The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) this month issued a request for proposals seeking contractors to conduct site reuse planning studies for retired power plants.

The $5 million solicitation is just one manifestation of the huge effort the state is mounting to implement the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which requires the state to switch to 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 85% below 1990 levels by 2050.

At least 10 state agencies have roles in the transition, led by NYSERDA, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Climate Action Council, a 22-member committee that will prepare a scoping plan for achieving the state’s energy and climate goals.

The council’s work will be informed by more than 100 stakeholders — including manufacturers, farmers, generators, labor unions, environmental groups and trade associations — in advisory panels for Agriculture and Forestry; Energy Efficiency and Housing; Energy-Intensive and Trade-Exposed Industries; Land Use and Local Government; Power Generation; Transportation; and Waste. The RFP is related to the work of an eighth group reporting to the council, the Just Transition Working Group, which is considering issues of displaced workers, environmental justice and economic redevelopment.

At a meeting last week, the working group reviewed a straw proposal for the principles the state should follow, which it will present to the council on Dec. 15. In addition to the redevelopment of industrial communities, the 10 principles include topics such as “stakeholder-engaged transition planning”; preservation of culture and tradition; equitable access to “high quality, family-sustaining jobs”; climate adaptation planning; and protection of natural systems and resources.

Support for Power Plant Communities

The RFP is expected to result in $4.75 million in spending on consultants providing affected plant-site municipalities with technical assistance and $250,000 for a site reuse “toolkit” that could be used by other communities.

The deadline for responding is 3 p.m. Jan. 13; an informational webinar for prospective bidders will be held at 10 a.m. Dec. 15. NYSERDA expects to invite communities to apply for assistance in the first quarter of next year.

At the Just Transition Working Group’s meeting Thursday, Steve Ryan, director of business engagement for the state Department of Labor, briefed the panel on the department’s Rapid Response program, which offers résumé development, interview coaching and training opportunities.

The department had deployed the program for workers at the Somerset Operating Co., the state’s last coal-fired generating plant, which retired in March, and Indian Point nuclear plant, which shut down Unit 2 in April and will close its remaining unit next spring.

Ryan said the laid off workers appreciate the help. “We provide that hope. Because many of them have no idea where their next employment is going to be,” he said.

James Shillitto, president of the Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2, which represented 400 workers at Indian Point, said site redevelopment is an easier challenge than retraining laid off workers and finding them new, well paying jobs. “Retraining workers is a little bit more difficult because you have people in various levels of their lives. You have the ones that need to hang on for five or six more years to retire, and the ones that are going to work another 20 to 25 years.”

The state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires businesses to give 90 days’ advance notice for large layoffs or plant closures. “Typically, what happens with Rapid Response is it’s triggered by a WARN notice. But in these cases, as with Indian Point, we’re going to know well in advance what’s coming so we should have a framework where we can begin that process without waiting for a WARN notice,” Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said. “We need a long runway: as long a runway as we can get with both the employers and the workers to do the kinds of negotiating … or training to really have the best impact.”

Deliverables

Public Service Commission Chairman John B. Rhodes said the working group has two main deliverables, including an inventory of power plants at risk of closing, an effort to identify issues affecting plant site reuse.

The second deliverable is identification of problems and opportunities presented by site reuse. Among the problems: the local economic effects of lost salaries and reduced property tax revenues for local governments and schools. Also to be considered: environmental remediation and restoration.

Plant sites — often on lakes or rivers because of the need for cooling water — can be repurposed as parks or commercial or mixed-use developments. Their access to transmission lines and cooling water has also made them attractive to data centers — a use the owners of the Somerset plant are pursuing. They can also provide interconnection points for new renewable generation.

Jobs Mapping

The state also has begun early work on an assessment of job-loss-threatened power plant workers’ skills to identify retraining paths and match them with job openings in clean energy and elsewhere.

As of 2019, the state had 800 workers in oil-fired generation, almost 5,400 in natural gas and more than 3,800 in nuclear. It also had more than 65,000 workers in transmission and distribution.

As of 2018, 76 of New York’s 106 gas turbines (2,356 MW) were older than 46 years; nationally, 95% of such units have deactivated by this age. Similarly, 95% of steam turbines nationally retire by age 62.5. By that measure, 11 out of 46 units (866 MW) are at retirement age. By 2028, more than 8,300 MW of gas and steam turbine-based capacity in New York will hit retirement age.

About 35% of the state’s generating capacity has been added since 2000. “There’s been in recent years about 2,000 MW of natural gas combined cycle generation [added],” Emilie Nelson, executive vice president for NYISO, told the working group. “The plant staffing required for those types of facilities tends to be lesser than some of the older plants. We have about 2,000 MW of large-scale wind on the system. A lot of the solar that we have thus far is behind the meter, so [it requires] a little different type of support from a job perspective.”

Policy Drivers

In addition to the CLCPA, New York’s transition is being driven by Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative regulations adopted Dec. 1 to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions cap by 30% from 2020 to 2030. The changes also expand the program to cover peaking units above 15 MW, a reduction from the current 25-MW threshold.

The Department of Environmental Conservation’s “peaker rule” will be phased in between 2023 and 2025, affecting 3,300 MW of capacity. The rule has two compliance options for plants that cannot meet emission limits on pounds of NOx per megawatt-hour: stopping operation during summer ozone season, or replacing their output with energy storage or renewable generation at the same interconnection.

The 2020 NYISO Reliability Needs Assessment identified transmission security needs beginning in 2024 and resource adequacy needs by 2027. The ISO’s first quarterly short-term assessment of reliability (STAR) report found an additional transmission security need in New York City for 2023. In addition, city regulations will bar combustion of Nos. 6 and 4 fuel oil by 2020 and 2025, respectively, affecting 2,946 MW.

“This is manageable if we’re thoughtful and look ahead,” Rhodes said.

Putting it All Together

Lara Skinner, executive director of The Worker Institute at Cornell University, which performs research and education on current labor issues, noted that the Labor Department’s Rapid Response program was created to respond to individual business closures. “When we think about this transition to a zero-carbon economy, we’re taking about a massive transition. A major economic transition with significant labor, social, community impacts — economic impacts,” she said.

Skinner suggested panel members review U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-Ill.) proposed “Marshall Plan for Coal Country Act,” which would modify bankruptcy rules to require companies that shut down to provide health care and pension benefits to former workers and give free tuition at public colleges for their children.

“Today’s meeting demonstrates to me that there’s some really great thinking happening around the broader impact of the transition in New York state,” Skinner said. “For me, it raises the question of how do we link all of this up? And how do we think bigger and broader about this transition and make sure that our approach to the transition is going to be comprehensive and cohesive?”