By Michael Kuser

New York regulators Thursday approved a consumer awareness and incentive campaign for clean energy development in Westchester County, developed jointly by the county and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Case 19-M-0265).

“Transitioning to a carbon-neutral economy requires all hands on deck, and New Yorkers are eager to do their part,” New York Public Service Commission Chair John B. Rhodes said. “NYSERDA’s Westchester County awareness program, developed in response to Con Edison’s natural gas moratorium for new customers, represents a smart and strategic approach to assist Westchester’s communities, businesses and residents in accessing reliable clean energy alternatives to natural gas and to become more energy efficient.”

The action plan includes $165 million from Con Ed to support installation of heat pumps and energy efficiency and $32 million in financing provided by the New York Power Authority for its Westchester customers to retrofit heating systems with clean energy alternatives.

NYSERDA will also kick in $28 million to help new customers, including low-income residents, access alternative heating and cooling systems and energy efficiency services, and $25 million for energy efficiency measures for existing customers.

“If we’re being honest, what drove the action plan was the moratorium, so we need to look at what were the root causes of that moratorium … and has the action plan alleviated any of those,” said Commissioner Diane Burman, who voted against the measure.

Commissioner Tracey Edwards, attending her first session, voted for the program but said, “What I would ask is that we do a little bit more on the consumer side, the residential consumer side, because when I received the information on the workshops that had already taken place, it [was] really geared toward the business community.”

Amended Electric Emergency Plans

The PSC also approved amended electric emergency response plans (ERPs) for the state’s major utilities (Case 18-E-0717).

The ERPs outline processes and procedures needed to respond to a wide array of emergencies, and this year the commission expanded staff review to include recommendations from their investigation following five large storms that occurred between March 2 and May 20, 2018.

The most substantial recommendations revolved around road clearing, damage assessment, estimated times of restoration, and utility communication with customers and municipalities, the commission said, with most improvements related to the inadequate performance of New York State Electric and Gas, Con Ed and its subsidiary, Orange & Rockland.

“All three utilities did not adequately address road closures and failed to properly coordinate and communicate with counties and localities,” the commission said.

Gas Pipes: Cautionary Tale

National Grid may face a financial penalty for failing to properly train and supervise natural gas pipe installers at its two downstate gas utilities — Brooklyn Union Gas Co. (KEDNY), serving Brooklyn, and KeySpan Gas East Corp. (KEDLI), serving Long Island.

After an investigation spurred by an anonymous tip, the PSC ordered the company to explain why it should not commence a penalty action after the utilities failed to comply with the commission’s safety rules related to gas infrastructure work in their service territories (Case 17-G-0317).

The commission also alleged the companies failed to inspect work completed by its contractors during construction at sufficient intervals to ensure compliance and that it allowed work to be completed by plastic fusers and plastic fusion inspectors not properly qualified to do the work.

“We will hold utilities strictly accountable when they do not comply with our gas safety rules, designed specifically to protect life and property,” Rhodes said. “In this instance, staff’s investigation presented credible information warranting the commission to require National Grid to respond formally to the investigation’s findings.”

The commission ordered National Grid to respond within 45 days and is also considering a prudence proceeding to ensure that ratepayers don’t bear the costs incurred to correct hundreds of construction deficiencies.

The order starts an enforcement proceeding and is not a final determination by the commission concerning the allegations.

On top of the Department of Public Service’s 2015 findings that National Grid had committed safety violations during construction of the Northern Queens Pipeline Project, in late 2016 an anonymous tipster alleged that work by Network Infrastructure, a contractor working on behalf of National Grid, did not comply with state safety regulations.

The anonymous letter also alleged that Network employees had been given the answers to online operator qualification tests. The letter alleged that, in one instance, high schoolers took the tests and snapped cell phone pictures of test questions from which answer sheets were created.

DPS staff confirmed the cheating allegations and required National Grid to re-dig much of its completed work from 2015 and 2016, which resulted in finding at least 1,500 regulatory violations, the commission said.

KEDNY has approximately 1.2 million customers and KEDLI has 590,000 customers.

EV Chargers Across the State

The PSC approved expanding its DC fast-charging infrastructure program for electric vehicles by making fast-charging plugs at newly constructed charging stations eligible for an incentive (Case 18-E-0138).

The incentive applies if the station includes a standardized plug type of equal or greater charging capability as the other proprietary plugs being installed at the station.

“Electric vehicle deployment will play a key role in meeting the dramatic carbon-reduction goals set forth in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act,” Rhodes said. “We must electrify the transportation sector to achieve a carbon-neutral economy.”

In February, the PSC approved a $31.6 million initiative to make nearly 1,075 new, publicly accessible fast-charging plugs eligible for annual incentives. Those stations can charge a long-range EV in 20 minutes, compared to 20 hours using a typical home charger, or four to eight hours using a level 2 charger.

As of July 1, New York reported more than 4,000 EV charging stations installed statewide.

The commission denied Tesla’s request that its proprietary charging technology alone be eligible for the incentives, but it said the company may earn the incentives if a standardized plug is co-located at the same site. Another company, ChargePoint, operates the most EV charging stations in the state, according to the DPS.