NYISO expects its 2026 budget to be $210 million, $8 million more than the 2025 budget, CFO Cheryl Hussey told the Budget and Priorities Working Group on Sept. 5.
The increase means NYISO will need $8 million more in revenue from Rate Schedule 1, an increase of 3.96%. RS1 is the administrative fee NYISO collects to cover its operating costs. The ISO expects a 3.8% increase in demand over the next year, which means RS1 can remain “virtually flat,” with a 0.2-cent/MWh increase over the current 94 cents/MWh.
Hussey said the key drivers of the budget increase include salaries, which are benchmarked against peer ISOs and RTOs and expected to increase between 3.5 and 6% in 2026. The ISO also plans to hire eight new full-time positions in 2026 to support increasingly complex market designs and forecasting analytics.
The positions include two data scientists, an economist, a software and power system applications engineer, and a stakeholder services manager.
At the same time, computer services have increased costs because of vendor consolidation and increased usage of cloud services.
Payments on outstanding debt also continue to increase each year. In 2024, NYISO borrowed $37 million and plans to borrow another $37 million in 2025, which is higher than normal.
The RS1 carryover is lower than it was in 2024/25. The ISO anticipates a carryover of $3.5 million for 2025/26, which is $1.5 million less than the prior fiscal year.
Hussey said that to avoid capital costs for server acquisition, the ISO will pursue a strategy of cloud computer migration, which would result in about $0.8 million in savings. Ongoing measures to reduce computer software subscriptions and eliminate redundant or unneeded services are expected to shave an additional $1 million in costs. The ISO also plans to delay and defer some hiring throughout the year to avoid salary costs to the tune of about $0.8 million.
Additionally, some debt will be repaid early, reducing debt service costs in 2026 by $3.3 million and debt service costs in 2027 by $6.3 million.
Rate Schedule 1 Highlights for 2026
The ISO projects that RS1 will include 160,600 GWh of demand, the vast majority of which will be net load at 148,650 GWh systemwide.
The ISO anticipates 8,000 GWh of billable exports to other regions and 350 GWh of wheel-throughs in the New York Control Area. Incremental supply — the additional supply above net load to compensate for transmission losses and non-billable exports to New England — is expected to total about 6,000 GWh.
These projections assume normal weather conditions, which are a significant driver of net load variability, both in terms of load reduction via behind-the-meter solar and demand. Load growth is anticipated to grow because of climate change, large load growth and building electrification.
2025 has seen higher-than-expected load in July and August and in the winter, which has driven overcollections. It’s possible this trend will continue into 2026 because of weather events that are more severe than forecast.
