New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo kicked off 2020 by pledging to step up efforts to decarbonize the state’s economy and to spread the benefits to disadvantaged communities.  “We must accelerate our transition to renewable energy, because the clock is ticking,” Cuomo said in his State of the State address last January.

The state made considerable progress despite the coronavirus pandemic, which forced NYISO, the Public Service Commission and other state agencies move their stakeholder meetings to virtual platforms.

By year’s end, the state had issued its largest-ever package of renewable energy solicitations and saw approval of the largest wind farm to pass Article 10 siting review.

The state closed out the year Dec. 30 by releasing guidelines for establishing a monetary value for the avoided emissions of carbon dioxide.

Cost of Carbon

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) required the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to establish a value of carbon to aid state agencies in considering greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in their decision-making.

Based on the federal government’s social cost of carbon, the non-binding guidance recommends a “central” discount rate of 2% as the primary value for decision-making, which translates to a 2020 value of carbon dioxide of $125/ton. But it said the central rate should be reported along with 1% and 3% discount rates — equating to a range of $53-$421/ton. “State agencies should look at the full range as a method that is consistent with the federal government’s guidance for using a damages-based value of carbon,” DEC said.

The CLCPA calls for 70% of New York’s electricity to come from renewable energy resources by 2030, and for electricity to be 100% carbon-free by 2040. It also nearly quadrupled New York’s offshore wind energy target to 9 GW by 2035 and requires state agencies to invest at least 35% of clean energy program resources to benefit disadvantaged and environmental justice communities. The law’s mandates also include doubling distributed solar generation to 6 GW by 2025, deploying 3 GW of energy storage by 2030 and raising energy efficiency savings to 185 trillion BTU by 2025.

Agencies Get to Work

The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment in early June overrode local opposition to approve the 340-MW Alle-Catt Wind Farm south of Buffalo, the largest wind farm to pass siting review under Article 10, which previously governed all generating facilities above 25 MW. The order authorized Invenergy to build and operate up to 116 wind turbines on approximately 30,000 acres spread across Allegany, Cattaraugus and Wyoming counties. The project had been under review since December 2017. (See NY Regulators Approve 340-MW Alle-Catt Wind Farm.)

In April, the Assembly approved Cuomo’s call to streamline the siting process for large-scale renewable energy projects with the creation of the Office of Renewable Energy Siting. The new office will handle permitting of renewable projects of 25 MW or more. New renewable projects between 20–25 MW, and existing projects in the initial phases of the Article 10 review process may opt-in to the new review process. (See Cuomo Proposes Streamlining NY’s Renewable Siting.)

State officials in July announced New York’s largest-ever package of renewable energy solicitations, seeking a combined 4 GW of offshore wind, onshore wind and solar power. (See NY Announces 4 GW in Clean Energy RFPs.)

Climate Action Council

New York’s 22-member Climate Action Council (CAC) met in June to lay the groundwork for a scoping plan to be delivered by Fall 2021 to help the state achieve its clean energy goals, building on a white paper released earlier that month by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the PSC. (See NY Climate Action Council Looks at Deep Decarbonization.)

In addition, the CAC in October approved creation of an advisory panel on waste emissions to be established by DEC staff.

“We’re going to evaluate emissions and mitigation strategies for a wide range of these waste generating sectors, including the traditional municipal and commercial solid waste generation infrastructure; facilities like transfer stations, landfills and waste-to-energy; and municipal combustors and co-gen facilities,” DEC Deputy Commissioner Martin Brand said. (See NY Officials Create Waste Emissions Panel.)

The waste panel joins six others, along with a Just Transition Working Group to ensure social equity in the council’s proceedings. In all, more than 100 stakeholders are informing the CAC’s work — including manufacturers, farmers, generators, labor unions, environmental groups and trade associations.

NYSERDA in December issued a $5 million request for proposals seeking contractors to conduct site reuse planning studies for retired power plants, which often are located in or near disadvantaged communities. (See NY Seeks ‘Just Transition’ in Decarbonization Plans.)  (See related story, NY Power Panel Sees Urgency to Act in 2021.)

A CAC roundtable discussion on electrification and fuels last month heard that full electrification of transportation carries a heavy price tag and long timelines, which necessitate looking for bridge technologies, new strategies and alternative fuels that can achieve emissions reductions right away. “Since total electrification will be very expensive, finding some of these bridge technologies is very important,” said Mike Scarpino of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center in Cambridge, Mass. (See NY Panel Examines Vehicle Electrification, Cleaner Fuels.)

PSC Actions

The PSC took several climate related actions:

• In May, it ordered a study be done by NYSERDA and the Department of Public Service to identify distribution upgrades, local transmission upgrades and bulk transmission investments needed to meet the state’s clean energy goals (Case No. 20-E-0197). (See NYPSC Launches Grid Study, Extends Solar Funding.)
• In July, it approved over $700 million in spending over five years to install more than 50,000 light-duty electric vehicle charging stations throughout the state and to prepare pilot programs to accommodate medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (18-E-0138). (See NYPSC Approves $700 Million for EV Chargers.)
• In October, it designated NYPA’s $1 billion Northern New York transmission line as a high priority for meeting the state’s renewable energy goals and adopted criteria for identifying other such “priority transmission projects” (PTPs) (20-E-0197). The commission’s order bypassed NYISO’s public policy transmission planning process, referring the project straight to NYPA for development and construction in accordance with the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Protection Act of 2020. (See NYPSC OKs NYPA Project, ‘Priority’ Tx Criteria.)

NYISO

The ISO began the year pledging to devote at least one day a month in 2020 to discussing how to meet the CLCPA goals.

NYISO CEO Rich Dewey in October presented to the CAC on the grid operator’s Grid in Transition initiative, which is taking place in conjunction with the state-mandated grid study. The ISO is taking a three-pronged approach to grid transition, undertaking a Climate Change Impact and Resilience Study in addition to its existing Congestion Assessment and Resource Integration Study (CARIS), which includes a scenario analyzing the CLCPA’s 70 X 30 goal, and its Reliability Needs Assessment (RNA), which examines the DEC rules on emissions from generators used to serve peak load. Stakeholders in December voted to rename CARIS as the System and Resource Outlook and double the assessment periods to 20 years, consistent with the study period for proposed economic or public policy transmission projects.

The ISO’s annual Power Trends report forecasts over 4.5 million total EV purchases in the state by 2040, including passenger vehicles, trucks and buses. Notably, NYISO’s forecasts suggest that the impacts of EVs and increased reliance on electricity for heating will lead to the system peak shifting from summer to winter as early as 2039. (See Public Policy Challenges Top NYISO Grid Plans.)

“This has been probably one of the most challenging years of any of our professional experience,” Dewey said at the final Management Committee meeting of the year.

Despite having to make most staff work from home, the ISO succeeded in replacing its energy management system and business management system, completed a demand curve reset and rolled out market rules for energy storage. It also continued to explore carbon pricing and won FERC approval for its distributed energy resources participation model, Dewey said.

Designing Tx for OSW

Transmission planning for OSW was the subject of much discussion. In August, Anbaric Development Partners released a study by The Brattle Group which estimated that New York would save $500 million through a planned transmission strategy for its next 7,200 MW of OSW versus the generator lead line (GLL) approach. (See New York Ponders Planning an Offshore Grid.)

In November, a state-commissioned analysis on OSW transmission delivered preliminary results suggesting that a mesh-and-backbone network design would be the best way to integrate OSW into the New York grid despite higher initial costs than a radial approach. It also said the design would likely offer more redundancy and additional savings in the future. (See Meshed OSW Tx Grid May Work Best, NY Officials Hear.)