By Michael Kuser

NYISO on Tuesday released a Strategic Plan outlining how it will incorporate market and regulatory trends into its planning processes for 2019 to 2023.

“Our updated Strategic Plan is a living document that embraces the challenges and opportunities of the grid’s ongoing transformation,” interim President and CEO Robert Fernandez said in a statement. “The plan reflects the NYISO’s essential role in harmonizing public policy with technological innovation in a manner that delivers economically efficient and reliable energy to consumers.”

The document identifies key strategic initiatives in addition to the ISO’s core responsibilities and ongoing project plans.

To address its changing resource mix, NYISO said it will review market products and operational and planning practices. Taking “a deeper dive into evolving focus areas” will require significant study work, it says.

New York’s Clean Energy Standard and other policy initiatives, such as Reforming the Energy Vision, are ramping up adoption of renewable and distributed energy resources, creating a need to balance intermittent generation with other resources such as storage.

“Incenting resource flexibility, which includes the ability to respond rapidly to dynamic system conditions, providing controllable ramp with fast response rates and providing frequent start-up/shutdown capability, will be key to future market enhancements,” the plan says.

The plan also highlighted steps to harmonize the wholesale market design with state public policy goals, particularly the task force created by the state’s Public Service Commission and NYISO that last month produced a proposal to price carbon into the wholesale energy market. The ISO and its stakeholders are now refining the proposal. (See Imports/Exports Top Talk at NYISO Carbon Pricing Kick-off.)