software on their machine, your IT department will have to 'unlock' the machine, allow the person to install the Form 2/2A software, and then 'lock' it back afterwards.

The first person to run the software will still need to download the database from FERC (the Installation Manual describes this in more detail). When that person downloads the database, it is highly recommended to place it on a network or shared drive so that multiple users could access it at the same time. If others install the software, they do not need to download the database again and again - they should simply 'point' to the same network location where the database was downloaded the first time. The system is fully multi-user capable. Even if only a single person will be editing the data, we recommend a network drive so that your system backup procedures will include the Form 2/2A database as well.

Internet Communications Problems
You will know when your workstation has Internet communication issues when; (a) long waits while checking for updates (b) unable to submit the Form 2/2A Filing, (c) unable to receive FERC software updates.

The Form 2/2A Submission System (F2SS) uses HTTP (to get the list of respondents for initial creation of your database - you only use this once), FTP Receive (to check for and deliver F2SS software updates) and FTP Send to submit your filing. These common Internet Communication Protocols may be blocked by your Internet Firewall for security reasons. This will require intervention by your computer or network support personnel.

The easiest and most effective solution is to ask your Firewall Administrator to install a rule in the Firewall permitting HTTP Send/Receive and FTP Send/Receive from DNS eforms1.ferc.gov. This presents a minimal security risk since all communication requests are issued by the Client (your workstation). In other words, in all instances, the FERC software on your workstation "requests" files from the FERC Forms Server. The FERC Forms Server does not "push" unsolicited information to your workstation. The FERC Forms Server (as well as all computer systems at FERC) are continuously monitored for virus "infection".