FERC on Thursday granted LS Power Grid New York’s (LSPG-NY) request for an abandoned plant incentive for a transmission project approved by NYISO (EL19-30).

LSPG-NY (formerly known as North American Transmission) had partnered with the New York Power Authority to jointly propose two 345-kV transmission projects to address capacity shortfalls at the Central East (Segment A) electrical interface and Upstate New York/Southeast New York (Segment B) interface.

NYISO’s Management Committee had backed both projects — part of the broader AC Public Policy Transmission Project — but the ISO’s Board of Directors in April selected only one of them, awarding Segment B to a competing proposal by National Grid and New York Transco. (See NYISO Board Selects 2 AC Public Policy Tx Projects.)

“In particular, we find that LSPG-NY’s Segment A project is entitled to the rebuttable presumption that it meets [Federal Power Act] Section 219’s requirement that the project will ensure reliability and/or reduce congestion because it has been approved through a relevant regional transmission planning process,” the commission said.

LSPG-NY said in its petition that NYISO estimated that Segment A will cost $750 million (in 2018 dollars, including 30% contingency).

The commission rejected LSPG-NY’s request for the incentive for its Segment B project, as NYISO did not select it. The company filed its request in January.

— Michael Kuser