NYISO this week urged the New York Public Service Commission to “move quickly” in supporting construction of a meshed transmission network to support at least 9 GW of offshore wind “before opportunities for an efficient design are foreclosed.”

Stakeholders have had a couple months to review state regulators’ draft power grid study report since it was issued in January, and not one of 30 comments submitted by the Tuesday deadline fully supports the report’s conclusions (Case No. 20-E-0197). (See NY Grid Study Pushes Meshed OSW Tx, Coordination.)

The ISO said its new comments reiterate those it made at a technical conference in October and that it “respectfully disagrees with the finding … that a decision to implement a meshed system can be delayed.” (See OSW Growth to Test New York’s Transmission Grid.)

Limitations on feasible points of interconnection and cable routes signify that the costs to integrate OSW in New York City and Long Island are likely to increase because of siting and transmission constraints, NYISO said, noting that its interconnection queue already includes 4,316 MW of OSW projects.

“Considering the impacts from the offshore wind grid, the issues identified above for the PSC’s consideration could have significant impacts on grid operations, interconnection planning and market design,” NYISO said. “These issues should be addressed to prepare all relevant stakeholders for a future meshed system, if deemed desirable. While designing with expandability in mind would likely cost more upfront, it would likely still be cheaper than replacing interconnection facilities later and could also maximize the use of limited available transmission cable routing options.”

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the state’s Department of Public Service prepared the study, supported by The Brattle Group and Pterra Consulting, among others. The PSC ordered the report last May, as directed by the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act.

The three-part grid study examines transmission needs for OSW, bulk system needs for land-based renewables out to 2040 and needs on the sub-bulk level to achieve net-zero power generation by 2040, as called for by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).

Follow European OSW

Ocean Winds North America, a joint-venture between EDP Renováveis and ENGIE, said that offshore transmission infrastructure shared by multiple OSW farm owners has become the norm in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

The situation in these countries resembles New York in the sense that they have populated and constrained coast lines, limited cable landfall opportunities and few suitable onshore points of interconnection (POIs), the company said, adding that it supports the comments submitted by the New York Offshore Wind Alliance (NYOWA) as being largely those of industry participants.

NYOWA submitted comments together with the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, American Clean Power Association and Advanced Energy Economy Institute urging the PSC to consider a scenario where POIs reflect the likely needed size and capacity of contracted projects — and as soon as possible to identify at least three specific public policy needs associated with OSW development.

“One should address the need to expand the capacity to export power off Long Island. The second should address the need to develop an offshore meshed transmission system, with the option of including an interregional connection. The third should be the need to identify and develop one or more clean energy hubs in Zone J (NYC) and one or more clean energy hubs in Zone K (Long Island),” NYOWA said.

Transmission developer Anbaric said that the draft report erred in assuming that transmission cable carrying capability is limited to no larger than 1,310 MW, a limitation not imposed by NYISO or regulators, but one that represents the size of an existing known system contingency: the New York Control Area’s existing most severe operating capability loss.

“As the U.K. grid operator has also recently found, its early embrace of radials was suboptimal even for a country with a vast coastline,” Anbaric said. “The U.K. is now moving from radials to a planned system anticipating … a 6 billion pound cost savings to consumers and a reduction of the amount of equipment needed by 50%, ‘creating significant environmental & social benefits.’”

The U.K. grid operator also found that a delay in moving from radials to a planned, shared network approach by just five years reduced cost savings and other benefits by half.

Hurry Up on Phase 2 Projects

The initial grid study report said that local transmission and distribution (Phase 1) projects already under development appear sufficient to integrate land-based renewables, although some might be accelerated, while more preliminary (Phase 2) projects might be pushed forward in order to attract investment in solar and wind development upstate.

The New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA) called for a more holistic approach to the grid and a faster process for developing high-priority Phase 2 transmission projects.

The historical separation of the bulk transmission system and utility distribution systems is no longer appropriate, as issues affecting one system are increasingly influencing the other, NYSEIA said. Interconnecting renewable generation to the grid challenges both utility-scale and distributed energy resource projects, it said.

The state’s investor-owned utilities agreed with most aspects of the initial report, but disagreed that Phase 2 projects will not be necessary until 2030.

“Rather, Phase 2 project development should continue in the interim to lay the groundwork for other projects, such as electrification,” the utilities said. “Phase 2 projects are, and should remain, under the purview of utility planning processes rather than those governed by the NYISO. … The commission states that local transmission refers to transmission line(s) and substation(s) that generally serve local load, and transmission lines which transfer power to other service territories and operate at less than 200 kV.”

New York City decried the grid study’s “fragmented approach” and said “the current regulatory framework assigns responsibility for discrete aspects of system planning to different entities, inhibiting comprehensive, cost-effective, systemwide planning.”

The city called for broad coordination and a comprehensive planning process that considers the electric system as an integrated whole, urging the PSC to require procedures to implement needs identified by the planning process and to fairly allocate the costs of achieving CLCPA goals among all New Yorkers.

The commission “should consider incentives only on a limited basis and should utilize only incentives that align customer and shareholder interests, such as incentives that share savings achieved … and should consider the social cost of carbon in its analyses and in prioritizing projects,” the city said.