A group of New York utilities last month jointly filed a proposed framework designed to “facilitate the development of a fully decarbonized electric system” in the state by improving coordination among stakeholders.

The seven utilities submitted the Coordinated Grid Planning Process (CGPP) proposal to the Public Service Commission (PSC) on Dec. 27 to ensure that “work on planning and developing the infrastructure needed to support the clean energy resources to meet the milestones stipulated in the [Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act] can begin without delay.”

The utilities include Central Hudson Gas & Electric, Consolidated Edison, Long Island Power Authority, Niagara Mohawk Power/National Grid, New York State Electric & Gas, Orange & Rockland Utilities, and Rochester Gas and Electric.

The proposal envisions a 20-year planning horizon that includes “a repeating three-year process with approximately two years for a system study followed by Commission review,” which will identify both “the electric grid expansions that can aid in unlocking renewable generation capacity and provide energy headroom” and “opportunities for expansion of the bulk transmission system to advance CLCPA objectives.”

This proposal is the product of a multiyear effort that involved numerous iterations and revisions and has been seen as critical to New York’s energy goals by aligning stakeholders, driving consistency between CLCPA-based studies, and informing market policymakers. (See NY Officials, Stakeholders Discuss Utilities’ Tx Planning Process Proposal.)

The CGPP would be coordinated among various stakeholders, such as NYISO, individual utilities and consumers, who will be represented by a proposed Energy Policy Planning Advisory Council (EPPAC).

The EPPAC is intended to serve as an independent stakeholder group that advises “utilities’ system planners on the development of a set of generation build-out scenarios.” It will also be responsible for reviewing the final CGPP report before it is submitted to the PSC for approval.

The utilities said the EPPAC is intended to “ensure stakeholder representation remains a strong and constructive component” of decarbonization efforts and asked the PSC to “provide guidance concerning the recovery of reasonable costs that will be incurred” throughout the CGPP’s stages.

CGPP Stages

Each CGPP cycle would be broken into six, overlapping stages, with the first cycle anticipated to start in mid-2023.

The plan’s supporters foresee that the conclusion of each cycle will produce an “efficient and orderly system expansion that builds on prior assessments and eliminates ambiguity regarding project status in subsequent CGPP cycles.”

The sequenced stages are intended to give the PSC the opportunity to recommend local transmission and distribution (LT&D) projects mid-cycle and identify whether a public policy transmission need (PPTN) process should continue or a new one be initiated.

The first stage consists of a data collection and coordination process in which “utilities and the EPPAC will review and, as necessary, enhance the scope of the upcoming planning cycle,” as well as “determine the assumed zonal allocation for future distributed energy resource (DER) development.”

Stage one will also allow utilities to “run the capacity expansion model for up to three scenarios with the potential for several sensitivities on the selected scenarios,” which would then be shared with the EPPAC to identify “three generation build-out plans selected from the three initial scenario cases.”

In stage two, utilities will use the three scenarios developed by the EPPCA to “develop detailed short circuit and power flow models that will be used in subsequent CGPP stages to assess local transmission systems.”

Stage three consists of an assessment in which utilities evaluate local conditions to determine whether LT&D system upgrades “are necessary to accommodate the integration of DER and utility scale generation resources.”

During stage four, utilities will review the current portfolio of projects to ensure no unintended impacts on the grid, though the report stresses that the CGPP review would not replace NYISO-administered interconnection process requirements.

Stage five includes a least cost planning assessment in which utilities “identify a portfolio of LT&D and bulk projects that will facilitate the achievement of the State’s policy objectives at the least cost to customers.”

The last stage sees development of the final CGPP, which identifies and recommends “projects that were found to be beneficial in the least cost planning assessment” and are “needed to ensure the timely and cost-effective attainment of CLCPA policy goals.”

At the end of each CGPP cycle, the PSC will review the final report and vote on whether to approve recommended LT&D projects. Utilities will then have 30 days to initiate the next cycle.

CGPP reports approved by the PSC will be included in the NYISO planning process and describe the benefits of pursuing a bulk solution to public policy transmission needs.

NYISO Impact

The utilities initially developed the CGPP framework in collaboration with NYISO and expect it to be “complementary to and, where applicable, coordinated with NYISO comprehensive system planning processes,” according to the plan.

ISO representatives will be included on the EPPAC, along with other state agencies, and they will “act as a technical consultant to stakeholders” by “assessing system limitations and developing the optimal portfolio of solutions.”

Furthermore, the first CGPP cycle will use existing NYISO databases, such as Gold Book forecasts, and any project identified through the PPTN process will be made available for NYISO to consider for inclusion in planning.

Opinions and Comments

The CGPP “stems out of a recognition of the need for infrastructure buildout in order for the electric system to achieve Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) goals,” Ryan Hawthorne, vice president of electrical engineering and operations at Central Hudson Gas & Electric, said in email to RTO Insider.

Hawthorne said “the CGPP is meant to create an integrated planning process to identify local transmission and distribution needed to support these goals, while working in concert with existing planning processes (such as bulk transmission solutions through the NYISO).”

“The state of our current position is a lack of integrated system planning, and the CGPP is there to help close that gap in order to plan optimal solutions to meet growing interconnection needs,” he said

“What is being proposed is a very smart process,” Paul Hines, vice president of power systems at EnergyHub, said in an interview. As power grids become increasingly “messy things” because of an influx of new technologies, it becomes critical for utilities to have “careful planning processes that maintain reliability,” he said.

Hines said he was encouraged by the CGPP’s 20-year planning horizon, given the need to consider the long-term perspective of how distributed resources will change the “physics of how the grid operates.”

But Hines was also wary of the GGPP’s focus on bulk grid assets, despite the growing relevance and value of distributed assets, such as behind-the-meter solar and distributed batteries. He said it is “important to advance the modeling of these distributed assets.”

Should stakeholders discover that current modelling systems are inadequate or antiquated, they should push each other to “advance the modeling of these assets” because these resources will become a growing portion of the state’s grid, he said.