Grid operator MISO is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, but is holding its annual meeting hundreds of miles away at a Ritz Carlton in Orlando, Florida.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  December 5, 2022

Contact: 

Kerwin Olson, Executive Director (317) 735-7727

Ben Inskeep, Program Director (317) 735-7741

INDIANAPOLIS – Citizens Action Coalition (“CAC”) recently submitted a letter to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) Chairman Richard Glick requesting FERC initiate an audit of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (“MISO”) cost-recovery expenses related to its annual meeting to be held next month at a lavish Florida resort. The letter from CAC to FERC Chairman Glick is attached. 

MISO’s Board of Directors and Advisory Committee annual meeting is scheduled for December 5-8, 2022, nearly 600 miles outside of MISO’s service territory, at a Ritz Carlton in Orlando, Florida. CAC is demanding that FERC deny MISO the ability to recover any expenses related to the meeting from captive Hoosier ratepayers.

The hotel’s website describes it as a “luxury resort” featuring a “championship-level golf course,” a 40,000 square foot spa, three pools, fine dining, and multiple tennis courts (see photos below). Only a limited number of hotel reservations were made available at a discounted price to attendees. Now that the discounted hotel block has been fully subscribed, a hotel room at the Ritz Carlton starts at an extravagant $626/night, plus a $48/night “resort fee,” for the December 5-8, 2022, time-period.

“We are outraged that Hoosier families already struggling to heat and power their homes this winter will be asked to pay for executive trips to luxury Florida resorts,” said CAC Executive Director Kerwin Olson. 

MISO is the entity that operates the wholesale power market and electric transmission system that serves all or portions of 15 states—including most of Indiana—and one Canadian province. MISO’s operating costs, including the costs of its meetings, are recovered from ratepayers, including Indiana families served by Duke Energy Indiana, AES Indiana, CenterPoint, and NIPSCO. Hoosiers already paid the highest average electricity bills in the Midwest in 2021 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and have seen additional large bill increases in 2022.

In its letter to FERC, CAC also noted that MISO’s Board of Directors do not have any contact information on MISO’s website, making them completely inaccessible to the public and stakeholders like CAC. CAC is dismayed at this lack of transparency and accountability at MISO and asked FERC for help in rectifying it.

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