NERC and the regional entities said the ongoing shutdown of business travel and remote work postures from COVID-19 helped fuel budget savings in 2021.

Finance officers across the ERO Enterprise said that inflation and cybersecurity investments will be major drivers of budget increases in 2023.

MRO’s annual reliability conference emphasized the inevitability of the transition to clean energy and avoiding future supply shortfalls with more generation.

Drought, wildfires, plant retirements and transmission outages have elevated the risk of supply shortfalls in the West, Texas, MISO and SPP, NERC said.

The Organization of MISO States is preparing a letter to MISO leadership to stress resource adequacy work following the last month’s capacity auction.

Michigan lawmakers proposed new consumer protections against utility blackouts, requiring customer credits that would increase the longer an outage lasts.

FERC last week approved penalties against utilities in the footprints of ReliabilityFirst, MRO, and WECC for violations of NERC reliability standards.

Severe weather and rapidly diversifying generation will challenge electric reliability in the next decade, NERC said in its Long-Term Reliability Assessment.

FERC accepted the ERO Enterprise's 2022 Business Plans and Budgets, reflecting planned increases in spending by NERC and the regional entities.

SPP says that consolidating its transmission planning processes would save $9 million annually and produce a more holistic view of its transmission needs.