Power & Utilities Government Affairs: Benchmarking Budgets, Staffing and Organizational Structure in the US and Canada

Description

Electric power producers and utilities are traditionally highly regulated industries.  At federal, state and local levels, numerous policy issues directly impact these companies and their customers.  Such issues may include, but are not limited to, environmental regulation, energy security, taxation, and finance reform.  As such, electric power producers and utilities have a strong interest in not only staying informed of regulatory policy changes at the federal and state levels, but also influencing policy and regulatory changes.

Government affairs, or government relations, departments are responsible for engaging federal, state and local policy makers; keeping internal and external stakeholder informed of policy changs and how they may impact their business; and identifying, monitoring, analyzing and advocating for energy legislation that may impact the electric power production and distribution sectors.  Government affairs functions also are responsible for working with legislators and regulatory authorities to introduce new legislation that will advance their policy positions and foster a more favorable operating environment.

The role of the government affairs, or government relations, function is growing in strategic importance and value given a number of factors in the marketplace, including:

• a quickening pace of regulatory activities and policy changes in many US states and at the federal level,
• a push for greater prioritization of conflicting policy positions among business units, and
• the power of speaking to policymakers with one influential voice.

We developed this report to provide hard-to-find benchmark data on power and utilities companies’ government affairs functions.  Specifically, the months-long research effort that culminated in this report examines and compares the budgets, staffing levels, organizational structure composition, and projections for future changes in budgets, staffing and structure of the government affairs functions operating within a variety of power and utilities firms, including independent power producers (IPPs), investor-/privately-owned utilities (IOUs), and public/municipal utilities (MUNIs).

Data and Insights Included in This Report

• Government affairs department budgets, including budget breakdowns into major line items and spending categories
• Projections for changes to government affairs budgets in the coming years, including factors driving those changes
• Government affairs staffing headcounts (internal employees and contract workers) broken down by seniority level
• Trends and analysis of companies’ future plans for staffing in the next few years
• Analysis of government affairs / government relations organizational structures (stand-alone departments vs. multi-functional departments which include other functions, such as regulatory affairs, public affairs, finance, corporate affairs, etc.)
• Comparisons of centralized, decentralized and matrixed organizational structures
• Reporting relationships to executive management
• Plans for re-structuring government affairs departments in the next few years

Why Buy This Report

• Benchmark government affairs budgets and spending practices at power and utilities companies in the US and Canada
• Compare your department’s staffing resources to those of other companies
• Right-size your department’s staffing levels
• Make the case to management for additional budget and staffing resources
• Understand how organizational structure supports or hinders business performance
• Inform decisions about departmental reorganizations