By Michael Kuser

The New York Public Service Commission on Thursday granted the New York Power Authority a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need to rebuild about 86 miles of upstate transmission lines (Case 18-T-0207).

The Moses-Adirondack 1 and 2 lines extend from the St. Lawrence Power Project’s Moses-Saunders Power Dam switchyard in Massena to the Adirondack substation in Croghan. Thursday’s order also grants NYPA the right to build several upgrades to both the switchyard and the substation.

“I see this as a smart, careful, timely project that’s valuable for the statewide system needs and the statewide renewable energy needs,” PSC Chair John B. Rhodes said. “It’s well designed, has good minimization of impact with the very good use of existing right of way, attention to land use, attention to habitats and as a result is, on balance, very much in the public interest.”

NYPA proposed to divide the project into two phases, the first consisting of replacing 78 miles of the two lines currently configured as single circuits on separate wooden H-frame structures with two new single-circuit lines on steel monopoles.

The initial operating voltage would be 230 kV, with the second phase involving replacing the remaining length of the transmission lines with two single circuits on steel monopoles and upgrading the Moses-Saunders switchyard and the Adirondack substation to operate at 345 kV.

NYPA proposed to construct the project entirely within an existing right of way, except for a 1-mile reroute at the State University of New York at Canton campus.

CES Budget for 2020

The commission also approved a 2020 operating budget of nearly $13 million for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to run the state’s Clean Energy Standard and related programs (Case 15-E-0302).

The order authorizes NYSERDA to reallocate up to $12,138,093 of uncommitted system benefits charge, energy efficiency portfolio standard and renewable portfolio standard funds and $824,791 of previously authorized — but unspent — 2018 CES compliance period funding to cover administrative costs for next year’s RPS and zero-emission credit programs.

Commissioner Diane Burman dissented on the CES budget, saying, “I appreciate the work that NYSERDA does, but this budget request seems very bulky to me.”

The commission performs good due diligence by “not just accepting from utilities a bulky budget, and we work with them in streamlining that as much as we can and really trying to figure out what is absolutely appropriate and necessary,” Burman said.

Consent Agenda

The PSC approved nearly $5.2 million in sales of street lighting by National Grid to three municipalities in order for the towns to install and profit from more energy-efficient lighting. The sales were for Utica ($4.1 million), Dunkirk ($1 million) and Medina ($70,000).

Burman abstained from several items on the consent agenda, including those related to National Grid’s natural gas subsidiaries in Brooklyn and Long Island, and to Consolidated Edison’s gas business, because “we are not addressing some of the core issues around gas, and therefore, looking at these in isolation is very troubling to me.”

The National Grid items were for tariff filings to modify the companies’ gas tariff schedule to establish non-firm demand response service classes. The Con Ed items regarded revisions to its daily delivery service to institute a voluntary physical storage program, and to interruptible gas service program violations or strike rules.

Rhodes on Oct. 11 signed an order forcing National Grid subsidiaries Brooklyn Union Gas (KEDNY) and KeySpan Gas East (KEDLI) to connect 1,100 of 3,300 customers that had been denied natural gas service connections (Case 19-G-0678). KEDNY has approximately 1.2 million customers, and KEDLI has 590,000 customers.

National Grid found itself at odds with Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week when he issued a letter demanding that its gas subsidiaries connect all customers to whom it had denied service under a moratorium on new hook-ups or he would seek “to revoke National Grid’s certificate to operate its downstate gas franchise.” (See related story, National Grid Vows to Expand NY Gas Service.)

Commissioner Tracey Edwards said she wanted “to make sure that the definition of critical care customers is inclusive, so that it speaks to areas of refuge; it speaks to hospitals and nursing homes. I want to make sure that it includes assisted living facilities and homeless shelters, so I would like some follow-up information to make sure we’re looking at critical care in an overall perspective and not leaving anyone out.”

Burman also concurred with comment on items related to municipal tariff filings to modify the municipalities’ electric tariff schedules to include rules and regulations governing the purchase of renewable energy from new distributed generators and to implement net metering schemes.

The two items “appear to be addressing in a proper way the need for these tariffs. … These cases as well as others have sought to modify the tariffs on a voluntary basis because they’re not subject to the utility tax,” Burman said. “I’m flagging this because I want us to be looking at how the munis are doing it differently. … However, we really do need to watch if there are any negative ramifications to the customers, especially on the cash-out that goes to the developers.”

Burman concurred on a petition by 1115 Solar Development for compensation according to the Alternative 2 capacity value calculation set in the Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) transition order, noting that a PSC staff white paper on the subject from last January did not mean that the commission thought of it “as a done deal.”