As the world faces “unpredictable and chaotic times,” Midwest Reliability Organization Board Chair Dana Born reminded directors of the ERO’s role in ensuring stability of vital electric services. 

Addressing MRO’s quarterly Board of Directors meeting Aug. 21, Born mentioned some of the dramatic events that have occurred since their previous meeting, such as the blackout on the Iberian peninsula that left the entire population of Spain and Portugal without power for up to 18 hours. (See Lauby Says U.S. ‘On the Right Track’ After Iberian Blackout.) However, she told attendees to keep their minds on the future and look for solutions, rather than pining for an imagined better past. 

“At recent NERC meetings … I put little stars in my book [every] time people said that we really have made great progress. We have to remind ourselves of that, because there is so much work to do ahead,” Born said. “The real question is not how do we go back, but how do we move forward with clarity, conviction and a sense of purpose — our ‘why,’ and the significance of what it is that we do every day, who we are and why we are.”  

CEO Sara Patrick echoed Born’s advice, noting multiple examples of collaboration across the ERO Enterprise. These included NERC’s Modernize Standards Processes and Procedures Task Force, whose proposal for using artificial intelligence to streamline the standards development process “supports both the MRO and ERO strategies to leverage advanced technologies to solve complex problems.” (See NERC Task Force Members Share Standards Modernization Progress.) 

Patrick also held up the regional entity’s work on developing new action plans for risks identified as “extreme” or “high” in its annual Regional Risk Assessment and efforts to establish a data analytics function at MRO as examples of a collaborative approach making long-term progress. 

“The ability to collaborate effectively and strategically is essential for achieving sustained success,” Patrick said. “MRO’s role within the ERO Enterprise positions us to provide expert analysis and inform key decision-makers on how local policy decisions can affect reliability of the entire system.” 

Directors Agree to New Conduct Standards

Thomas Graham, chair of the Governance and Personnel Committee, brought the meeting’s sole action item, a vote on revisions to MRO’s antitrust policy and standards of conduct. According to Graham, the updates were part of “an ERO-wide effort … to harmonize the MRO policies with [those] of NERC and all the other” REs. 

Among the changes in the new policy are expansion of prohibited activities, to include:  

• • discussing or entering agreements among competitors regarding prices, product design or other matters; 
  • use of sensitive information like pricing or terms in discussions with current and potential vendors; 
  • discussions or agreements not to compete for, hire or poach employees; 
  • discussions involving wages or benefits for current or future employees with participants outside MRO; and 
  • agreements or discussions thereof not to seek or bid for work, grants or funds. 

In addition, several existing entries on the prohibited activities list were updated to provide more clarity, such as the addition of language specifying that current and future pricing information is not to be discussed by MRO participants. Language on permitted collaboration between REs and NERC also was added, and the antitrust compliance reminder read at the MRO’s meetings was updated too. The new policy was approved without objection. 

Later in the meeting, Tasha Ward, MRO’s director of enforcement and senior counsel, presented the RE’s semiannual report on its compliance monitoring and enforcement program (CMEP). Ward observed that MRO has seen a steady drop in incoming noncompliances annually over the past four years, with 169 violations reported to date in 2025 after 341 in 2022, 279 in 2023 and 261 in 2024.  

A growing percentage of violations have been submitted via self-reports and self-logs rather than compliance audit, indicating that “entities are looking at their programs and actually submitting the issues that they find … for review by the MRO team,” Ward said. She also pointed out that a majority of open noncompliance cases in MRO’s inventory are less than a year old and only 21% are more than two years old, indicating an improvement in efficiency of noncompliance processing. 

MRO’s next board meeting is scheduled for Dec. 4, 2025.