Renewable energy experts and grid planners joined government officials Thursday to discuss how to address New York’s outdated transmission system, which can’t move enough clean energy from upstate generation sources to key load centers in and around New York City.

“New York will be bringing more and more renewable energy online,” said Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY) Executive Director Anne Reynolds, who opened the meeting. “This is good news — wind and solar are pollution-free, and 22,000 New Yorkers already work in the renewable electricity industry. But for New York to actually achieve its renewable electricity goals, we need to update the grid, parts of which were built more than half a century ago.”

An estimated 226 people listened in on the virtual town hall co-hosted by the American Council on Renewable Energy and the Solar Energy Industries Association.

ACE NY lobbied the State Legislature for a budget bill that passed in April, the Accelerated Renewables Growth and Community Benefit Act, which aligns state law, bureaucratic practices and policies — including property tax laws — with the clean energy goals outlined in last July’s landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) (A8429). (See NY Renewable Supporters Push for New Siting Agency.)

The bill directed the Public Service Commission to authorize a study, which it did in May, to identify distribution upgrades, local transmission upgrades and bulk transmission investments needed to meet the state’s clean energy goals (20-E-0197). (See NYPSC Launches Grid Study, Extends Solar Funding.)

“I agree with the premise that we are going to need more transmission if we’re going to meet the goals of the CLCPA, the most aggressive set of climate standards in the entire nation,” said Sen. Kevin Parker, chair of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee.

“Now the hard work has begun, which is how do we actually meet the goals. I very much believe that transmission is going to be really critical in that, and organizations like ACE NY are going to be leading the charge,” Parker said. “This also is happening in a time at which … our economy has been way slowed down, and if we look at where we’re going to produce full-time jobs at a living wage with benefits, the clean energy economy is the next best place to do that.”

However, reduced state revenues stemming from the slowdown means “we have to produce more green using less green,” Parker said.

Additional Buildout

Two things are at the heart of the new climate law, said Ali Zaidi, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s deputy secretary for energy and environment: “One is dramatic transformation of the grid to 100% clean, and the second is an expansion of that grid to reach more and more sectors of the economy.”

One of the state’s most powerful tools in decarbonizing buildings, industry and transportation is to back out existing sources of energy in those sectors and replace them with electrons generated in a clean way, Zaidi said.

“We have hundreds of miles of power lines that are on their way to being built in this state in the very near term, and we need to bird-dog that progress and make sure it is done on time,” Zaidi said. “It’s critical that we build what we already know we need and what is barely far along in the development process … and use data and analysis to inform where we are going to speed up additional buildout.”

As part of its “Grid in Transition” initiative, ‘Astonishing’ Buildout Needed for Clean NY Grid.)

“Most people know that the interconnection points that can efficiently accommodate large renewable generation projects in upstate New York are becoming much harder to find,” said Bart Franey, director of transmission planning, asset management, systems and data for National Grid.

The constraints are partly because of generation and transmission development being largely siloed from each other, he said.

“New flow patterns across the networks are creating a growing issue of curtailments on renewable energy, and generation development continues to outpace that of transmission,” Franey said. “The result is a suboptimal solution for ratepayers.”

National Grid has been exploring this issue for two years and looking for ways to upgrade what are referred to as “byways” in its transmission network, he said.

The company “has focused on creating upgrades that are available to deliver renewable resources to the bulk, or the highways,” Franey said. “These studies assumed light load conditions with an objective of minimizing curtailments, and it resulted in some really exciting opportunities around optimally sizing upgrades using a [renewable energy credit]-based benefit approach.”

When National Grid analyzed its systems and identified projects, they realized that “in some cases, the least-cost byways solution would in fact be a greenfield project, used specifically to deliver renewables,” Franey said. “We refer to them as collector stations, but they would really be a form of integrated resource planning.”

Developer and Local Insights

“In New York alone, we have a pipeline of over 3 GW of solar and storage in various stages of development and have partnered with Shell Energy for the development of offshore wind, and we have a number of solar projects already online,” said Rodica Donaldson, senior director for commercial transmission and analytics at EDF Renewables North America.

“The transmission risk is important to renewables because if we have high curtailment, which has been identified in the latest [Congestion Assessment and Resource Integration Study] by the New York ISO, that means high risk for us because we cannot be delivered as low-cost energy for loads,” Donaldson said.

The high risk of congestion and curtailment also means that the transmission system is reaching capacity, she said.

“We have curtailment; we have depressed LMPs within that pocket; and those are financial costs for us,” Donaldson said. “As a generator, when we look at developing projects, this risk can challenge the ability to secure financing and even can make the project uneconomic. So, for us, a scenario without transmission investment is a high-risk environment.”

“We are home to 27,000 residents over 1,200 square miles, so when you talk about room for green energy growth, this is where it is: It’s upstate,” said Ryan Piche, manager of Lewis County in the Adirondacks. “No offense to Sen. Parker, but it’s not in Brooklyn.”

Despite having open space, the needs of the local community in Lewis County and elsewhere are very important, he said.

“We know our community better than anyone, and we need to be the ones who are deciding which areas are prime for growth and which areas need to be preserved,” Piche said. “We’re the ones who understand viewshed and habitats. The ‘solar tsunami’ is a fun little phrase, but think about a tsunami — it can overwhelm you. I think it is important that the local governments draw a line in the sand and understand what is going to be acceptable and what is not.”