MISO has trimmed its annual budget, now expecting to spend a little less than $431 million in 2026, down from nearly $450 million.

MISO and its Monitor tracked a rise in energy consumption in fall 2025 and reviewed some operational rough patches, while the RTO explained why its machine-learning risk predictor remains a work in progress.

MISO’s Independent Market Monitor said the recently uncovered, eight-year-old repeat error in the RTO’s capacity market that caused a $280 million impact in this year’s auction alone is unfortunate but insisted the resulting prices were efficient.

MISO Monitor David Patton called NERC’s Long-Term Reliability Assessment inaccurate for labeling the RTO a high-risk area.

MISO emerged from winter 2024/25 without turning to emergency procedures despite wide-ranging winter storms Jan. 6-9 and again Jan. 20-22.

MISO said it will leave the 10-year-old guiding principles for its market design untouched after it conducted a check-in with stakeholders to gauge whether they are still valid in a rapidly changing industry.

MISO’s quarterly public meetup with its board of directors put on display the unrelenting rift between the RTO’s planners and the Independent Market Monitor over MISO’s $21 billion in long-range transmission planning.

MISO’s Independent Market Monitor debuted six new market recommendations this year as part of his annual State of the Market report.

MISO leadership predicted adequate supply paired with a temperate winter at the final Board Week of the year.

MISO officials said they probably could have held off their decision to call a summertime emergency in late August.