SAINT PAUL, MN. Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) is in the final stages of developing its 2027 Business Plan and Budget, a draft of which is now available for industry review and comment. The draft budget of $28.3 million reflects an overall increase of 1.9 percent from the 2026 budget and invests in the necessary resources to support the ERO Enterprise vision of a highly reliable and secure North American bulk power system.

In developing the budget, MRO’s leadership team focused on prioritizing investments around the strategic plan fundamentals of people, processes and partnerships andthe following three-year strategic priorities:

1. Ensure that MRO remains an innovative, resilient, and high-performing organization with requisite expertise and leadership to navigate the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly transforming grid.
2. Implement high standards of operational excellence in everything we do, emphasizing effectiveness and efficiency to deliver utmost value to our stakeholders.
3. Foster an agile, adaptive, and collaborative relationship with internal and external stakeholders to effectively coordinate efforts to reduce risk and enhance reliability and security of the North American bulk power system.

The 2027 budget increase primarily supports enhanced stakeholder outreach, specifically by expanding activities within regulatory affairs and providing more resources for the Joint Reliability, Security, and Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program Summit. Operational costs are also rising due to new software maintenance, consulting fees, and staff training for new industry initiatives. The budget also reflects MRO’s “people-first” philosophy through competitive salaries and benefits designed to retain a high-caliber workforce.

Regarding the assessment charged to load-serving entities, the draft 2027 budget proposes a 1.9 percent increase over 2026 (from $26.2 million to $26.7 million). MRO will use $1.6 million from reserves to stabilize assessments and offset the increase.

The draft 2027 Business Plan and Budget is available for review on MRO’s website. Comments and questions should be directed to MRO’s Vice President and Chief Strategy and Financial Officer Lam Chung no later than June 2, 2026.

Following the comment period, the draft 2027 Business Plan and Budget will be presented to the MRO Board of Directors for approval at its June 11, 2026, meeting. Following MRO Board approval, the budget is presented to the NERC Board of Trustees for approval and then filed with FERC. FERC typically issues an order approving the business plans and budgets of NERC and the six Regional Entities in the October/November timeframe.

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Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the reliability and security of the bulk power system in the central region of North America, including parts of both the United States and Canada. MRO is one of six regional entities in North America operating under authority from regulators in the United States through a delegation agreement with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and in Canada under similar arrangements. The primary focus of MRO is monitoring and enforcing compliance with mandatory reliability standards and assessing the regional power grid’s ability to meet the demands for electricity.