With the North American electric grid experiencing “an alarming increase in reliability, resilience and security risks” — particularly cybersecurity, climate change and the evolving resource mix — NERC and the regional entities plan to raise their budgets and assessments by more than 10% in 2024.

NERC last week posted for industry comment its draft 2024 business plan and budget, along with those of the REs and the Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Body (WIRAB). Every document anticipates a budget increase of about 8% except WIRAB’s, which projects a decrease of $52,028, or 5.9%, from 2023; WIRAB’s assessment is still to grow by 1.6%, or $10,772. The overall ERO Enterprise budget is to grow by $25.2 million in 2024 to $275.4 million, while the collective assessments are to rise by 12.1%, from $214.1 million to $240.1 million.

Lion’s Share to NERC

As always, NERC’s budget is by far the largest contributor to the increase, at $110.6 million, up 9.5% from 2023. Personnel expenses account for the majority of NERC’s planned spending, at $64.4 million, up 11% from the prior year.

NERC plans to add 11.3 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions in 2024. The new employees are to be spread among the ERO’s departments, with the biggest increase of 2.59 FTEs in the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC). The new personnel will contribute to the E-ISAC’s “analytical capabilities [and] membership support,” along with expansion and enhancement of the Cybersecurity Risk Information Sharing Program, NERC said.

An additional 2.27 FTEs are to be added in the corporate services division, to support NERC’s cloud computing efforts and system administration, along with the publications team, while one open position is to be eliminated and filled with a contractor. Two positions are expected to be created to help with reliability standards development and technical expertise support, and the event analysis and situation awareness departments are to add one position each.

Additional growth in the personnel budget comes from increasing costs of salaries, health insurance and other benefits. NERC’s budget assumes a weighted average salary increase of 5.5%.

Meetings and travel costs are expected to rise 8.3% from 2023 levels, to $3.4 million. NERC said this increase “marks the return to pre-pandemic levels” of activity, though the ERO is also working to de-emphasize in-person meetings — in part to reduce expenses — with the most recent Board of Trustees and Member Representative Committee meetings following a hybrid format. (See NERC Board of Trustees/MRC Briefs: May 10-11, 2023.)

NERC’s operating expenses are to grow by 11.6% to $40.3 million due to additional contractor, consultant and software costs.

RE Budgets Set for Growth

WECC is projecting the largest budget of the REs, with $35.4 million expected in 2024, up $3.6 million from the year before. ReliabilityFirst is next with $31.3 million, a 12% increase, and SERC Reliability close behind at $31 million, up 10% from 2023. The Midwest Reliability Organization is to grow by $1.8 million to $24.9 million — the smallest increase of any RE — with the Northeast Power Coordinating Council rising 13.7% to $23.2 million and the Texas Reliability Entity projecting the smallest budget, at $19.2 million (up 8% from 2023).

ERO Enterprise assessments for 2023 (dark purple) and 2024 (light purple). | NERC

Like NERC, many of the REs’ budgets are driven by growing personnel, technology and travel costs. All entities reported they plan to add personnel, ranging from two FTEs in the case of MRO to the 12 estimated by NPCC. Meetings and travel are expected to increase for all REs except MRO, despite the entity planning to cohost the GridSecCon security conference next year.

Comments on the draft business plans and budgets are due by June 23.