By Jake Bernhagen, Manager of Reliability Performance, MRO
As 2025 has ended, MRO’s Reliability Performance team is reflecting on a year marked by focused, collaborative efforts to better understand and reduce protection system misoperations across the region. Although misoperations were not identified as a top regional risk in MRO’s 2025 Regional Risk Assessment (RRA), their long‑standing reliability implications made them a continued priority throughout the year. Ongoing efforts in this area reduced MRO’s annual misoperation rate to nearly six percent in 2024 – the lowest rate in the last six years – with a similar rate projected for 2025. From strengthening data quality, to deepening engagement with registered entities, our work in 2025 centered on building a stronger foundation for improving protection system performance in the years ahead.
Strengthening the Data Foundation
We began the year by conducting a comprehensive review of misoperations data submitted through the Misoperation Information Data Analysis System (MIDAS). Reliable data is the foundation for understanding misoperation trends and we worked directly with entities to resolve inconsistencies, clarify classifications, and improve reporting accuracy. This effort was critical, as high‑quality data enables meaningful analysis and supports a clearer understanding of regional and national performance.
To further support entities, we hosted a webinar: Misoperations: Submitting Quality Information to MIDAS. The session addressed common reporting challenges and outlined expectations for high‑quality submissions. The webinar offered entities practical tools and examples to strengthen their internal reporting processes, and strong attendance highlighted the industry’s commitment to improving misoperation data quality.
Targeted Outreach for Greater Impact
With a clearer picture of regional trends, we conducted focused outreach to the entities responsible for roughly 80 percent of misoperations in the MRO region over the past five years. These one‑on‑one engagements provided an opportunity for MRO and entity staff to discuss entity-specific trends, share best practices, and identify opportunities for improvement. By concentrating on the organizations with the greatest influence on regional misoperations performance, we were able to drive meaningful conversations and encourage proactive steps toward reducing misoperation frequency and severity.
Expanding Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
MRO had the privilege of hosting NERC’s third annual BES Protection System Misoperation Reduction Workshop on October 7-8, 2025, bringing together experts from across North America to discuss protection system performance, share lessons learned, and work on solutions to persistent challenges. Hosting the workshop created a valuable forum for dialogue and collaboration with industry experts and reinforced the region’s leadership in advancing protection system reliability.
MRO’s Protective Relay Subgroup (PRS) also completed a major refresh of the misoperations white papers originally published nearly a decade ago. The updated documents draw on an additional ten years of regional misoperations data, incorporating new trends, deeper analysis, and revised recommendations to help entities strengthen protection system performance. The refreshed white papers are expected to be published in early 2026, and MRO will issue an announcement once they are available.
Sustained Focus for a More Reliable System
As we enter 2026, the need for sustained attention to misoperations remains clear. The progress made over the past year reinforces that reducing misoperations is an ongoing effort requiring a shared commitment across the region. More information on misoperation reporting and MIDAS can be found on NERC’s website. If you have any questions, or recommendations related to misoperations, please reach out to [email protected]. Together, we can continue building on the momentum of 2025 and strengthen protection system performance in the year ahead.