FERC on Monday released its fiscal year 2024 budget request, with the regulator seeking a total budget of $520 million for the year.

The commission recovers the full costs of its operations through annual charges and filing fees assessed on the industries it regulates and deposits that with the Treasury, offsetting its congressional appropriations entirely.

The funding request is about 2.3% above fiscal year 2023 and includes the hiring of 58 additional full-time equivalent employees, bringing the total number of staff at FERC to 1,566.

“The additional resources will allow the commission’s program offices to undertake forward-looking strategic studies and expand external engagement efforts with a wide range of stakeholders,” FERC said. “In addition, targeted FTE investments will enhance the commission’s advisory services, strengthen organizational capabilities, streamline processes and minimize inefficiencies to address the commission’s evolving mission requirements. The FTE increase will continue to directly staff the new Office of Public Participation established in FY 2021.”

The first priority that the document lays out for FERC in the next fiscal year is to modernize electricity market design.

“Current market designs may not allow for the operational flexibility needed to address changing system needs that are being driven by an evolving resource mix and changing load profiles,” FERC said. “The commission will work with stakeholders to explore the gaps in current electricity market designs and identify potential reforms to modernize them.”

FERC started that work in FY 2022, requiring additional information in parties’ electronic quarterly reports. It has also worked to improve credit rules in the ISO/RTO markets.

This year and next, FERC will continue to evaluate the impact of the new database on the market-based rate program and evaluate credit rules, it said.

Another priority is to facilitate the development of the electricity infrastructure needed for the changing resource mix, FERC said. A large amount of new transmission is needed to address the challenges of and facilitate the interconnection of large quantities of new renewable resources in the markets while preserving reliability. The commission has issued some proposals on transmission planning and interconnection queues, and it will continue to evaluate those going forward, it said.

On its enforcement efforts, FERC said it was starting to make use of new technology and plans to transfer key data assets into the cloud by the end of this fiscal year. Moving surveillance screening and analysis to the cloud will make it work better and improve staff’s ability to monitor electric and natural gas markets, it said.

Another one of FERC’s goals for the fiscal year is to continue safeguarding infrastructure from threats to reliability and security, such as extreme weather, climate change and cyberattacks.

“The commission will address this priority through an integrated set of targeted actions designed to mitigate or avoid the adverse effects of widespread and extended power outages caused by these threats,” FERC said.